Bangalore: On April Fools Day, 30 years ago, two California-based American college dropouts, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, registered the Apple Computer Company, offering ready-to-assemble kits that buyers could use to build their own computing devices.

Few customers wanted this do-it-yourself route, so a year later, the duo offered a fully assembled machine — the display was optional. It was called the Apple-II and it revolutionised the business, which came to be known as personal computing.

Last week, Apple unveiled 10 different products in the Indian market — its biggest launch ever. This included the MacBook Pro notebook PC and the Mac mini, a small-sized, more affordable version of its iconic Macintosh desktop — both of which, for the first time, sported an Intel chip under the hood: a sharp departure for the company that has hitherto sworn by its own (made-by-IBM) processor family. Any history of the personal computer must record that almost every major technology jump that made the PC friendlier for the lay user, came from Apple: The use of graphical icons and multiple `windows'; the provision of a mouse as a `pointer' ... were all familiar to Apple's devoted band of Mac fans, long before the rest of the world served by Microsoft, got to use them. Then why did Apple lose the PC race?

Historic error

The reason lies in a historic error of judgement that saw Apple hold on possessively, to its design and operating system ... while a canny IBM licensed its own PC platform design and Microsoft tied up to fuel it with, first the Disk Operating System (DOS), then the Windows series of PC software. Today, Apple, which in its early days accounted for one out of every 4 PCs, has a global market share that is estimated to be around 4 per cent. But market share means nothing to fiercely loyal Mac users: The platform has changed from the classic Macintosh Plus of 1986, to the candy-coloured, bubble-shaped iMac launched by Steve Jobs in 1998. The PowerCube of 2000 was a rare Apple flop, a tiffin-carrier-shaped PC that was considered too pricey and inconvenient.

Innovating again

But with the new 2004 iMac, powered by the G5 chip, Apple innovated again — just in time to encash the new interest in large flat screens to view high-resolution graphics and movies. Indeed the graphics and cinematic effects industry in India has remained the company's mainstay, since its products were perceived to be rather costly for the average home user. Apple's Final Cut Pro software for video editing is a de facto standard for the cinematic post-production business here. With entry level Mac mini systems priced around Rs. 35,000 (minus the monitor), a new generation of young Indians might yet discover the compelling tools and features that have made the Macintosh the most iconic PC family ever.

The company has discovered a lucrative mother lode with its music player, the iPod and its innovative music download service, iTunes. The runaway success of its music player initiative might yet fuel Apple's next big leap in personal computing ... a seamless convergence of PC and TV and telephone applications on a single home platform.

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