Apple’s long portrayed itself as the feel-good alternative to Microsoft’s nameless, utilitarian machines, and as far back as 1995 the company was whipping together six minute videos explaining how Apple envisioned a computer-savvy future for all the world’s children. Never mind the prescience of that statement, as well as predictions good (tablets!) and bad (in this new day of sort-of austerity, what school has the budget for hands-on projects, let alone new computers?). What’s really interesting is Apple’s mission “To empower the student, teacher, and administrator with powerful, easy to use, and affordable computer technologies for learning, working and communicating.” Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it?The key thing about this ad is the date: 1995, one year before the return of Steve Jobs. That also happened to be the year that Apple execs decided to start licensing Mac OS and ROMs to third-party manufacturers. The goal was to increase the number of Mac “clones” floating around, increasing market share and bringing in needed revenue for the company, all while potentially making a truly affordable Mac a possibility. The plan worked, at least partially; Apple’s market share jumped up to 10 percent.But in 1997, when Jobs officially took over as CEO, he axed the licensing deals thanks to a loophole in the contracts. Apple’s market share plummeted to around 3 percent, but it offered Jobs the chance to start building the insulated Apple ecosystem he dreamed of. Jobs’ lack of public charitable giving aside, his killing of the licensing deals is what pushed Apple onto the path towards becoming the purveyor of luxury computing products that it is today. And while it’s true that Apple hooks up schools with discounts on its products, this video still stands as one of the last vestiges of the pre-Jobs era, when Apple was trying — perhaps not successfully — to be both all-inclusive as well as available to all.Follow Derek Mead on Twitter: @drderekmead.
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