[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Bleeding Apple
August 29th, 2011 by Benj Edwards
When printing this sticker, Apple refused to stay within the lines.
Apple included corporate logo stickers like this with just about every computer sold by the company from the Apple II era (late 1970s) up to at least the iMac G4 (2002) — the last time I noticed one. This particular sticker came packaged with a 1983 Apple IIe.
The stickers changed over time, of course. At first, the font switched from Motter Tektura (seen here) to Apple Garamond in the mid-1980s. The last Apple sticker I own, from 2002, simply consists of a solid white Apple logo, no text.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Steve Jobs resigned as Apple’s CEO last Wednesday. What do you think will happen to Apple without him?
August 30th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Apple Computer. We’ve gone from “bend back and peel” as seen on the colorful, delightful sticker here, to “bend over and squeal” as they inundate our lives with horrific implements of torture that never cease to frustrate, maim, and destroy. Will there ever be a day when a savior will appear to cast this wicked company Apple into the depths of destruction, and save our wretched world and its innocent inhabitants from its evil reign?
August 30th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
The stickers still come with every Mac or iOS device sold.
Apple will be just fine. First of all, as long as he is up to it, Steve Jobs will still be involved in the company, as chairman of the board (and no doubt sage-in-chief), and will be available for Tim Cook to consult on the most important things. Second of all, Tim Cook has actually been running things for some time, during Steve’s medical leaves, and in general all of his responsibilities fall into what most companies would call a CEO’s job. Third of all, Steve and the company in general has been planning for this transition for a long time, and has take steps to ensure that Apple remains Apple. Last of all, you can bet there is a significant pipeline of products in the works, so that we won’t see the first truly “Post-Steve” Apple product for years.
Braybett, where you see horrific implements of torture, I see the best designed computing products in existence. Where you see evil, I see terrific good. Apple haters would do well to consider, just for a moment, that maybe Apple products are so popular, maybe Mac users so “smug,” maybe the non-iPad tablet market so non-existent because it’s not a myth, it’s not a cult, and it’s not brainwashing; maybe Apple products really are the best things around in their categories.
August 31st, 2011 at 2:49 am
I doubt that Jobs leaving will actually have any real effect, just as was the case with when Woz left… People will keep feeling whatever way they do until an event really forces them to reconsider.
Donn: I used to be a rabid Apple fanatic, grew up with a stepfamily of Apple Dealers that exiled/dumped anyone that bought a PC, and for a few years I dated a Machead. Both sides are equal-but-different with user experience/preferences being the deciding factor… As my ex explained, though, for a lot of users like him (but likely not like you), the “cult” aspect, sense of superiority, certainty that they have the best of everything & other accusations *are* a real factor for them. (Hey, I see the same among most fellow Linux users…it’s human nature.)
August 31st, 2011 at 7:12 am
“What do you think will happen to Apple without him?”
Nothing. Steve Jobs didn’t make Apple. He simply sold the innovations of the engineers and programmers he happened to find. If Apple as a company can continue to create new prodcuts, I don’t foresee them having any trouble getting people to buy them.
August 31st, 2011 at 7:44 am
Apple computer… over hyped, over priced, and over here!
😉
I still have four apple products though 🙁
I also have some magazines still boxed up in the loft that have those original ‘A is for Apple’ adverts in them!
I’m not a hoarder … I’m a collector 🙂
August 31st, 2011 at 7:56 am
I wonder what will happen to the tablet market if Amazon do release their £180 tabled device in direct competition to the iPad?
They are apparently looking at the same ‘sell the hardware (almost) at cost’ model that worked so well with the Kindle!
Apple is a recognised name that most non-teckie people buy thinking they are getting value for money, but knowing Appl equipment is relatively expensive.
However, Amazon (and Kindle) are also ‘names’ that the same consumer audience also trusts…
So it would be interesting!
August 31st, 2011 at 12:26 pm
Interesting that people think Apple will be unaffected by Jobs’s absence. History speaks otherwise. Apple was just a niche player in computers before he returned. He didn’t invent the MP3 player, the smartphone, or the tablet, but he turned all of them from just-another-device into dominant, must-have products. He is a true titan of business and innovation, and he will be missed tremendously.
I don’t own any Apple products, and I’m sure I wouldn’t personally like Steve Jobs, but I have tremendous respect for his accomplishments. Competent as Tim Cook may be, he is no Jobs.
August 31st, 2011 at 1:30 pm
I just want to point out. In Jobs’ absence Apple took some of their worst decissions in a long time, including Lion’s featureset and the announcement of a possible change of proc architecture, they later withdrawn that.
August 31st, 2011 at 1:31 pm
BTW, to people saying Apple it’s the devil: Get a life. I’t just a tech company, dont buy their products if you dont like them.
August 31st, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Apple still includes white apple logo stickers with computers, and many other things, such as iPods (at least the last one I got). Personally, I miss the colorful logo.
On the subject of Apple’s products, I think that Apple has done a lot to drive consumer products forward from hard to use and exclusive, to accessible. I don’t think that they are for everyone, and I use all kinds of computers, personally. But tablets before the iPad where very big, and mostly slapped together. MP3 players before the iPod where hard to use and not accessible. The attention to detail and pushing the limits of what is possible makes Apple both a great innovator, and a magnet for hate.
On the subject of Steve Jobs, I think that if it wasn’t for Steve Jobs, Apple wouldn’t be where it is today. I think that his apparent OCD for details and perfection (in his mind) (re-)made Apple. I think that he setup a good team to keep this direction in design and everything. I think that if Apple can stay in good stead for the first year, then anything that happens after that isn’t ‘because Steve Jobs left’, but because of good or bad decisions made by who is there. I think that so far, they’ve done a good job.
September 1st, 2011 at 11:37 am
nothing lasts forever.
September 13th, 2011 at 5:25 am
As long as Jon Ive sticks with them, and the team in place carries on in the spirit and philosophy of what Steve built over the past 14 years, Apple will be alright. If Apple suffers anywhere, it’ll be in marketing, as Steve was the “public face” that the rabble associated the company with. I’m not reducing his role in the company by that statement; he was MUCH more to Apple than just a marketing figurehead…