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4-frogdesign || 5-Corporate focus || Conclusion || Bibliography & links |
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In 1984, Apple Computer introduced
Macintosh, a computer intended to be literally
revolutionary. It presented dramatic technological
innovations to the public in a physical design that
reflected a break with the past and forced a new approach
to The physical design of Apple's personal computers in the years preceding and following the introduction of the original Macintosh expresses monumental changes in what Steven Lubar has called "'machine politics': the ways in which machines modulate, influence, and intermediate the interactions of groups" (Lubar, 198). Between 1977 and 1991, microcomputers gradually assumed a large place in daily lives, evolving from a novelty, hobby item into a routinely used tool. Appeal to technological determinism to explain this evolution belittles the importance of "machine politics;" the appearance and function of personal computers were shaped together not in any simple way by technical improvements, but by two frequently conflicting groups, the designers and the users. The history of Apple computer reveals the tension between a design centered on guiding the users' relationship to computing and the expectations of the users themselves.
Home || Introduction || Historiography || 1-Cottage industry || 2-Emerging standards || 3-Macintosh 4-frogdesign || 5-Corporate focus || Conclusion || Bibliography & links |