The thirtieth anniversary of the introduction of the original Macintosh is today, January 24, 2014. To celebrate the 30th birthday of the iconic computer, Apple executives Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi, and Bud Tribble, (a member of the original Mac development team), sat down with Macworld reporter Jason Snell and shared their thoughts about the status of the Mac at 30.
“Every company that made computers when we started the Mac, they’re all gone,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in an interview on Apple’s Cupertino campus Thursday. “We’re the only one left. We’re still doing it, and growing faster than the rest of the PC industry because of that willingness to reinvent ourselves over and over.”
“There is a super-important role [for the Mac] that will always be,” Schiller said. “We don’t see an end to that role. There’s a role for the Mac as far as our eye can see. A role in conjunction with smartphones and tablets, that allows you to make the choice of what you want to use. Our view is, the Mac keeps going forever, because the differences it brings are really valuable.”
Bud Tribble, who is now VP of Software Technology, was there at the beginning, giving him a unique perspective on the computer he helped develop in 1984, and the present day state of the Mac.
“An incredible amount of thought and creativity went into the original Mac metaphor,” Tribble said. “So there are some extremely strong threads of DNA that have lasted for 30 years.”
Some took the installation of Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi as the overseer of all of Apple’s software development as a sign that OS X and iOS will eventually become one merged operating system. Federighi says that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
“You don’t want to say the Mac became less good at being a Mac because someone tried to turn it into iOS,” says Federighi. Pointing out the differences in what each OS was intended to address.
“It’s obvious and easy enough to slap a touchscreen on a piece of hardware, but is that a good experience?” Federighi said. “We believe, no.”
The entire conversation is available at Macworld, and bears reading for any Mac user concerned about the direction of their favorite computer.
