Hey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explained,and today we’re going to explore the history of unreleased Apple products
This topic was the first place winner of lastweeks voting poll and if you didn’t get to vote, make sure you’re subscribed, thatway the voting polls will show up right in your activity feed and you can let me knowwhich video you’d like to see next
So it isn’t very hard to believe that companieslike Apple experiment with all kinds of different designs for their products, and most of thosedesigns never seen the light of day
Well I looked all around the internet to findas many authentic designs and products that Apple actually created but decided not torelease
And I realized that most of the products Icame across were designed back in 1982 when Steve Jobs was twenty-eight
It was at this time when he realized thatApple was in a tough predicament
Because with the exception of the aging AppleIIe, the company’s products were failing against IBM’s PCs
And they all were ugly, especially the AppleIII and soon-to-be-released Apple Lisa
So in this video, I don’t want to just rattleoff a list of different prototypes and product concepts that never entered production, butI want to tell the story of this interesting period in Apple’s history where design becamethe company’s top priority
And it wasn’t just a simple matter of designingbetter computers, it was about creating a design language for Apple to unify their productsand compete with bigger companies like IBM and Sony
It was during this period that Apple experimentedheavily with their potential design direction, and this exploration resulted in numerousconcept designs and concept products that, while never released, helped shape the futureof Apple
So back in 1982 the company’s previous CEO,Michael Scott, had created different “business divisions” for each product line, includingaccessories like monitors and memory drives
Each division had its own head of design anddeveloped its product line any way it wanted to
As a result, Apple’s products didn’t sharea common design language and didn’t appear very unified
So Jobs figured that bad design was a byproductand contributing factor of Apple’s corporate mismanagement
And it was out of his desire to end this fragmentedapproach that gave birth to a strategic design project that would revolutionize Apple’sbrand and product lines, change the trajectory of the
company’s future, and eventuallyredefine the way the world thinks about and uses consumer electronics
The idea for the project was inspired by thework of the Richardson Smith Design Agency for Xerox where the designers collaboratedwith multiple divisions within Xerox to create a single united “design language” thatthe company could implement throughout all its products
Jerry Manock, the designer of the Apple IIand head of design in Apple’s Macintosh division, and Rob Gemmell, head of designin the Apple II division, created a plan in which they would invite global designers toApple headquarters and, after interviewing all of them, stage a competition between thetwo top candidates
Apple would choose a final winner and thenuse that design as the framework for its new design language
But no one knew at that time that they werein the process of transforming Apple into a company whose design-based strategy andinnovation-over-money approach would make it a global success
Now the group who ended up winning the competitionwas called Frog Design led by Hartmut Esslinger
And we’re going to cover the different desktopconcepts they offered Apple that eventually led to their partnership with the company
Each design prototype they worked on startedwith research to discover what already existed and to explore the possibilities of what couldexist
When they launched the Snow White project,computers offered little in the way of design, but their technologies were advancing rapidly
Performance was growing, physical sizes wereshrinking, and–thanks to “professional” pricing versus “consumer” pricing–profitmargins were still healthy
Personal computers were in their infancy,and Apple had an edge with its use of Xerox Parc’s bitmap user interface, which appealedto everybody, not just professional computer users
However, most of Apple’s products were primitivein their mechanical design, and their manufacturing costs were sky high
By recreating the advanced electronics productionmethods being used in Germany and Japan, Frog design was able to predict a reduction inhousing costs by 70 to 90%
But this case-production technique did morethan just save money, it produced world-class, durable materials that didn’t require paint
After many talks with Steve Jobs and otherApple executives, Frog Design decided on three directions for further development
Concept 1 was defined by what Sony would doif it built computers
Now Esslinger didn’t like this idea, sinceit might’ve created conflicts with Sony, but Jobs insisted on it
He felt that Sony’s simple, cool designlanguage should serve as a benchmark, and Sony was the current pioneer in making high-techconsumer products smarter, smaller, and more portable
Concept 2 would express “Americana,” reconnectinghigh-tech design with classical American design statements, something similar to Raymond Loewy’sstreamlined designs for cars, the Electrolux line of household appliances, Gestetner’soffice products, and the Coke bottle
Concept 3 was left to Esslinger
It could be as radical as possible and perhapsthat freedom allowed him to create some of his best work yet, since that design endedup being the winner
The prototype served as the face of Applesnew design language, which was named “Snow White,” and the group laid out some guidelineson how it should be implemented across products
Some of these included minimal surface texture,no paint, symmetry whenever possible, white appearance, and a single Apple logo badgeinlayed into the design
Now the really interesting part is when BillAtkinson, an Apple lead engineer, challenged Esslinger to include projections about futuretechnological developments like flat screens, touch interfaces, and the merging of telephonesinto computers
So Frog Design went to work again, this timein Germany, and used Bill’s encouragement to go beyond the basic Snow White projectand conceptualize future products as well
The results were probably the world’s firstconcept of a wireless mobile flip-phone, a touch-pad computer, and a laptop computerwith a screen as large as a keyboard with a touch interface
When Steve presented the notebook model tothe Mac team in 1983, he told them it was the next
Macintosh they would build, and theteam gasped in disbelief
Although Apple wouldn’t actually end upmanufacturing that computer, it represented a shift in priorities that would change theway Apple was managed
So Frog Design was given a two million dollarcontract from Apple to be in charge of all the company’s designs
But even with the full backing of Steve Jobs,most of Apple’s designers still considered themselves to be in charge of design, andnearly all of them refused to cooperate with Esslinger
But he asserted himself as Apple’s leaddesigner and this friction caused some existing Apple designers to leave the company or moveto other departments
The first project Frog Design tackled wasdesigning the Apple IIc
It went on to become Time magazine’s Designof the Year in 1984, and this recognition validated
Steve Job’s vision for Apple ina way that went beyond big sales numbers
But unfortunately, Apple’s overall financialperformance wasn’t strong that year
Macintosh sales were well below expectations,partly due to its higher price, which then-CEO John
Sculley had raised to $2,500, up fromJobs suggested price of $1,900
And although the Apple IIc was successful,the company was in no position to rest on their laurels
Frog Design had to continue to bring the newSnow White design language to Apple’s other product lines
So they shifted their focus to Apple’s printersand a final redesign of the Apple II desktop line
In close collaboration with Canon, they launcheda major innovation breakthrough with the
LaserWriter
And its improvements went beyond a simpleredesign
To get away from the ugly “dot-matrix”printing that was the accepted norm at that time, Steve licensed typesetting-quality typestylesfrom the Berthold type foundry in Berlin
Apple’s developer improved anti-alias technologyso much that the postscript programming became the new standard of desktop publishing
As Frog moved more deeply into Apple’s futureproduct development, they felt that the Snow White design language was a bit too soft anda bit too complex in its details
To make the design more competitive, theysharpened the details and extended its application beyond computers to smaller products and newtechnologies
And just like automobile manufacturers showoff concept cars, Frog Design created concept products like telephones, TV-connectable Macs,music players, and video players
But Jobs was no longer satisfied with allof Apple’s products being white, and he insisted that Esslinger and his team add thecolor “black-anthracite” to their spectrum
This new design initiative was called SnowWhite 2 and produced some pretty dramatic and timeless design elements that were laterused by Jonathan Ive with the iPod and other Apple products that followed
The lineup for the Apple II GS complete withCPU, keyboard, mouse, connectors, cables, and printers, was the first full implementationof the Snow White 2 design language
Unfortunately, these were the last productsin the life of the Apple II line, but their great economic success was vital for Applesince the Macintosh didn’t sell well enough to carry the company
Frog Design then determined that the nextgeneration of a compact and “insanely great” Mac had to bring Apple to the absolute forefrontas a source of cool and friendly digital machines that everyone could use
These machines were called Big Mac and BabyMac
They worked with Toshiba on a new cathoderay tube front in order to avoid the cheap look of a regular CRT display, they also lookedat flat-screen technology but it was too pricy to include in consumer products at the time
To make the Mac as small as possible, Frogexperimented with wireless keyboard and mouse connections
And during development of the baby Mac, Jobsbrought on Allan Kay, a prominent figure in the tech industry
Given the great progress Apple was makingwith both their software team and Susan Kare’s work on the user-interface, Frog Design feltthat the Baby Mac would become one of the greatest products ever
But plans to release the product came to anend when Jobs lost a power struggle to John Sculley and was kicked out of Apple
With that, the Baby Mac became one of Apple’sbest designs never to be released
And with Steve gone, Apple had lost its design-drivenphilosophy, only to regain it twelve years later, when Steve returned in 1997
So that is the history of unreleased Appleproducts, and if you want to vote for the next video topic, don’t forget to subscribe
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime
This topic was the first place winner of lastweeks voting poll and if you didn’t get to vote, make sure you’re subscribed, thatway the voting polls will show up right in your activity feed and you can let me knowwhich video you’d like to see next
So it isn’t very hard to believe that companieslike Apple experiment with all kinds of different designs for their products, and most of thosedesigns never seen the light of day
Well I looked all around the internet to findas many authentic designs and products that Apple actually created but decided not torelease
And I realized that most of the products Icame across were designed back in 1982 when Steve Jobs was twenty-eight
It was at this time when he realized thatApple was in a tough predicament
Because with the exception of the aging AppleIIe, the company’s products were failing against IBM’s PCs
And they all were ugly, especially the AppleIII and soon-to-be-released Apple Lisa
So in this video, I don’t want to just rattleoff a list of different prototypes and product concepts that never entered production, butI want to tell the story of this interesting period in Apple’s history where design becamethe company’s top priority
And it wasn’t just a simple matter of designingbetter computers, it was about creating a design language for Apple to unify their productsand compete with bigger companies like IBM and Sony
It was during this period that Apple experimentedheavily with their potential design direction, and this exploration resulted in numerousconcept designs and concept products that, while never released, helped shape the futureof Apple
So back in 1982 the company’s previous CEO,Michael Scott, had created different “business divisions” for each product line, includingaccessories like monitors and memory drives
Each division had its own head of design anddeveloped its product line any way it wanted to
As a result, Apple’s products didn’t sharea common design language and didn’t appear very unified
So Jobs figured that bad design was a byproductand contributing factor of Apple’s corporate mismanagement
And it was out of his desire to end this fragmentedapproach that gave birth to a strategic design project that would revolutionize Apple’sbrand and product lines, change the trajectory of the
company’s future, and eventuallyredefine the way the world thinks about and uses consumer electronics
The idea for the project was inspired by thework of the Richardson Smith Design Agency for Xerox where the designers collaboratedwith multiple divisions within Xerox to create a single united “design language” thatthe company could implement throughout all its products
Jerry Manock, the designer of the Apple IIand head of design in Apple’s Macintosh division, and Rob Gemmell, head of designin the Apple II division, created a plan in which they would invite global designers toApple headquarters and, after interviewing all of them, stage a competition between thetwo top candidates
Apple would choose a final winner and thenuse that design as the framework for its new design language
But no one knew at that time that they werein the process of transforming Apple into a company whose design-based strategy andinnovation-over-money approach would make it a global success
Now the group who ended up winning the competitionwas called Frog Design led by Hartmut Esslinger
And we’re going to cover the different desktopconcepts they offered Apple that eventually led to their partnership with the company
Each design prototype they worked on startedwith research to discover what already existed and to explore the possibilities of what couldexist
When they launched the Snow White project,computers offered little in the way of design, but their technologies were advancing rapidly
Performance was growing, physical sizes wereshrinking, and–thanks to “professional” pricing versus “consumer” pricing–profitmargins were still healthy
Personal computers were in their infancy,and Apple had an edge with its use of Xerox Parc’s bitmap user interface, which appealedto everybody, not just professional computer users
However, most of Apple’s products were primitivein their mechanical design, and their manufacturing costs were sky high
By recreating the advanced electronics productionmethods being used in Germany and Japan, Frog design was able to predict a reduction inhousing costs by 70 to 90%
But this case-production technique did morethan just save money, it produced world-class, durable materials that didn’t require paint
After many talks with Steve Jobs and otherApple executives, Frog Design decided on three directions for further development
Concept 1 was defined by what Sony would doif it built computers
Now Esslinger didn’t like this idea, sinceit might’ve created conflicts with Sony, but Jobs insisted on it
He felt that Sony’s simple, cool designlanguage should serve as a benchmark, and Sony was the current pioneer in making high-techconsumer products smarter, smaller, and more portable
Concept 2 would express “Americana,” reconnectinghigh-tech design with classical American design statements, something similar to Raymond Loewy’sstreamlined designs for cars, the Electrolux line of household appliances, Gestetner’soffice products, and the Coke bottle
Concept 3 was left to Esslinger
It could be as radical as possible and perhapsthat freedom allowed him to create some of his best work yet, since that design endedup being the winner
The prototype served as the face of Applesnew design language, which was named “Snow White,” and the group laid out some guidelineson how it should be implemented across products
Some of these included minimal surface texture,no paint, symmetry whenever possible, white appearance, and a single Apple logo badgeinlayed into the design
Now the really interesting part is when BillAtkinson, an Apple lead engineer, challenged Esslinger to include projections about futuretechnological developments like flat screens, touch interfaces, and the merging of telephonesinto computers
So Frog Design went to work again, this timein Germany, and used Bill’s encouragement to go beyond the basic Snow White projectand conceptualize future products as well
The results were probably the world’s firstconcept of a wireless mobile flip-phone, a touch-pad computer, and a laptop computerwith a screen as large as a keyboard with a touch interface
When Steve presented the notebook model tothe Mac team in 1983, he told them it was the next
Macintosh they would build, and theteam gasped in disbelief
Although Apple wouldn’t actually end upmanufacturing that computer, it represented a shift in priorities that would change theway Apple was managed
So Frog Design was given a two million dollarcontract from Apple to be in charge of all the company’s designs
But even with the full backing of Steve Jobs,most of Apple’s designers still considered themselves to be in charge of design, andnearly all of them refused to cooperate with Esslinger
But he asserted himself as Apple’s leaddesigner and this friction caused some existing Apple designers to leave the company or moveto other departments
The first project Frog Design tackled wasdesigning the Apple IIc
It went on to become Time magazine’s Designof the Year in 1984, and this recognition validated
Steve Job’s vision for Apple ina way that went beyond big sales numbers
But unfortunately, Apple’s overall financialperformance wasn’t strong that year
Macintosh sales were well below expectations,partly due to its higher price, which then-CEO John
Sculley had raised to $2,500, up fromJobs suggested price of $1,900
And although the Apple IIc was successful,the company was in no position to rest on their laurels
Frog Design had to continue to bring the newSnow White design language to Apple’s other product lines
So they shifted their focus to Apple’s printersand a final redesign of the Apple II desktop line
In close collaboration with Canon, they launcheda major innovation breakthrough with the
LaserWriter
And its improvements went beyond a simpleredesign
To get away from the ugly “dot-matrix”printing that was the accepted norm at that time, Steve licensed typesetting-quality typestylesfrom the Berthold type foundry in Berlin
Apple’s developer improved anti-alias technologyso much that the postscript programming became the new standard of desktop publishing
As Frog moved more deeply into Apple’s futureproduct development, they felt that the Snow White design language was a bit too soft anda bit too complex in its details
To make the design more competitive, theysharpened the details and extended its application beyond computers to smaller products and newtechnologies
And just like automobile manufacturers showoff concept cars, Frog Design created concept products like telephones, TV-connectable Macs,music players, and video players
But Jobs was no longer satisfied with allof Apple’s products being white, and he insisted that Esslinger and his team add thecolor “black-anthracite” to their spectrum
This new design initiative was called SnowWhite 2 and produced some pretty dramatic and timeless design elements that were laterused by Jonathan Ive with the iPod and other Apple products that followed
The lineup for the Apple II GS complete withCPU, keyboard, mouse, connectors, cables, and printers, was the first full implementationof the Snow White 2 design language
Unfortunately, these were the last productsin the life of the Apple II line, but their great economic success was vital for Applesince the Macintosh didn’t sell well enough to carry the company
Frog Design then determined that the nextgeneration of a compact and “insanely great” Mac had to bring Apple to the absolute forefrontas a source of cool and friendly digital machines that everyone could use
These machines were called Big Mac and BabyMac
They worked with Toshiba on a new cathoderay tube front in order to avoid the cheap look of a regular CRT display, they also lookedat flat-screen technology but it was too pricy to include in consumer products at the time
To make the Mac as small as possible, Frogexperimented with wireless keyboard and mouse connections
And during development of the baby Mac, Jobsbrought on Allan Kay, a prominent figure in the tech industry
Given the great progress Apple was makingwith both their software team and Susan Kare’s work on the user-interface, Frog Design feltthat the Baby Mac would become one of the greatest products ever
But plans to release the product came to anend when Jobs lost a power struggle to John Sculley and was kicked out of Apple
With that, the Baby Mac became one of Apple’sbest designs never to be released
And with Steve gone, Apple had lost its design-drivenphilosophy, only to regain it twelve years later, when Steve returned in 1997
So that is the history of unreleased Appleproducts, and if you want to vote for the next video topic, don’t forget to subscribe
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime
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