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Hard Disk Storage 1985

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helius:

--- Quote from: james_s on October 03, 2021, 10:44:07 pm ---Unfortunately this all came at a cost, and a machine like the Mac II was exorbitantly expensive, several times the price of a typical 286 PC of the era and had a more limited software library. Steve Jobs at one point declared that "The Macintosh is not a toy" etc

--- End quote ---
Jobs was fired by Apple's board in 1985. The Mac II was announced in 1987, when Jobs was at NeXT preparing the NeXT Computer for its public release in 1988. The executive responsible for the Mac II was JLG: Jean-Louis Gassée. His focus was scientific computing, graphic design, and executive workstations for the paperless office, etc, and perceived competition from Sun and HP: not from PC clones. The six-slot Mac II machines were actually more expensive than the NeXTstation or some Sun workstations. This is the period when Apple attempted to design their own performance-leading RISC architecture called "Scorpius". JLG would also be pushed out, much as Jobs had been, by the board after Apple started to lose money in the early 1990s.

james_s:
Yes I'm aware of that, then some time later Jobs came back. I was mixing and matching different eras, but at any rate the Mac was far ahead for a long time, but far more expensive. The original models introduced a lot of concepts that stuck with the lines, but a serious fault was their lack of expandability which was a poor decision mostly pushed by Jobs. The NeXT machines were amazing, but far too expensive and even less software support.

AaronLee:

--- Quote from: james_s on October 03, 2021, 10:44:07 pm ---Steve Jobs at one point declared that "The Macintosh is not a toy" and did not actively pursue games, a huge mistake in my opinion because everyone knows that the vast majority of home computers while ostensibly good for all sorts of productive tasks, spent most of their time running games, and games are to this day what drives a lot of the upgrading.

--- End quote ---

And he also once said something to the effect that nobody would ever need a smartphone with a screen larger than 3.5" and that is was the perfect size. I laughed so hard when I heard that, at that time, because it made me realize how completely foolish he'd become, into thinking so narrowly that his personal view of a product was the only view. If there were a lot of people that also held his view, or a lot of people who didn't, but could be convinced to change their view to his view, then Apple could sell a lot of their products. But they could have sold a whole lot more if they (Steve Jobs) didn't have such a narrow view of the market for their products. The current management at Apple seems to be catching on to that point, whereas Steve Jobs never did.

james_s:

--- Quote from: AaronLee on October 06, 2021, 12:02:14 am ---And he also once said something to the effect that nobody would ever need a smartphone with a screen larger than 3.5" and that is was the perfect size. I laughed so hard when I heard that, at that time, because it made me realize how completely foolish he'd become, into thinking so narrowly that his personal view of a product was the only view. If there were a lot of people that also held his view, or a lot of people who didn't, but could be convinced to change their view to his view, then Apple could sell a lot of their products. But they could have sold a whole lot more if they (Steve Jobs) didn't have such a narrow view of the market for their products. The current management at Apple seems to be catching on to that point, whereas Steve Jobs never did.

--- End quote ---

I actually agree with him on that. Maybe not the part that nobody will ever need a larger screen, but it is the perfect size. I really hate the giant phones and "phablets" (*cringe*) that have been all the rage for years. I got my first iphone specifically because it was the only decent small smartphone I could find, and I got my SE for the same reason. I really do not understand the appeal of gigantic phones at all, I have laptops and tablets for when I want something larger, a phone is a pocket sized communication device that I always have on me, as long as it's large enough to type a text on, the smaller the better.

If they want to make bigger ones for people that desire those, great, but I really hope they keep offering something compact and support it well. Already I sometimes find apps that don't work right on it because needed buttons are off the edge of the screen.

AaronLee:

--- Quote from: james_s on October 06, 2021, 12:06:33 am ---
--- Quote from: AaronLee on October 06, 2021, 12:02:14 am ---And he also once said something to the effect that nobody would ever need a smartphone with a screen larger than 3.5" and that is was the perfect size. I laughed so hard when I heard that, at that time, because it made me realize how completely foolish he'd become, into thinking so narrowly that his personal view of a product was the only view. If there were a lot of people that also held his view, or a lot of people who didn't, but could be convinced to change their view to his view, then Apple could sell a lot of their products. But they could have sold a whole lot more if they (Steve Jobs) didn't have such a narrow view of the market for their products. The current management at Apple seems to be catching on to that point, whereas Steve Jobs never did.

--- End quote ---

I actually agree with him on that. Maybe not the part that nobody will ever need a larger screen, but it is the perfect size. I really hate the giant phones and "phablets" (*cringe*) that have been all the rage for years. I got my first iphone specifically because it was the only decent small smartphone I could find, and I got my SE for the same reason. I really do not understand the appeal of gigantic phones at all, I have laptops and tablets for when I want something larger, a phone is a pocket sized communication device that I always have on me, as long as it's large enough to type a text on, the smaller the better.

If they want to make bigger ones for people that desire those, great, but I really hope they keep offering something compact and support it well. Already I sometimes find apps that don't work right on it because needed buttons are off the edge of the screen.

--- End quote ---

It all comes down to each individual's use case, preferences, etc. Some people have bad eyes, and small fonts on a small screen simply won't work. Some people, even for texting like to see more than just two lines of the text they're replying to and two lines of the text they're typing. That one was one of my huge pet-peeves with those tiny screens, where I'd type a sentence, then go back to proofread it, and need to scroll due to such small screen real estate. The problem is further exasperated due to the need for the on-screen touch keypad, and which is difficult to type for someone with big hands but tiny touch areas, where you're always mistyping the keys next to what you intended. There just isn't enough space on a 3.5" screen for what some people need to be efficient. Of course some people watch videos on their smartphones and want a bigger screen for that (myself not included).

Anyways, as for the device easily fitting inside your pocket, the ability to easily hold the device, and swivel your thumb/fingers around to do the necessary actions, I would tend to agree that 3.5" is at or close to an optimal size. But depending on the app you're using, and how you use it, it might be far from optimal with regard to fitting everything on the screen so that it's easily usable. I agree they should continue to sell the smaller size phones, because for some people, it's exactly what they need. They also need to sell what other people need, which is a much bigger device. And that's my whole point, that Jobs couldn't see what were the needs of anyone beyond his narrow view. It wasn't that his view was bad. His view may have been and still is perfect for some. It's just that it's horrible for others.

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