The Mac came out in 1984, three years after the DOS-based PC. Its graphical interface was more intuitive than DOS commands, and it avoided the technical quagmire that arose when DOS users tried to add a new device to their PCs. Why then didn’t the Mac take the world by storm? There were several reasons.
DOS Was Faster
DOS PCs were much faster. It takes much more CPU power to display graphics than text, and the Mac was not as speedy as many would have liked.
Too Much Mousing
The command languages that could automate a myriad of tasks in the DOS world were woefully absent in the Mac. There was sound reason for the expression, “real programmers don’t use mice.”
In addition, Apple initially overemphasized the mouse so much that it gave little thought to intelligent keyboard commands. This was hardly a way to gain acceptance in a world where keyboard-intensive word processing was the largest application.
It Was Too Late
Mac applications were eventually enhanced, and speed was dramatically increased, but the DOS world was simply too entrenched by the time those improvements came about. Windows 3.0, which offered a graphical interface with some of the Mac’s advantages, ran as an extension to DOS and was its natural successor. Windows 95 added most of the graphical features of the Mac, and by this time, the world was buying Windows.
Macs Cost More
The Mac was always pricier than a PC, which purchasing agents found hard to justify. Although many corporate users bought their own Macs due to their aversion to PCs, technical personnel were not fond of supporting them. They sweated bullets dealing with DOS and Windows. Supporting yet another environment was not met with enthusiasm.
Proprietary Technology
Unlike the PC, the Mac is Apple’s proprietary technology, and except for a brief period, Apple prevented a Macintosh clone industry from developing and growing (see Macintosh clone). Apple maintained its sole source vendor status while the PC industry had thousands of vendors.
In Summary
As a result, the Macintosh was used sporadically in the corporate world, but due to its natural bent, became popular in desktop publishing and graphics design. The Mac became the de facto standard in the graphics arts industry. However, with less than 5% of the desktop market, the Mac still remains, as Apple put it in an earlier ad campaign, “the computer for the rest of us.”
Chris on December 19th, 2007 at 6:34 pm says:
This has been said better, thousands of times before. What is the sense of regurgitating the same old obvious news?
Robert B on December 19th, 2007 at 7:04 pm says:
Apple never targeted the business market. IBM’s support was a big factor alongside the PC head start. Publishing the hardware design documents without protection undid any proprietary benefit to IBM’s hardware so clones were born immediately. Apple’s targeted graphics market allowed for high priced hardware. But Apple’s leadership for 12 years after the Mac was poor. If Jobs hadn’t returned we might not be talking about this subject.
JacobSwift on December 19th, 2007 at 9:41 pm says:
The biggest reason Macs didn’t take off was indeed the fact that DOS was already entrenched. When people new to computers bought one they relied upon those who already owned them for tech help which compounded the user base of DOS. Once the Mac came out people saw it was easier but figured it was better to wait for Microsoft to come out with their own graphical user interface thus preserving all they had invested in DOS. The ironic thing is when Winows 95 came out many DOS users remarked that if they wanted that they would have gotten a Mac. Even more ironic is the fact that the Mac base is growing and expanding into new markets. It will never topple Microsoft but hopefully it will remain a thorn in their side for long to come.