Apple had been very popular among people in creative fields for a long time, but really was just a niche player among the general computer-using market. I agree that it was probably the iPod which moved it into general-market popularity.
It really was when the iPod was made available for Windows did the name “Apple” become mainstream as a brand name more than anything. The computers, I am counting laptops/desktops/etc and not internet devices and phones, still represent a miniscule share of the market. Maybe 3%, 5% on a good day and when a journalist in favor of Apple (and right before the quarter ends) will say that 5%. I guess if count the iPad as a computer, which is pushing it, the share jumps to 10%.
Before then, as kenobi had said, Apple was relatively limited to some niche markets, notably in A/V as they really did have a leg up on that.
1982 when the apple II came out and around 1983 when the IIe arrived. the first reliable PC for home use. but shortly after, IBM came up with its PC with the keyboard in the form we know. it is superior to the apple for things like editing word processors, programs and spreadsheets.
the battle span into new products and processing power: mini apple (III) and the ibm mini. then portable versions, then came the ibm pc 286. when the full-powered mac came out in 1984, it bombed at the start but slowly recovered.
more powerful prcessors and hard drives shited the battle to software.
10.7% (table 2) based on “desk-based PCs, mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablet such as the iPad.” According to that - Gartner, not a journalist - Apple is the third largest PC vendor in the USA behind HP and Dell. Worldwide it’s lower.
Mac parts are no different from any other parts, last I heard Foxconn (manufacturer of many a $30 motherboard) is making motherboards for Apple,
I could build you a mac tomorrow, only difference is, apple sends out the attack lawyers if a I start loading mac OS on non apple branded hardware and advertising it.
Well, there ya go. IBM hasn’t complained about the hundreds of PC clones I have built and Microsoft doesn’t seem to mind my installing Windows (or Linux) on the hardware of my choice. As far as I’m concerned, Apple doesn’t exist unless I can buy their products for less than I can build them myself.
How does that have anything to do with what the OP is asking?
As for the OP, I think Apple got a big jump back when the original Mac was introduced. Remember the 1984 Superbowl ad? But then MSFT introduced windows, and the differences narrowed.
Apple got “way cool” when they got into non-computer products like the iPod, and then that seems to have spread to MacBooks, etc. And then the iPhone really did it. But Apple has always been popular with the artsy set and in education.
I’ve seen plenty of mac fanboys shit on a PC thread but this is the first time I’ve seen a PC fanboy shit in a mac thread.
Anyway, here’s my memory of it (which I’m sure is biased).
Back in the days of the 8 bit computers, the Apple II was one of the best machines of its day. This was back in the wars of the 8 bit computers. Later machines like the Commodores would come along with better sound and graphics, but for a time, the Apple was a top of the line system. It wasn’t really a “cool” thing though like it is today, but it had a huge share of the market, which is something it hasn’t had since.
Apple kinda foundered a bit until they came out with the Mac. The early Mac had much better graphics than the early PC (which isn’t saying much - most of the older 8 bit computers had significantly better graphics and sound capabilities than the early PCs). It wasn’t any real surprise then that Macs became used for cool things like graphics design, which is a field still dominated by Macs due mostly to inertia. It took quite a few years for the PC to catch up to Macs in terms of the user interface and its sound and graphics capabilities, but PCs did take off for home use. Macs still weren’t cool though, but they were popular, more so in some crowds than others. Apple already had a lot of niche markets in “cool” areas though.
Macs didn’t really become cool (as I recall it) until the iMac. Unlike other computers of the time, the iMac was designed to look cool instead of just being a boring box. A lot of the PC crowd made fun of it at the time for its looks too, but that’s when Macs first were something that people went ooh and aah about when you saw one sitting on a desk. Apple has been very focused on having cool looking things ever since then.