Where No Mac Has Gone Before- 3 August 1998
Dan
Knight
Three months ago it looked like a risky
move: the iMac would use the universal serial bus (USB), but
not ADB, SCSI, or a standard Mac serial port. Although Microsoft and Intel have
promoted USB, and the vast army of cloners have been
building USB into their computers, I don't know of one
computer that dropped the standard serial and parallel ports
every Wintel user expects. Which means that despite the widespread
presence of USB on modern Wintel boxes, and OS support in
Windows, there hasn't been a whole lot of USB
hardware. - So what does Apple do? It forces the
issue.
With the same chutzpah seen in leaving
out the floppy drive, Apple has gone where no computer has
gone before: into the land of USB only. Despite the efforts of Microsoft, Intel,
and others, it was tiny, innovative, thinking different
Apple that forced the peripheral industry to move into USB
country. After all, if Apple sells a half-million
(or even a million) iMacs this year, that's a lot of people
who won't be able to buy your printer, scanner, trackball,
or drive -- unless you adopt USB. Apple at first pushed USB as an industry
standard, but the iMac will do more to create a USB market
and allow USB to become the perceived standard than all the
Wintel boxes with USB ports combined. Even thought the Windows world will be
the primary beneficiary of USB in the long run, little old
Apple's the one pushing the envelope. Ironic, isn't it, that a company with
less than 10% market share carries this much
weight. Dan
Knight, webmaster
the iMac channel
Related readingRecent Editorials- Teacher Tools:
Gradebooks, Steve Wood, View From the Classroom, 11/22.
- Screen Size and
Resolution, Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 11/19. Why is the
iMac fuzzy at 1024x768? Why does a 17" monitor look unsharp at
1280x960?
- Reassessment, Eric
DeStafano, Mac Metamorphosis, 11/18. "The Windows platform is
dead, and Windows 2000 is going to be the final nail in the
coffin."
- Macs for design, Lynn, My
First Mac, 11/18. "The tables have turned, and I think it is time
that everyone (including software manufacturers), see the enormous
capabilities and adaptability that Macintoshes have!"
- Apple will rule the computer
world, Rodney O. Lain, Things Macintosh, 11/17
- Online with a PowerBook
Duo, Julie Fugett, Mac Daniel, 11/17
- Free web access, even for
older Macs, Rob Myers, Mac Musings, 11/17
- MyBook: A more portable
Mac, Dan Knight, iBook & PowerBook Page, 11/16
- Teacher Tools:
AppleWorks, Steve Wood, View From the Classroom, 11/15
- New @ Low End Mac:
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