Apple color revolution

The Apple Corporation created with Jobs in the 1970s became one of the world leaders in the field of computer production, software and electronics. In recent years, its iPhone smartphones and iPad tablet computers have gained particular popularity. Jobs himself, who developed many ideas that brought the success of the company, became one of the most popular businessmen of our time .

His death caused a wide response in the world. The US President Barack Obama made a special statement. The condolences in connection with the death of Jobs were expressed by his business technology business colleagues - the creator of the social network Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and the head of Microsoft Bill Gates, many politicians and public figures, ordinary users and admirers of Jobs and Apple around the world.

The reason for such a wide response was probably that the world has experienced a grandiose computer revolution in recent decades and for many it was painted in Apple colors - a company headed by Steve Jobs.

The role of Apple in a computer revolution is discussed by experts of Radio Liberty that use the company's products, although this use is often completely different: Arkady Pildes is a chef of Internet projects Radio Liberty, and Dmitry Volchek is a leading program “over barriers”.

- Arkady, under Jobs, Apple, as I understand it, was not so much a source of inventions in the field of computers, players or phones, how many were more convenient?

Arkady Pildes: Why? Apple can be called the flagship of the industry in the sense that Apple was the first to invented and applied new items, which later became standards throughout the industry. We can start with the very first operating system, Macintosh, in which for the first time a graphic interface and a “mouse” were used in a commercial product. And to finish is the latest products that have made the interface controlled by the finger.

Apple intuitively made technical techniques understandable for an ordinary user, a person who has neither time nor hunting for this at all

Arkady Pildes: We can say that Apple turned the gaze of computer companies, computers manufacturers from themselves to the user. Because until 1984, before the creation of the first Macintosh, computers were produced, in general, for specialists, for those who should spend time to learn how to use them. These were computers for the technical elite. And with the advent of "Macintosh, to date, computers have become easier and simpler. Apple intuitively made technical techniques understandable for an ordinary user, a person who has neither time nor hunting for this. And therefore, now modern tablets produced by both Apple and their competitors can use everything from young children to the elderly.

- Dmitry, you are a man of humanitarian education, and I can assume that you are not very interested in the technical characteristics of the computer. As in your opinion, the simplification of the interface has affected, let’s say, a cultural exchange, has a cultural exchange?

Dmitry Volchek: I’m really not an expert, I understand little in computers, I use them, like a housewife with a vacuum cleaner, that is, I belong to the faceless mass of users. The only thing that distinguishes me from it is that I began to use the products by Apple, when few people knew about it back in the Soviet Union at the very end of the 80s. George Soros then organized a campaign to help samizdat magazines. And I worked in the semi -underground magazine "Glasnity", which was published in Moscow illegally, in France and in the United States. Then, thanks to Soros, we received one of the first computers of Macintosh - it was brought, it seems, in diplomatic mail, in the USSR there were prohibitions on the import of "multiplying equipment", as they said then. And so I moved from the typewriter to the first laptop Macintosh. In 1989 he was

Macintosh in Russia has become a cultural sign, an integral part of several subcultures.

It was released on a wide sale, and we appeared a few months earlier. It was, of course, an amazing experience, but then we did not pay attention to the brand itself and did not know anything about her, about her history and about Jobs's ideas. Much later, Macintosh in Russia became a cultural sign, an integral part of several subcultures. Here he had, in addition to positive connotations, and negative. Now you can hear that using Apple products is too banal, and someone will say that it is vulgar ...

- Can Apple and Jobs be called cult figures?

Dmitry Volchek: This is a cult for Dmitry Medvedev, who waved an iPhone in California in the way Khrushchev waving corn earnings during a visit to America. This is a cult for hipsters who love any products of Apple and use it only. This is a cult for .. How to put it softer ... Russian nouveau riche. So in Russia this cult received an ambiguous social coloring, and I would like to distance himself from it. Therefore, let's say, I did not decide to purchase an iPhone right away, although I do not regret it at all.

Arkady Pildes: By the way, most of what people love Apple products were not even invented by Apple. Very often she just found this application. For example, a graphic interface, mouse and touchscreen were not invented in Apple, but he showed both users and especially other firms on how exactly these technical innovations should be used, how to give people to use them. Of course, Windows has always been a much more popular operating system than Apple and, perhaps, the modern system for Google Android mobile phones will become much more popular than the operating system used in Apple mobile devices. But this does not cancel the fact that it was Apple that gave the primary impetus to this market.

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