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Origins
of the Floppy Drive
Woz's
Floppy Drive Miracle
Lisa,
the Apple III, and the Twiggy Fiasco
Mass
storage and the Macintosh Project
A
Floppy for Macintosh
Manual
vs. Auto Eject: The Great Floppy Debate
iMac
and the End of an Era
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Mass storage and the
Macintosh Project
The project that would become Macintosh originally went by the code
name Annie. But "to avoid using only female names on projects,"
the name was changed to Macintosh "because the project leader's [Jef
Raskin] favorite Apples are Macintosh Apples." (Macintosh Project Papers,
Doc. 1)
Conceived by Raskin as "a computer designed for the Person In The Street
(or, to abbreviate: the PITS)", the Mac would have "a 4 or 5 inch
CRT..., a keyboard, and a disk integrated into one package" at the
amazing price point of $500. (MPP, Doc. 4) By "disk" Raskin specifically
meant a floppy disk, stating in October 1979 that "In the Macintosh
time frame, the only viable mass storage is floppy disks." (MPP, Doc.
7) As the project progressed, however, Raskin found it difficult to include
all that he wanted into the computer given component prices at the time.
The floppy drive was particularly problematic to the Mac team:
"But even a single floppy disk drive (which currently would add
over $200 to the end-user price) is too expensive for Macintosh)."
(MPP, "Progress Report of July 1980")
Raskin explored other storage options, including a combination dot-matrix
printer/bar code reader:
"On the 14th
of this month I was trying to find a less expensive mass storage device
for the Macintosh project. The bar-code reading wand is one of the least
expensive computer input devices, but is limited by the operator's dexterity.
... Any low cost printer would have to be a dot matrix based device
given the present state of the art. I realized that such a printer could
print bar codes." (MPP, Doc. 15)
By July 1980, the team believed that their best bet might be a digital cassette
drive:
"A digital cassette system will have a cost of about $35, is the
least expensive alternative--and is acceptable so long as it is not
used for system software swapping." (MPP,
"Progress Report of July 1980")
The Macintosh Project Papers reveal that Raskin was willing to sacrifice
some functionality in order to meet a lower price goal. His attitude contrasted
sharply with that of Steve Jobs, who according to Raskin, told the Mac team,
"Don't worry about price, just specify the computer's abilities."
(MPP, Doc. 8) Raskin's response to Jobs was blunt: "Starting with the
abilites desired is nonsense. We must start with a price goal, a set of
abilities, and keep an eye on today's and the immediate future's technology.
These factors must all be judged simultaneously." (MPP, Doc. 8)
Nonetheless, the projected price of Macintosh rose from $500 in September
1979 to "under $1,500" in July 1980. (MPP, "Progress Report
of July 1980") Steve Jobs increased his involvement with the Macintosh
after being forced out of the Lisa group in September 1980. Tensions increased
as Jobs appointed himself general manager of the Mac team and declared Raskin
publications director of the project that he had created. (Young, p. 211-2)
Frustrated and disillusioned, Raskin left the Macintosh group in February 1981.
Jobs' attitude on features versus pricing clearly had its effect on the
Macintosh project, as the final product included a floppy drive and sold
for a whopping $2495, five times Raskin's original goal. |
