The year was 1984 and Apple had just announced the Macintosh on January 24. A year earlier, Apple introduced the Lisa, but at a cost of nearly $10,000, it was not priced to make a big dent in the home computer market. But the Macintosh was designed for the home. It was Apple’s remarkable new paradigm-shifting device; poised to change forever the way computers are designed and used. Apple’s marketing blitz stressed the ease of use inherent to the Mac’s graphical operating system. The hardware was sublime, but it was the operating system, more than anything else, that changed the industry. Apple had always believed itself to be a great hardware company, which is without dispute, but it would soon become apparent that the grandfather of the home computer industry was also an insanely great software company. We obtained our copy of the famous Macintosh Newsweek insert from a seller on eBay. Our copy was attached to the March 19, 1984 edition of Newsweek. We are uncertain if Apple included this insert in any other edition of Newsweek.
When Apple introduced the Macintosh, its main product was still the Apple II. Failing to make inroads with the Apple III and with Lisa sales stagnant due to its premium price, Apple would attempt to take back the home market from IBM, whose PC had surpassed the Apple II in both the home and business markets. The IBM PC was comparable to the Apple II in terms of performance, but it was light years behind the Macintosh. So, it is no surprise that Apple’s first attempts to market the Macintosh targeted Big Blue (or should I say, “Big Brother”).
