[Wired In raw #87: Apple #4]

Raw footage for "Wired In," a never completed series on the technological trends and innovations of the 1980s. This video includes an interview with an Apple employee about the company's history, philosophy, and mission. Apple #4.

00:00Copy video clip URL This tape begins with color bars.

00:54Copy video clip URL Cut to a shot of the Apple representative who begins to talk about Apple’s history. He highlights the company’s growth in the consumer market, from its earlier years catering to computer hobbyists, to now becoming more prevalent in the normal consumer market. He states that the computer consumer market will eventually become the “lionshare of the computer market.”

03:27Copy video clip URL The rep talks about Apple’s marketing strategy. He explains that the company is slowly figuring out what normal consumers do with a personal computer. The company has a “loan to own” policy for all employees who receive a personal computer upon being hired. “So out of our employees’ experience, many of whom are non technical, we’re beginning to learn what people do with a home computer and what they need to do it successfully.” The rep also emphasizes Apple’s goal to educate and expose potential buyers to computers and goes over some of the company’s practices in reaching that goal. This lasts for several minutes.

06:48Copy video clip URL The rep is asked about Apple television commercials. He talks about the company’s goal in getting their innovative and upscale image across. “The idea we wanted to convey was that a computer was a good tool for an upscale, intelligent person to use, and that that sort of person didn’t have to be afraid of it, didn’t have to have a degree in computer science to use it.” The company used former talk show host Dick Cavett to help convey this message. Cavett represented a sharp, witty, upscale type of person, someone that the company believed their central demographic could relate to. “So we thought we’d take Cavett and we would introduce him to computers and build some commercials around his experience of getting used to a computer.” The rep states that the response they are getting from the Cavett commercials is “overwhelming.”

08:56Copy video clip URL The rep talks about the Apple philosophy. He cites innovation, team spirit, and empathy as integral attributes in the company’s mission. “One of our most important values is innovation. It’s not enough just to do another product. It’s important to do a product that’s a little better, that’s a step forward, that’s something different.” The Rep also states that it is okay for employees to fail just as long as they learn something from the failure. He eventually comments on empathy. “We build products for people–one person, one computer. And when you’re building products for people you have to be aware that people are just individuals who don’t have a great deal of power, don’t have a great deal of time, often don’t have a great deal of education in your particular subject, and yet somehow they still have to be able to buy your product and feel they got more than they paid for.”

11:51Copy video clip URL One of the videomakers asks the rep why someone would want a home computer. The rep explains that a home computer can be used for business purposes. He goes on to compare computers to cars in the early 20th century and states that computers are going through the same evolution. “We’re going through the same evolution, but what cars did in eighty years, we’re doing in ten years.” The rep goes on to talk about Apple reference and tutorial manuals.

16:03Copy video clip URL The rep responds to one of the videomaker’s comments about how the personal computer will change society. “What I think is going to happen when computers become widespread, which will be in the eighties, is that there are going to be two major areas of application for the average computer consumer. One is going to be education. The computer will become a medium for education the way a record player is a medium for entertainment.” The rep goes on to talk about the notion of “education stars” due to computers. The videomaker asks about the isolating aspect of computers. The rep states that the computer is simply a tool and that computers will not affect how much people communicate with one another, but rather where they will communicate. The tape ends shortly afterward.

20:04Copy video clip URL Tape ends.

 

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