2001 - it's not a mac

Below is a chronological timeline of the year's defining moments, featuring key quotes from Steve Jobs, followed by my own personal thoughts and reflections on experiencing this historic era firsthand. January 9, 2001 — Macworld San Francisco 2001 Following the massive success of the 2000 Public Beta, Jobs announced that Mac OS X 10.0 would officially ship on March 24, 2001, for $129. We know that Mac OS X is really laying the foundation for the next decade to decade and a half of our software efforts. We think we’ve got something really, really good here. And I hope you love it as much as we do. Dubbed as having the "Power to Burn", Apple overhauled its professional desktop lineup with the "Digital Audio" Power Mac G4 towers (ranging from 466MHz up to a blazing 733MHz) and they made CD-RW drives standard across the board. To anchor the music portion of the digital lifestyle, Jobs introduced iTunes (developed by acquiring and rebuilding the popular software SoundJam MP). Apple introduces the stunning Titanium PowerBook G4. Designed by Jony Ive, it features a radical, industrially sharp 1-inch thin metal chassis with a massive 15.2-inch widescreen display, instantly shattering PC laptop design standards. The all new Titanium PowerBook G4 is the most revolutionary portable computer ever created. It's a 'supercomputer to go’ in terms of performance, yet it’s thinner and sexier than the best sub-notebooks. February 21, 2001 — Macworld Tokyo 2001 In an attempt to push the aesthetic boundaries of consumer plastic molding, Jobs reveals the wild, highly polarizing "Flower Power" and "Blue Dalmatian" patterned iMac G3s, which literally have complex graphics baked directly into their translucent polycarbonate housings. We are completely updating the iMac lineup today to feed the digital music revolution. We are putting CD-RW drives into almost every model, giving our users the 'power to burn' their own custom music CDs right from iTunes. March 24, 2001 — The Launch of Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) Apple officially puts Mac OS X 10.0 on retail shelves for $129. Built on a Unix foundation derived from NeXTSTEP, it completely replaces the decades-old classic Mac OS architecture. While visually spectacular due to its sweeping Aqua user interface, "Cheetah" is heavily criticized by power-users for being painfully slow, lacking DVD playback, and suffering from a severe deficit of native third-party software. May 1, 2001 — The All-White "IceBook" iBook G3 Apple completely ditches the colorful, bulky, rubber-clamshell look for its consumer notebook line. It introduces the all-new Dual-USB iBook G3. Encased in ultra-clean, minimalist, translucent white polycarbonate, its square, compact form factor establishes Apple's design language for the education sector for the next decade. Today, we are introducing an all-new iBook. We have completely redesigned it from the ground up. It is a dual-USB, all-white, beautiful design that is twice as compact as the original iBook. It weighs just 4.9 pounds—nearly two pounds lighter than before—and it is only 1 inch thick. May 19, 2001 — The First Apple Retail Stores Open Defying universal consensus from retail experts who predicted a catastrophic financial failure, Apple opens its very first two physical retail stores simultaneously: Tysons Corner, Virginia and Glendale, California. Rather than hiding computers in big-box back aisles, the stores position hardware at the front, categorize layouts by "digital lifestyle solutions," and introduce the world to the very first Genius Bars. May 21–25, 2001 — WWDC 2001 (San Jose) Steve Jobs steps on stage to stabilize panicked developer relations, promising that Mac OS X will receive an aggressive, massive speed-optimization update by the end of the summer completely free of charge. To prove its commitment, Apple states that all future Mac models shipping from that point forward will have Mac OS X set as the default, factory-installed operating system out of the box. We launched Mac OS X in March, and it has been a phenomenal milestone. But we’ve been listening to our users and our developers, and we know what you want. You want speed. Today, we are previewing the next major release of Mac OS X, version 10.1. We have gone under the hood and tuned this system to be blindingly fast. Application launch times are cut in half, the Finder windows resize instantly, and the overall responsiveness of the UI is exactly where it needs to be. July 18, 2001 — Macworld New York 2001 Apple launches the aggressively styled "Quicksilver" Power Mac G4 line, completely modernizing the physical chassis of its professional desktop workspace towers. Hardware chief Jon Rubinstein takes the stage alongside Jobs to deliver a detailed, highly visible masterclass on the "Megahertz Myth." The Studio Display lineup expanded as well. We have a beautiful fifteen-inch Studio Display, an all-new seventeen-inch Studio Display flat panel that is gorgeous, and our award-winning twenty-two-inch Cinema Display. They are all clad in crystal-clear acrylic and frosted silver, they run on our single-cable Apple Display Connector, and they look like art floating on your desk. September 25, 2001 — Seybold San Francisco 2001 Keeping the promise made at WWDC, Apple releases Mac OS X 10.1 (Puma). It introduces massive, systemic under-the-hood speed improvements, fluid window resizing, native CD/DVD burning, and brings crucial platform stability. We are launching Mac OS X version 10.1 this week, and it is a massive milestone for this community. We heard you loud and clear after the initial launch: you needed speed, and you needed reliability. Our team has tuned this system from top to bottom. Finder windows snap open, application launch times are cut in half, and the system responsiveness is right where a creative professional needs it to be. This is the operating system you have been waiting for. October 23, 2001 — The iPod Special Event (Cupertino) In a tiny, tightly packed auditorium inside Apple's Infinite Loop campus, Steve Jobs delivers his second legendary masterwork presentation. He pulls a tiny device out of his pocket and introduces the original iPod for $399. Apple changes the cultural conversation around consumer electronics with the immortal marketing phrase: "1,000 songs in your pocket." The biggest thing about iPod is that it holds one thousand songs. And it fits right in your pocket. To have your whole music library with you at all times is a quantum leap in your life. But the most amazing thing is that this entire device is the exact size of a deck of cards. It weighs just six.five ounces. It is ultra-portable, it features a massive five-gigabyte ultra-thin hard drive, and it gives you up to ten hours of continuous battery life. November 10, 2001 — The iPod Goes on Sale The first generation iPod officially lands in consumer hands. Despite early skepticism from tech journalists regarding its high price tag and strict Mac-only formatting limitations, it triggers a massive wave of cultural desire, setting off an unparalleled hyper-growth curve for Apple. Early in the year, I sold my trusted "Pismo" to pick up a fully loaded PowerBook G4 Titanium. At the time, it was quite simply the most breathtaking piece of hardware I had ever laid eyes on. Yet, my time with it was strangely short-lived. Though the exact reason I abandoned the laptop lifestyle has faded from memory, I ended up pivoting back to a desktop setup anchored by a "Quicksilver" Power Mac G4. Anchored by the spherical Apple Pro Speakers and a crystal-clear 17-inch Apple Studio Display, the aesthetic was stunning; I was completely in awe of the setup sitting on my desk. Ironically, my actual computing time was limited. I was working full-time, and my evenings were dominated far more by gaming on my PlayStation 2 and GameCube than by logging hours on the Mac. Before long, life shifted again. I moved back to live with my family in Juno Beach, a transition that apparently prompted a return to mobile computing. I found myself back in the good graces of a laptop—this time, seemingly tracking with the launch of the fall PowerBook G4 Titanium "Onyx" revision. Right around the time I was settling back into the Titanium lifestyle, I walked into CompUSA on launch day and walked out with the very first iPod. Up until that point, I had been spending months burning custom audio discs and packing MP3 CDs into a portable player I kept in my car. But the iPod instantly shattered that routine. There was something deeply satisfying about curating the ultimate 1,000-song playlist and just letting it ride on shuffle mode. Guided by that brilliant, tactile scroll wheel interface, having my entire soundtrack with me in the car and everywhere I went felt like pure magic. I no longer had to maintain one fractured music collection on my computer and an entirely different one on the move; the digital hub was finally complete.