Mac turns 40: Apple’s computer has a secret to staying on the throne

Ternus’s comment opens up an unexpected theme in our conversation: how connections between the Mac and Apple’s other flagship products continually reinvigorate the company’s workhorse. As a result, Mac remains relevant and influential significantly exceeds the normal service life of a computer product.

The iPhone, introduced in 2007, quickly became a hugely successful device that dominated Apple’s financial results. But The iPhone has not replaced the Macintosh, but strengthened it. The effect was initially seen as bringing the essence of mobile interactions to the Mac, bringing touchscreen gestures to the touchpad and even allowing gestures to work with each other. Programs

mobile and desktop computer. “Our goal is to get these products to work well together, to achieve consistency,” says Alan Dye, the company’s vice president of user experience design. And he hastens to add that all Apple products also work separately.

Mac Innovation Inspired by iPhone

In recent years Mac innovation comes from transition to custom Apple silicon chips first used in the iPhone. “I joke that we had to build the iPhone to achieve the scale needed to build the Mac we wanted,” says Craig Federighi, senior vice president of engineering at the company. software companies. Ternus also notes that the iPhone’s contribution to Apple’s profitability has been very good for the Mac: “Because the business was successful, it allowed us to invest and do what we always wanted to do,” he says.

An example of this must have been the recent increase in battery life notepads Mac: “When do we skip physics?” Joswiak jokes. Indeed, autonomy of almost a day, or even 22 hours on some Macbook Pros, is life-changing. Again, this was a side effect of efforts to extend iPhone battery life.

“When we started working with Apple silicon (its own chips), we felt like the laws of physics had changed,” says Ternus. “Suddenly we could create a fanless MacBook Air with 18 hours of battery life,” he says. “The best arrow in our quiver is efficiency. Because if you can optimize it, everything will improve.”

Macintosh design has remained fairly consistent over the past few years. Could the Mac of the future look completely different than when the iMac emerged from the trash heap? basketball to the lamp?

“There’s definitely a potential for revolution in the future,” says Molly Anderson, head of industrial design at Apple. “When we start a new project, we don’t think about the limitations of the popularity of our current products. “We always strive to create the best tool for a specific purpose.” Joswiak adds that it took courage to keep changing the Mac and keeping it at the forefront, always consciously, of course. “The road to technology hell is paved by people who do things because they can, not because they have to,” he says.