’50 years of thinking different’: Apple announces major anniversary celebrations, and there’s one thing I want to see
- Tim Cook pens a letter celebrating Apple’s 50th anniversary
- Apple has announced plans to celebrate
- There are scant details so far
Apple is ready to celebrate 50 years of innovation. The company has been tight-lipped about how it will mark this half-century milestone, but now it and longtime CEO Tim Cook are opening up just a bit about the plans, how Apple views the last 50 years, and what comes next.
“Apple was founded on the simple notion that technology should be personal, and that belief — radical at the time — changed everything,” wrote Cook in a letter posted on Apple.com to mark the occasion (the official date is April 1).
In the letter, Cook credits Apple’s customers with defining the story of Apple: “In your hands, the tools we make have improved lives, and sometimes even saved them. And that is what inspires us — not what technology can do alone, but everything you can do with it.”
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While Cook and Apple often hesitate to look back, the company finally revealed in a press release a skeletal plan for celebrating 50 years of Apple:
“In the coming weeks, Apple and its global community will celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, recognizing the creativity, innovation, and impact that people around the world have made possible with Apple technology.”
What that means, though, is open to interpretation. Surely Apple will have some in-store decorations and displays celebrating the history. I’ve asked Apple, though, if Cook will host an Apple Park event for employees. I’ll update this post if I hear back.
Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple has produced some of the most important tech products of the information age. From the game-changing Macintosh to the music-carrying iPod, and then the only mobile phone ever casually described as the “Jesus Phone”, which became the iPhone. While of lesser impact, the iPad has had the longevity and arguably the impact of other Apple products.
Under Cook’s guidance (he took over as CEO in 2011 after Jobs’ untimely death), Apple has become a leader in wearables (Apple Watch) and has built a formidable Services business. The jury, though, is still out on Cook’s biggest swing, its expensive spatial computer, the Vision Pro.
It could be argued, in fact, I’ve seen these arguments on Reddit, that the company Jobs and Wozniak founded and that Jobs ran is distinctly different from the one Cook runs today.
Reddit user Raveen396 wrote, “Apple under Cook is a much more mature company…Not trying to be [a] corporate bootlicker here, but comparing Apple under Jobs and Apple under Cook is like comparing two entirely different companies.”
I’m not sure you’d expect anything different from a company entering its second half-century. Leadership changes, and the world and its customers change around it. Apple under Cook has made numerous adjustments to meet the market and customers wherever they live.
Still, there is a continuum and one I’d like to see celebrated with Apple’s own gift for elevated flair.
I envision museum-like installations at Apple Stores around the world (currently more than 500), displaying early products and their prototypes. 50 years is the perfect moment for Apple to pull back the curtain on its vaunted privacy, if only just a little bit.
Neo may mean more than you think
While some were hoping for a big product reveal during the 50th anniversary celebrations, I think the MacBook Neo may have won that moment. It’s the first new Mac in over a decade and potentially opens up MacBooks to an entirely new market.
Still, it’s not exactly the kind of earth-moving innovation we were hoping for. A tease of the iPhone Fold, now that would be something. As would a first look at Apple iGlasses.
We know Apple is working on a foldable handset or tablet and that augmented-reality smart glasses are somewhere on the product roadmap, as well. What if Apple broke with tradition and gave us a sneak peek at what Apple’s labs are working on right now?
It’s not just that I want this; Apple might need it. Apple’s next 50 years are not a given.
The competition is tough, and people are less positive about technology than they were when Apple first arrived, maybe more so now than ever. They need something exciting to look forward to.
In its press release, Apple’s statement on the future is promising, but vague: “Apple will continue to innovate in groundbreaking silicon, life-enriching products, transformative software, and services that improve people’s lives, while deepening its commitments to environmental responsibility, education, and community impact around the world.”
What people want, though, is to believe that Apple at 50 is just as innovative and interested in risk-taking as it was in 1976.
I think Cook gets that, and the end of his letter is a signal that Apple is not done being crazy:
“If you’ve taught us anything, it’s that the people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
So here’s to the crazy ones.”
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