Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The first time you used/saw an Apple product....

B

boy-better-know

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 30, 2010
1,358
140
England
I always remember watching this interview with Jony Ive on Channel 4 (UK) a number of years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-sHt0y-0Cg
I decided to dig it up recently, and was particularly interested in the part where he describes using a Mac for the first time. It got me thinking about my own experiences growing during the 90's in England. Any one reading this from the UK will surely agree with me that Mac computers were not a part of our education (excluding university). I was 8 when I first used a mac, it was at a friends house and I didn't find it particularly impressive, just weird because I didn't know you could have a computer that wasn't windows. I believe it was one from the late 80's so was looking a little dated. But I do remember being curious.
I didn't use one again until I was doing work experience at the age of 15, it was the G4, or sunflower stem iMac, I was blown away for a number of reasons, it was fun, it looked amazing and it was totally alien to me. This is probably the moment I decided to pledge my consumer allegiance to Apple, rightly or wrongly.
You probably aren't as interested in this as I seem to be, but I just find it special that I found it so easy to remember my first taste of Apple. I could't do that for many other products. I also wish that there was more of a Mac culture in the UK whilst I was growing up. It's a shame, because businesses don't seem to want to adopt them either :(.
Anyway, if you have a few minutes I want to hear your first experiences with anything Apple, not just Macs. I would appreciate it because I will be using something relating to this for a project at university.
 
The place, University of Missouri-Rolla,,, McNutt Hall (Metallurgy, Mining, Geology, etc. building),,, Computer Lab… the date, circa late 1980's… Whilst getting frustrated fighting a program on a PC, an Apple-loving buddy came by, pulled my ear, and dragged me into the Mac side of the Comp Lab. I laughed at the "toys", and said that there is no way that these playthings could do what I needed. An hour later, I was a convert [and, lol, spent many hours thereafter playing Mortal Pongbat :cool:]. Had seen the light, the ease, the beauty, the enjoyment of using an Apple. Ever since, I've been a fan, of the products, of the way of Apple's interface, the interface of the software. Years later, while at a NASA-sponsored seminar a few miles away, a buddy and I had the pleasure of seeing Steve Jobs @ their HQ. I've been not just a fan, but a "seller" of their products, helping at least a dozen friends and family purchase and use Apples. No, not everything about 'em are perfect, but, for the most part, they beat the snot out of the competition.
 
My first experience with Apple products occurred before I was even born. My mother purchased a Macintosh 128k while she was pregnant with me.
 
Last edited:
I guess my first experience was in Elementary school circa 1990. I think they were IIE's in all of the classrooms. Didn't buy my first Mac until college though, a white Macbook.
 
I was in middle school when my friend got the then-brand new 1st generation iPod Nano, 4gig. I wasn't a music fan back then so I didn't feel the immediate urge to have one myself, but the more I saw my friend with it, the more I wanted it just for the sake of having it.

That feeling has not gone away since then. Like the Macbook Pro I'm about to order soon -- I don't -really- need it. I could make do with my current laptop, or get a better spec laptop that's more suitable for my needs. But once I played around with a Mac and felt that beautiful aluminum body, I needed it.

I am such a tool.
 
1988 our company purchased a Mac IIcx. We ran Aldus Pagemaker and Adobe Photoshop on it. I still have it, but it doesn't boot up anymore. Now it is part of my collection and sits next to a PowerPC 6100 and Performa 630CD as the earliest models I have.
 
First encounter with an Apple product was the iPod, first gen. When I saw my friends with I was like "What is that?". Back then there were still VHS, and walkmans around. From then on I knew something big was coming. But I actually didn't own an apple product till iPhone 3G.

I couldn't afford it :D being in highschool and all.
 
In 1983, I was a computer journalist and got to play with a LISA. I was instantly sold on the GUI concept, and if I could have afforded one (it cost almost twice my annual salary at the time), I would have bought one.

In 1984, I bought the original Macintosh. Single 400k floppy drive, second external one (at extra cost), 128k RAM, dot-matrix printer. Even with the 60% journalist discount, it cost me a third of my annual salary. I loved it.

Upgraded to a Fat Mac (512k!), then to 1Mb, then had a succession of Macs, including the first Mac Portable (which I still have, though sadly not the power adapter so I can't check whether it still works).
 
1984, Virginia Tech, educational computer lab used IIes and we "learned" some basic Basic programming. I used one until I bought a Mac Plus in 1985 or 6. I remember a fellow student down the hall who had a Kaypro (sp?) word processor. That was cool for the time.
 
First time I used an Apple product was probably the 3rd generation iPod my parents brought for me on my birthday back in 2004. I had seen Macs etc before, and of course I knew about iPods. But being a kid it all just seemed out of my reach. My iPod blew my mind, partially because until then I hadn't been too big on music so it helped introduce me to some genres and bands that I still love today.
 
I was on the train from Boston to New York to see my mother, who was dying. This was in January of 2010. I had never had any interest in computers, had never used or owned one, and didn't care to have anything to do with computers of any kind. I had heard that Macs were "intuitive" to use, but really had no idea what that meant.

There was a young woman seated next to me with an iPad 1, and I was fascinated by it. She showed me bunch of stuff that you could do on it - and I was hooked!

When I returned to Boston, I went to my local Apple Store and talked to a salesperson about buying an iPad 1. He suggested that one really needed a computer before I bought an iPad, and I bought a 13" white MacBook. I enjoyed it tremendously, and the learning of it's use was a joy.(Well, mostly a joy. Sometimes it drove me crazy, and I made 20 or more calls a week to Applecare for help). A little over a year later I received a tax refund, and decided to spend it on a 15" MacBook Pro. Far, far more power than I really needed, but I wanted the 15"screen (with Hi Res upgrade).

Then I found MacRumors, and the rest, as they say, is history...:D
 
it was probably when I was 15 or so (2002). we'd just gotten an internet connection, and I stumbled upon the apple website. I was so impressed, but didn't earn or have any money of my own, let alone $2000 for a computer.

Then in early 2004, I finally had some money, got REALLY fed up with windows, liked the UNIX-y stuff, and decided to buy a mac, after an online friend had talked to me about their home only using macs. The intel switch announcement came, I waited for them to arrive (PPC seemed fine but intel was clearly the future) and so did my first iMac, a 17" model. Then I realized that my friend across the street had an old mac with OS 9 (probably an old Performa) that we had always used to play games on. Good stuff, as I type this behind my maxed out mid 2011 27" iMac :D
 
Hmmmm, my parents bought a Macintosh IIsi when they came out, and I used it a lot as a child. In school we had a lot of Apple II and IIe computers as well as Apple Macintosh Classic II computers.

Ah those were fun...
 
Mid 90's a client of my mom gave us an LC-3 with an Epson printer....and a ****ton of games(lemmings, supermaze wars, spin doctor, etc). I spent hours playing lemmings with my mother trying to beat it but never could. To this day I still can't beat it, even on my PS-One
 
The first Mac I used was a Power Mac (I think) when I was like 6 years old. I only used it to play games.
 
Apple II, maybe around 1982 I'm guessing. My older brother had one. I got my first mac around 1986, and have had maybe 20-25 in upgrades to my present day MBP and iMac.
 
Sometime in the '80s, maybe 1983 or so. I was teaching elementary school and they gave me an Apple IIe with a Duo Drive and a pin printer. In a year I had a touchscreen on it, so I guess I was ahead of the curve..:cool:

Dale
 
My dad bought a Macintosh IIsi when I was very small; as a preschooler I spent many hours playing Number Munchers, Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego, and Battle Chess (my favorite!)
 
In elementary school, all the computers were Macs (don't know the model, I just know they were blue).
 
I saw my first Mac 128K computer in 1985, at the 's-Hertogenbosch computer club. I can remember how we all marveled at the mouse. We were also very put off by the very high price.

I bought my first Apple computer a MBA 13" in 2008 the year I finally retired. Since then I bought a iMac 27" in 2010.
 
I'm very new @ 41 years old...

I bought the iPhone 4s from sprint on launch day. I sent a text and made a call and POOF! the phone crashed. Obviously since the phone was pre-sold I had no joy on an immediate replacement. I actually had a brand new unfunctioning phone in my possesion that i could stare at. After a couple of weeks and a carrier change all was sorted out and i fell in love. Just bought a MBA base 2 days ago as a result.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back