Datasheet
17
Chapter 1: Why Switch? Demystifying the Mac Mantra
Figure 1-1:
The iMac
offers
everything
you need in
one smart
package.
The Magic
Trackpad
shown here
is a handy
option.
Photo courtesy of Apple, Inc.
A case in point is the optional Apple Remote. Remotes for most consumer
products rival an airplane cockpit in complexity; the Apple version has just
six buttons.
Looking forward, not backward
Apple leadership in technology extends beyond picking winners. Apple
is also the company that decides when to tell a once-popular technology,
“You’re fired.” It was the first to introduce 3
1
⁄2-inch floppy disks on personal
computers and the first to drop their use as a standard feature. Other tech-
nologies that Apple was the first to drop include the RS-232 serial port and
the dialup modem. You can still find these features as external add-ons if you
really need them, but Apple realized that most of us no longer do. Letting
go of old technology wards off the feature bloat that plagues the computer
industry. Unneeded features increase complexity and make machines harder
to use and more prone to problems.
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