|  |  | ## History of computer design: Apple IIc
|  |  | Home || Introduction || Historiography || 1-Cottage industry || 2-Emerging standards || 3-Macintosh 4-frogdesign || 5-Corporate focus || Conclusion || Bibliography & links
|  | The Apple IIc was introduced along with the Macintosh in January 1984. To assure customers that the older technology would not be discarded in the Macintosh revolution, banners at its introduction proclaimed "Apple II forever" (Levy, 223-4), and advertisements promised "our newest brainchild is certainly not an orphan." Apple used the established position of the Apple II in this ad, calling the IIe "the granddaddy of the whole personal computer industry," but its new Apple IIc was clearly rapidly aging technology (Apple ad in Byte, Aug. 1984, p. 0-1). Enthusiasm was revitalized through industrial design, a revolution in appearance alongside the Mac's revolution in function that would not fully extend to the Macintosh itself for nearly three years. The initial design for the IIc began before the development of Snow White by the Apple designer Rob Gemmell. Work on the machine began in December 1983 when Jobs saw Toshiba's first portable PC and agreed that Gemmell should follow a portable Apple II concept that he had long suggested. Though portable, with a handle on its back that also folds down to tilt the keyboard into a comfortable typing position, the Apple IIc does not have an integrated display and can be considered a direct descendent of the previous Apple II design. With the handle elevating the back, it tilts to the same angle as the original Apple II keyboard, and it has a similar inwards slope towards its base from the bottom of the keyboard. However, the Apple IIc is otherwise remarkably different. The playful pet-like appearance and unnecessary detailing are absent, and the familiar wedge extending out from the otherwise boxy enclosure is replaced by a simple nearly square form. This does not give a bulky appearance, though, but only emphasizes its small size: 12" long, 11.25" wide and only 2.25" high. This tablet-like shape precludes any internal expansion slots, but the IIc is as powerful as the Apple IIe, and even additionally has an integrated disk drive on its right side. Esslinger's designers did not alter Gemmell's IIc until after tooling had already begun, so it does not have a zero-draft enclosure. In every other way, though, it is the fullest embodiment of the language, reverently still called by frogdesign "Snow White pure." Apple even agreed to engineer a new keyboard for the machine, at a cost of $200 000, to include a 2 mm radial curve around it. The front of the unit containing the keyboard is slightly recessed, isolating the interactive front of the machine, but there is also a thin line around the disk lever to make it visually apparent. Vents are hidden within Snow White lines on the back portion. The Apple logo on the left is balanced with the model name on the right at the back from these lines, while the front setback in behind the keyboard similarly balances three buttons on the left with two LCD lights on the right. These buttons and lights are tilted at the same angle as the 48-point Univers Italic graphics that frogdesign chose for the keycaps, giving a hint of playfulness that is subliminally connected to the functionality of the machine. The keyboard itself and the disk drive lever are khaki, a serious offset to the machine's otherwise cheerful creamy off-white, a colour known at Apple as Fog (Kunkel, 37-40). The Apple IIc was immediately popular, receiving the highest first-day orders in Apple's history. By the end of 1984, over 400 000 had been sold, most with the zero-draft display which Apple and frogdesign designed to be cantilevered by a stand over the back of the computer. This popularity was driven in large part by its appearance; the IIc was the first Apple product to receive formal recognition for its industrial design, for which it won several prestigious awards (Kunkel, 40). To the Snow White design language To a Corporate focus (1986-89) Home || Introduction || Historiography || 1-Cottage industry || 2-Emerging standards || 3-Macintosh 4-frogdesign || 5-Corporate focus || Conclusion || Bibliography & links