I’m a casual Apple user/fan. Which feels somewhat ridiculous to say considering that they are easily the tech company I give the most money year after year. Every day I use multiple Apple devices and services: iPhone 17 Pro, Series 11 Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, an M4 MacBook Air (my work computer), and Apple Music and TV+ subscriptions.
I mostly love the Apple products I use, and generally upgrade to a new revision every 2-3 years. I appreciate their design philosophy and how consistent it’s been, specifically throughout the past two decades. I follow Apple news and rumor sites. I have a collection of old iPods and recently bought a G5 iMac to mess around with. But I still wouldn’t consider myself a hardcore fan. I’ve never put an Apple sticker on my car or waited in line to buy a product day one. I still use a PC for all non-work stuff and have more affinity for Windows XP than any classic Mac OS. Plus, I just don’t know that much about Apple’s history, because I didn’t live it- my introduction to the Apple ecosystem was the iPod nano, 20 years ago. That’s where this book comes in.
I finished Apple: The First 50 Years last night, and not only did I gain knowledge about the company, I feel like I better understand what makes Apple, Apple. The book essentially tells the story of Apple through the history of their products, but in a way that’s centered around the people involved. This approach adds so much more depth and insight, and essentially creates a narrative that spans 50 years.
Pogue has been writing about Apple professionally for decades, and that knowledge and access comes through on every page. There were 150 “key players” in Apple’s history, both past and present interviewed for this book. This leads to some incredible first-hand accounts of the highs and lows through Apple’s history. Honestly, it’s the lows that interested me the most: how the failure of Newton eventually led to the iPhone and iPad. Or how neglected products in CompUSAs led to Apple Stores. Or how the underwhelming Vision Pro or cancelled “Apple Car” may lead to innovative and ubiquitous tech in the future. The book focuses on the throughlines, whether people or ideas, that have been consistent through the company’s history and brought us to the Apple we know today.
While this book didn’t inspire me to swap my PC for a Mac, it did make me appreciate what’s unique about the company. However you feel about Apple, I still highly recommend this book. It captures the good and bad of the company’s 50 year history, and leaves the reader with a sense of who Apple is, not just what they did.
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