- [Narrator] There is a computer
in over 96% of US households.
- [Adam] I don't think that there is any single innovation
that has propelled mankind forward
in the way the computer has done.
- [Narrator] But without a few key breakthroughs,
the computer as we know it might not even exist.
- This is what I've been dreaming of.
- [Jason] It was so technologically advanced
that it just didn't seem like technology anymore.
- [Kimberly] It felt like magic.
- [Narrator] From mainframe behemoths.
- [Rachel] The mainframe room was a refrigerated room
that could only be accessed by men in white lab coats.
- [Narrator] To pocket sized marvels.
- [Gary] The iPhone is 100% Apple's most iconic
product ever.
- [Narrator] To software.
- It operates via geographical user interface.
- [Adam] You could have multiple things running at the same time
and effortlessly switch between them.
- [Narrator] From the functional.
- They wanted people with much smaller
amount of technical knowledge
begin using the computer instantaneously.
- [Narrator] To the beautiful.
- I vividly remember the release of the iMac
that was as beautiful on the outside
as it was effective on the inside.
That's groundbreaking, baby.
- [Narrator] This is the history of the computer.
[tense music]
- [Dr. Yohuru] In the early 1970s, computers are beginning
to appear in universities,
large corporations, and government.
- [David] But these were not computers in any of the sense
that we would recognize.
- [Dr. Yohuru] They were large, expensive,
and users rely primarily on punch cards
or text commands.
- There was no mouse.
- [David] The screen was dark with green or yellow lettering
on it. There were no icons.
There were no menus.
They were not everyday appliances for the masses.
- [Narrator] At the time,
the majority of computers are produced
by International Business Machines, or IBM,
whose story begins nearly 80 years before.
- [Rachel] During the 1890 US census,
the population of the United States got so big
that the government actually had a contest
to see who could create a machine
to help them tabulate it better.
So IBM invents a tabulator that uses punch cards
and they're able to complete the census in time.
- [Marc] That tabulator was a rudimentary computer
and it built IBM into a significant company.
- [Narrator] By the 1950s, IBM begins to lead the charge
in early computer production.
And in 1970, they own the market.
- [David] By this time, IBM's business was selling big
computers and mainframes to corporations.
It would store data on these machines.
- But computers are so out of reach for the general public
that they're almost science fiction.
- [Narrator] But this changes when one company invents
something groundbreaking.
The microchip.
- [Steven] So in the early 1970s, Intel developed a
microprocessor, which basically put some of the brains of what
we know of as a computer now on a single chip.
- [Narrator] Making a much smaller version of a computer
now possible.
- So, a company in Albuquerque, New Mexico called MITS
got a hold of these Intel microprocessors
and realized that they could create a microcomputer kit.
This would be the Altair 8800.
- [Narrator] But the primitive Altair
is far from what we think of as a computer today.
- [Paul] If you had an Altair, you had to learn how to assemble
it. You also had to know something about the programming.
- [Steven] So it was a real challenge to get it to do
anything. You know, it couldn't do things,
you know, like word processing or things like that.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] But two amateur computer hobbyists
see greater potential
and are inspired to make their own easier to use version.
Their names are Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.
But their prototype is a far cry from the computer
as we envision it today.
- [Steven] This computer wasn't really what we think of a
computer. It wasn't even something like the Altair,
which came in a case.
It was a circuit board and you would take that circuit board
and you'll be able to hook up a keyboard and a monitor.
- [Narrator] The two quickly set up shop
in Jobs' parents' garage
to manufacture their new personal computer
under the company named Apple.
- They called it the Apple I.
- [Narrator] In July of 1976, the Apple I goes on sale
for $666 and 66 cents.
- It's really the first of its kind
to come with these inputs for keyboard
and an output for monitor.
- [Rachel] The Apple I was
very successful with tech enthusiasts,
but it wasn't the sort of out of the box machine
that everyday people would wanna buy.
- It was all typing in code.
It was very complicated.
I mean, you had to really know your stuff
in order to operate one of these.
You had to get your own keyboard.
You had to come up with your own monitor,
which nine times out of 10 was a TV screen.
So, it was not for the average bear.
[tense music]
- [Laine] So, Jobs begins imagining what a new
and improved version of the Apple I would look like.
- [Bill] He wants them to appeal to customers
who may not be tech savvy
and don't wanna have assemble this themselves.
- [Narrator] With the relative success of the Apple I,
Jobs and Wozniak reinvest their profits
into creating the Apple II.
- [Steven] The Apple II Jobs wanted to make
a real consumer product out of it.
He was perceptive enough to know that in order to do this,
you had to move beyond the geeks,
beyond the hardcore hobbyists
and make something that you could market
to a larger audience.
- [Rachel] It was preloaded with programming language
and it had its keyboard already a part of it,
which was a huge improvement
from having to find a keyboard to plug in.
- [Narrator] But the personal computer
is also about to get a new look.
- It needs a new case.
All that other stuff is great,
but you're trying to get people to invite this
into their homes.
- [Paul] To Jobs, industrial design
was not something that you just tacked on afterwards.
- Something that was so geeky and cold,
like computer life that touch that flavor,
almost like an iconic fashion designer
was instrumental in the Apple we know today.
- It needs to look more like a typewriter,
like it belongs on a desk.
- [Narrator] They arrive at a sleek cream-colored case
with space for a monitor on top.
And on June 10th, 1977, the Apple II hits the marketplace
priced at around $1,300.
It's the equivalent of 7,000 today.
- [Bill] At the time the Apple II was a success.
Jobs and Wozniak became the leader
in the personal computer space.
- [Narrator] But their success opens the door to a
wave of competition.
- In 1977, a bunch of major companies catch on
to the personal computer craze.
You have the Commodore PET and the Radio Shack Tandy.
- [Narrator] And these new machines
have a big advantage over the Apple II.
They're much more affordable.
With the birth and proliferation
of the personal home computer,
one legacy brand not known for computers,
thinks it's time to leave their analog business model behind
and step into the digital computer age.
Xerox.
- [Romi] Changing your company is always risky,
but in this case it was strategic.
- [Narrator] The visionary champion of the copy machine,
President Joseph C. Wilson,
wants to create a device that reinvents the office
in the same way his Xerox machine did
less than 20 years ago.
- [Paul] So he decided we need to have a research institute
where we explored the office of the future.
- [David] So he created a think tank in Palo Alto, California
called the Palo Alto Research Center PARC.
- [Narrator] Located in a growing hub
that will one day be known as Silicon Valley,
Wilson spends the modern equivalent of over $20 million,
establishing a new laboratory
dedicated to advancing computer technology.
- [Bill] He realizes that the personal computing space
is the way of the future,
but he didn't have a lot of technology experience.
He wasn't an engineer, he wasn't a programmer or a coder.
- [Narrator] So Wilson hires one of the era's
top computer scientists, Robert Taylor,
to lead the charge at Xerox PARC.
- [David] Bob Taylor came from ARPA,
the government's Advanced Research Project Administration,
and his mandate was grab every genius you can find.
- [Bill] They're really visionaries
and they're trying to get ahead of their competition.
- So, typewriters and calculators
can already perform basic office tasks.
What makes a computer different?
- They can communicate in real time.
- But what about interface?
How do we present to the user?
- Something people can manipulate directly.
- Yeah.
Buttons, images,
anything that can make it intuitive.
- [Rachel] This was the creation of the graphic user interface.
So, instead of this just being a black box
with a glowing cursor, they wanted people
to be able to go up to the computer
and with much smaller amount of technical knowledge,
begin using the computer instantaneously.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] Less than three years after being founded,
the team at PARC presents Xerox executives
with a groundbreaking personal computer prototype
named after the city where it was created.
- Gentlemen, may I present the Alto.
- [David] The Xerox Alto was revolutionary for its time.
- [Narrator] Among many innovations,
it's the first computer in the world
with a graphical user interface.
- [Rachel] This graphic user interface represents real life
objects like they would appear on your desk.
This is called skeuomorphic design.
So, a trash can to delete a file looks like a trash can.
A piece of paper represents a file.
- [David] And a document on your screen perfectly resembled
what it would look like when you print it.
It's astounding to think in the mid '70s
they had fonts, they had shortcut menus,
they had copy and paste.
This thing was amazing.
- [Narrator] The Alto prototype even includes
a new soon to be iconic piece of equipment.
- This device, the mouse,
allows you to control the system in real time.
[intriguing music]
- They had a mouse.
They had a mouse.
- No, you just need to put it on the table first.
There you go.
- [David] It had three buttons on it
and it was staggeringly complex to use,
but it was better than using arrow keys to get around.
- It's easy once you've got a little practice.
More importantly, you can connect these machines
across offices.
You can send documents instantly
with no need for paper copies at all.
- [Bill] This is exactly what the Xerox executives
do not wanna hear.
When they realize that there's no need
for paper copies at all,
they're basically seeing their future get eviscerated.
- [Adam] So when the executives are presented
with the world's first computer with a mouse,
they reject it.
- [David] They weren't computer people.
These were former copier salesmen.
It was a totally new paradigm and they just didn't get it.
- [Narrator] But there's someone else in Palo Alto who does
and who will turn what he sees here
into a personal computing revolution.
- We've got small teams, electrical engineering,
human computer interaction,
and computer science of course.
And this is what you mentioned wanting to see.
- [Narrator] The co-founder of Apple.
- Mr. Jobs.
- [Narrator] In 1979, the co-founder of Apple,
Steve Jobs has been invited inside Xerox's
Palo Alto Research Center.
- [Adam] At that time, Xerox was one of the biggest
technology companies that existed
and they were interested in investing in Apple.
So, Steve Jobs negotiated an agreement with Xerox
for a tour of the Xerox Research Lab
that was known as PARC.
- Do you mind if I see it in action?
- It's not quite ready yet.
We're still working on
some refines. - I don't mind
a work in progress.
- [Narrator] Job's latest computer, the Apple II,
has been selling well for the past two years,
but its technology is far behind
what's being developed at Xerox.
- [David] It's very basic compared to the Alto computer.
The Apple II didn't have icons.
They did not have menus, they didn't have the trash.
You couldn't move stuff around with the mouse.
Xerox PARC at 100 Altos networked together with ethernet
and they could send messages and files
back and forth to each other accrued sort of email.
And printing on laser printers.
Laser printers, I mean, we think of those
as coming along in the '90s
but they were just, [yawns] yeah,
they were working there in 1979 at Xerox PARC.
- [Narrator] While the PARC team's innovations
are light years ahead of the competition,
the Xerox executives still don't see
the unparalleled potential.
But visionary Steve Jobs does.
[tense music]
Following his tour of PARC, Jobs shares his insights
with partner and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
- What am I looking at?
- A desktop
illustrated with a graphical user interface.
A GUI.
[tense music]
This is what I've been dreaming of.
This is what integrates the computer with real life.
- So what are they doing with it?
- Them?
Nothing.
But we're gonna change the world
[tense music]
- [Narrator] While Steve Jobs begins figuring out
how to incorporate what he's seen at PARC
into his next computer model,
rumors of the Alto also catch the attention
of savvy engineers at the original computer company, IBM.
- It's called the Alto.
It hasn't been released to the public yet,
but everyone's talking about it.
- [Rachel] IBM felt everyday people have no use
for a personal computer in their own home.
- [David] IBM's business was selling big computers
to businesses, to corporations.
It didn't really make sense to sell
individual little computers for every single desk.
- We need to have our own desktop computer.
- He could see the computer is getting smaller.
You have interconnected workstations.
Why can't we bundle this into one single desktop computer?
- [Narrator] In an attempt to retain control
of the rapidly shifting computer market,
IBM sets out to create a desktop computer of their own.
Their aggressive strategy allows them
to have a computer ready in just one year.
- [Rachel] They create a completely open source computer
made with parts that are right off the shelf.
- [Narrator] For the software they go with a then
unknown startup in Seattle.
- [Marc] The operating system they licensed
was from a 25-year-old kid named Bill Gates.
- We're calling it the IBM Personal Computer
or PC for short.
- The PC.
Has a good ring to it
- [Narrator] With a base price around $1,500,
the IBM PC launches nationwide on August 12th, 1981.
- [Paul] The IBM personal computer or PC
really took the world by storm.
It was very solidly engineered.
It had a very solid, rugged keyboard
and people loved the fact that they could get a computer
that had the word IBM on.
- [Narrator] In the first week alone,
40,000 units are sold nationwide.
- [Rachel] A lot of people we're comfortable with IBM.
So when IBM comes out with a personal computer,
they completely dominate the market share.
- [Narrator] Within two years, 750,000 IBM PCs
are sold around the world.
And by January 1983,
Time Magazine names it Machine of the Year.
- [Marc] The IBM PC became the standard desktop computer
and took over certainly the business space.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] But Jobs is certain that his insight
into the Alto's graphical user interface
can help Apple leapfrog IBM's PC to create a machine
that will revolutionize daily life
for the everyday user at home,
requiring almost no technical knowledge to operate.
- Steve Jobs knows that his computer
has the potential to be a game changer,
but he decides he has to keep it secret
and therefore he gives it a secret name.
And he takes the name from a kind of apple
that has the most versatility
and an incredible, incredible likability.
Macintosh.
- [Narrator] As the Macintosh team works on designing
their new computer,
Jobs turns to the best in the business
to develop its software,
someone who also developed software for IBM's PC,
Bill Gates.
- [Steven] Apple was a hardware manufacturer
and Microsoft at that point,
their strongest software was in operating systems
and they very much wanted to become
a big power in application software.
So it was a great opportunity for both companies
and a great partnership.
- [Jason] Jobs decides to show Gates the Macintosh
and everything they've developed for it.
- [Narrator] It's a decision that will soon come back
to bite Jobs, but one that will rocket the development
of personal computers forward.
- [Narrator] In 1983, Bill Gates delivers on his promise
of a new application software for the Macintosh,
a business-oriented program,
which embraces the Mac's graphic interface,
allowing users to easily format and edit documents.
Gates calls it Microsoft Word.
- [Jason] In addition to Microsoft Word,
Microsoft also made a spreadsheet program
for the Macintosh called Multiplan,
which would ultimately go on
to become a little thing we called Excel.
- [Narrator] Jobs is one step closer to designing
what he thinks will be the perfect home computer.
But unbeknownst to Jobs,
Bill Gates has been working on a new operating system
for Microsoft, one that's compatible with the IBM.
- What I'm about to show you is nothing short
of a revolution in computer technology.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] Gates's new operating system
features a desktop with movable resizable icons
much like the Macintosh,
but he's taken things a major leap further
than what he developed for Jobs.
- As you can see, it operates via graphical user interface,
which allows the user to layer one screen on top of another.
- It sort of reminds me of a bunch of windows.
- [Adam] Back in the day, you could only run
one application at a time,
and if you wanted to do something else,
you had to close the first application
and then reopen whatever else you wanted to see.
So the idea of creating multiple windows
where you could have multiple things
running at the same time
and effortlessly switch between them was groundbreaking.
- [Narrator] Even though Microsoft Windows
won't be ready for another two years,
on November 10th, 1983, Gates announces it to the world.
- [Chirag] No one can really say for sure why Gates decides
to announce Windows two years before
it's actually going to come out.
But it is pretty coincidental
because it lines up to when Apple is about
to start talking about the Macintosh.
- [Narrator] And Windows will allow all other computers
to function with a graphic interface, like the Mac.
[tense music]
- You ripped us off.
You stole the Macintosh interface.
- Well, Steve, I think there's more
than one way of looking at it.
I think it's more like we both had
this rich neighbor named Xerox.
I broke into his house to steal the TV set,
but found out that you had already stolen it.
- [Steven] Steve, really, you can't say we stole from you
because you stole it from Xerox.
- That kinda was the ultimate rip in their relationship
for a very, very, very long time.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] Finally, in 1984,
Jobs decides the Macintosh is ready
beating Microsoft Windows to the marketplace.
At $2,495 or 7,500 today,
the Macintosh is the most expensive
personal computer on the market,
but initial sales are strong
with over 72,000 units being sold in the first few months.
- It was truly a beautiful machine.
- [Paul] People became enamored of the interface.
It had a cult following, still does to this day,
the cult of Mac.
- [Narrator] But home computers are still uncommon
owned by fewer than 8% of households.
And by the fall of 1984, users begin to discover
the drawbacks of the Macintosh.
- [Adam] So the Macintosh, it's incredibly slow
and because Jobs insisted on there being no hard drive
or fan to create extraneous noise,
there's also no cooling for the internal components,
which would then subsequently melt down
earning the Macintosh the nickname the Beige Toaster.
- He made some bad decisions about the Macintosh
and they stumbled as a result.
- [Narrator] Shortly afterwards, Gates releases Windows
to the world delivering on Jobs' promise
of an intuitive graphical user interface
and helping IBM PCs fill the gap
where the expensive, problematic Macintosh has fallen short.
- [Adam] Where they had projected that the Mac
would sell 150,000 units at Christmas,
they'd only sold 50,000.
Meanwhile, because Windows is so appealing to the masses,
sales of other PCs skyrocket.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] As Apple's profits dwindle,
the board makes a once unthinkable decision
removing their visionary founder Steve Jobs.
[tense music]
His absence leaves a hole in the industry
where new brands will rise
and push the computer forward
to once unthinkable new heights.
- [Narrator] By the beginning of the 1990s,
computers find their way into one
out of every five American homes
and a new service rises up to meet them.
- So in 1992,
[static cracking]
America Online is birthed into the world
and it basically offered dialup internet service
to everyone in America.
Suddenly the information highway could be driven by anybody
and Bill Gates sees an opportunity.
- [Narrator] Gates' answer is internet-compatible
Windows 95
and Microsoft sells a record breaking 100 million copies
in the first four days.
- [Chirag] So, now that internet became accessible
to homes across the country,
owning and using a computer became a lot more functional.
You could pay your bills online,
you could message with friends,
you can send and receive emails.
Now the everyday person saw the value
of owning one of these devices.
- [Narrator] With the rise of the internet
and the desktop computer,
Apple's new CEO, John Sculley, begins looking
even farther forward seeking the computer technologies
of the future.
- [Adam] Sculley puts out a company-wide call saying,
I want every idea you have.
- [David] There were all these Skunk Works projects at Apple
and companies around California
to develop something even more portable than a laptop.
- [Narrator] Companies like IBM and Toshiba
have begun releasing the first laptops.
- [Jason] At the time, the average price of a laptop was
what? In today's money is like $16,000
to get your, quote, unquote, "portable computer."
That portable computer wasn't that portable,
wasn't that convenient,
and it certainly wasn't light.
You were hauling that thing around like an appliance.
- [Narrator] But a few visionaries
are looking beyond the laptop for what comes next.
[intriguing music]
- Do you have a minute? I wanna show you something.
- Come in. Come in.
What exactly am I looking at?
- [Adam] What this division was working on
was a pen-based computer tablet.
- [David] It could create appointments and have your
address book. It would be able to transfer information between
devices. This is way before wifi or Bluetooth.
We are calling it the Newton.
- [Adam] They wanna call the tablet the Newton
after Isaac Newton under the apple tree
in Apple's first logo.
- It recognizes handwriting for the most part,
you just have to write in cursive.
- [Dr. George] They wanted to allow you to use a stylus
to write longhand
and that gives the computer the ability to recognize
that handwriting and turn it into text.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] In 1993, Apple releases the Newton
to the public.
- This is a really cutting edge product
'cause it combines computing, personal organization,
and messaging.
So this is really in a class of its own
and Apple decides to give its own category.
PDA, personal digital assistant.
- [David] So a lot of people were very excited
until they bought one.
- [Kimberly] It's got all kinds of glitches.
It keeps crashing.
It doesn't communicate with other Newton devices
like it's supposed to.
- [Narrator] And while the world's first PDA
is far more portable than a laptop,
It's still bulky.
- [Dr. George] It was clunky enough
that it certainly didn't go into my pocket.
It was another item to carry around in the briefcase.
- [Bill] If you have to write pick up dry cleaning.
It took about a minute and a half
to type that and it kept making mistakes.
Just use a freaking pencil and piece of paper.
- [Kimberly] It was made fun of on the Simpsons.
- Take a memo on your Newton.
Beat up Martin
Ba!
- [Adam] Doo!
The Newton fails spectacularly.
- [Narrator] But where the Newton has failed,
another unexpected brand is about to drive
the handheld computer forward.
- [Narrator] A mere three miles
north of Apple's headquarters,
someone else has been developing a PDA of his own
at his small upstart company.
- [David] Jeff Hawkins is a brain scientist.
He's fascinated by neurobiology.
And as a grad student, I got involved
with handwriting recognition software.
- [Adam] Hawkins is shaken to his very core
by the abysmal failure of the Newton,
and he's terrified that his device will follow suit.
- [Narrator] But there's a key difference between the Newton
and the PDA Hawkins is developing.
- So Hawkins believes that one metric for success,
that's absolutely crucial
for his new PDA device is its size.
He thinks it needs to fit into your pocket
or easily right in the palm of your hand.
So he names the company Palm Computing.
[tense music]
- He decides he's gonna create a prototype
and it's a block of wood.
- [Adam] He cuts a bit of wood planking
to the exact size he wants the device to be,
and he files down a chopstick for the stylus.
- [Kimberly] And he was tapping on it.
He was pretending to make calendar appointments in it.
He's pretending to write notes to sort of get a feel
for how someone might actually
use the technology in their day-to-day life.
- [Adam] People start calling it Pinocchio,
the PDA who wanted to be a real boy.
- [Narrator] Hawkins decides that one particularly
buggy feature of the Newton
that his device will not have is messaging.
- [Paul] The Newton was ambitious, but it tried to do
too much given the technology of the day.
Hawkins realized that people needed to have a to-do list.
They needed a calendar, they needed an address book,
and they needed a notepad.
[tense music]
- [Adam] In 1996, Pinocchio comes to life
and they released the PalmPilot 1000.
- The PalmPilot is priced at $300
compared to $700 for the Newton.
- [Narrator] In less than two years,
Palm sells 1 million PalmPilots.
[tense music]
In response, Apple brings back the man
behind most of their technological successes to date.
Steve Jobs.
- [Steven] When Jobs returned to Apple as the prodigal son,
he had learned a lot in his years away from Apple.
And very quickly he came to build a plan to rebuild Apple.
- [Adam] One would think that Steve Jobs
would relish the opportunity to get into PDAs.
- Many people have been asking me
how we are going to improve on or save the Newton,
and the answer is simple.
By leaving it behind.
- [David] So he killed the Newton.
- [Steven] He felt that the way to revive Apple
was to say no to things that weren't essential
and build out the company from there.
- [Kimberly] Jobs figured let everybody else focus on PDAs.
He didn't really care to get into that market.
- We are going to focus on bringing Macintosh
into the future, and we are going to remind people
that there is no computer like an Apple.
- [Steven] By 1997, we've got Netscape, you've got Amazon,
you've got Yahoo.
eBay's coming up around that time.
There's all these big companies building
on the worldwide web and the internet.
And Steve sees that as an opportunity
to rebrand Apple's computers around the internet.
- [Narrator] But he also wants to continue
his lifelong drive
to make a more aesthetically pleasing computer.
- [Adam] Computers were kind of all about function
and nothing to do with aesthetics,
and they were basically sort of putty-colored beige boxes
and Jobs very accurately reasoned,
"Look, we know the computer works.
We have function.
Let's work on form."
- It's sleek, it's playful, it's futuristic,
but we need to do something different
than beige for the color.
[dramatic music]
I've been thinking about
this one.
[dramatic music]
If you don't like it, it's okay.
[dramatic music]
- I love it.
- [Narrator] Their new creation will be called the iMac.
- [Adam] The idea of creating a computer
that was as beautiful on the outside
as it was effective on the inside,
that's groundbreaking, baby.
- [Narrator] Apple releases the iMac in 1999.
- [David] It was designed from the beginning for the internet,
thus the I in iMac.
You could plug it in, connect a phone line,
and off you go to the worldwide web.
- [Adam] I vividly remember the release of the iMac.
I didn't know computers could look cool and fun
and approachable,
and instead of hard edges, things were rounded
and it looked somewhat like a futuristic item
that you might see in a sci-fi movie.
- [Paul] It had a all-in-one design.
The monitor, processor, and keyboard were all integrated.
It was cool and it was fashionable
and people loved it.
- [Narrator] On the back of the iMac's success,
for the first time,
the majority of Americans own a computer.
- [David] After jobs came back to Apple,
everybody wanted to know, has he still got it?
And it turns out, yeah.
The iMac became the bestselling computer in America.
- [Narrator] As internet usage surges,
Hawkins worries his PalmPilot will soon seem outdated.
- The PalmPilot was a success,
but it still lacked internet access.
- [Narrator] And Hawkins wants his next device
to bring Palm back to the cutting edge.
- Hawkins is confident that the future
of handheld technology will rely on wireless connectivity.
But wireless internet didn't exist.
[cellphone ringing]
- Oh.
- [Narrator] But consumers are growing dependent
on always being connected through another device.
[cellphone ringing]
- Hello?
[tense music]
- [Natalia] This is when he realizes
millions of people are already carrying around a device
with a built-in wireless connection.
- It's right in front of us.
[tense dramatic music]
- Their cell phones.
- [Andrew] So Hawkins has this revelation,
- [Bill] An idea that's about to change the world.
- We need to put them together.
[tense music]
One device can do it all.
- [Narrator] By merging the PDA and the mobile phone,
Hawkins will lay the foundation for a handheld computer,
a device that will be used by nearly 5 billion people
around the globe and generate annual revenues
of half a trillion dollars.
- [Narrator] In 2001, Palm introduces the world
to their PDA cellphone hybrid known as the Treo,
which allows users to purchase
and download applications from various developers.
- [Andrew] So a lot of people consider the Palm Treo
to be the first true smartphone
because it's got a lot of features
that are groundbreaking at the time.
But those that we consider hallmarks
of the smartphone today,
- You can make a phone call, you can send a text message,
and you can get email on this thing.
And the Palm Treo actually lets you download apps,
basically transforming this device into anything unique.
It is revolutionary at the time.
- [Narrator] The Treo remains the leading smartphone
until 2004 when a device from Canada
takes the world by storm.
- [Kimberly] The Blackberry had a keyboard
so you could type very quickly
and that made it much more efficient.
- [Bill] The Blackberry was revolutionary
because you could literally get your email
anywhere anytime in real time,
and no one else was able to do that.
You'd have to plug in
your computer to download your emails.
- [Adam] So, having lived through it,
I can tell you without question,
Blackberry was the dominant business machine.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] With the rise of the Treo and the Blackberry,
Jobs is forced more than ever
to consider the smartphone market.
- [Adam] Steve Jobs was reluctant to enter the
smartphone race. Then he sees the success of Blackberry,
the rise of the Treo, the rise of the capabilities
of the smartphone as a whole.
And with smartphones progressively
being able to do more and more,
Jobs is afraid that they are going
to start competing with the other device
that is in every American's pocket, the iPod.
- [Narrator] Released in 2001,
the iPod has subsequently become Apple's bestselling product
and all without wireless connectivity.
- [Adam] The iPod accounted for 40% of Apple's revenue.
And if other devices start offering music,
they can destroy everything that Jobs has built.
[tense music]
- [Dr. George] Jobs may have been pushed into the smartphone
experience by a defensive thought process, how to protect
the iPod. But, you know, he's a genius and a design genius.
- Let me see it.
- [David] So, the two obvious approaches
to interacting with your smartphone
are with a little plastic stylus like the Treo had
or with a little tiny thumb keyboard
like the Blackberry head.
They're both problematic.
The keyboard eats up half the space
that you could have had per screen.
And the stylus, oh, Jobs just hated the stylus.
Styluses and keyboards are clunky extra junk.
[tense music]
- What if there was no keyboard?
What if you could actually touch your music?
- [Dr. George] Jobs wanted to allow the user
to interact in a more intuitive way.
- [David] What Jobs saw was the possibilities
of having the entire screen be your phone.
No keyboard, no stylus.
It's just your finger.
Radical idea.
- [Narrator] But the current touchscreen technology
is limited.
- [Paul] Variations of touchscreen technology
were used in airports and ATMs,
but it was not really suitable for a phone.
- [April] Steve Jobs, he doesn't know if it's actually gonna
work, if people are gonna adapt to it.
People don't like change, they're resistant to it.
So it's a big gamble for Apple to go to the touchscreen.
- [Narrator] There's also the problem
of getting the touchscreen technology to work.
[tense music]
- Excuse me. - Hey.
- That thing you just did, can you do that again?
You just zoomed in with your fingers.
-[David] Apple had an employee who used attached to her Mac,
a little third party touch pad
made by a company called FingerWorks.
It was designed for people with disabilities,
let her operate her Mac with gestures on this little pad,
swiping and pinching and zooming
and touching with multiple fingers at once.
- Can I try that?
- [Narrator] The FingerWorks Track Pad
is a substitute for a keyboard or a mouse.
- [Dr. George] You weren't having to poke and punch
and by just touching
that allowed for a much more subtle set of gestures.
[bright music]
- [Narrator] It also allows for the implementation
of a feature Apple once used
to bring the computer into modern era,
a graphical user interface.
- [Bill] Jony Ive presents Steve Jobs with the idea
of using this track pad on their device
and Steve Jobs loves it.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] After half a year building anticipation,
on June 29th, 2007, Apple releases the iPhone.
- [April] Everyone's on their like Treo or Blackberry
thinking they're the coolest thing ever,
and all of a sudden the iPhone comes out.
- [Bill] The first time I saw an iPhone, I could not believe it.
It was shocking.
What a technological leap forward it was.
A smartphone with a touchscreen.
It taught everybody how to use
rolling and swiping with your finger.
- [Paul] It had all the features that you might expect
to find in a computer.
- It was so technologically advanced
that it just didn't seem like technology anymore.
- [Narrator] The journey of the computer
from the first mainframe to the iPhone
is a tale of unprecedented technological advancement
that happened in just over 50 years
and one that continues to this day.
- [Justin] Sometimes there are innovations that are singular,
but if one person doesn't come up with them,
maybe they get left behind.
- [Bill] These advances were revolutionary.
It's incredible the vision that they had
and it's made life easier