Apple execs go in-depth on the Mac as it celebrates its 40th anniversary

On Wednesday, January 24, the Mac will celebrate its 40th birthday. In a new piece for WIRED, Steven Levy spoke with five Apple executives on the state of the Mac, 40 years in:

• Greg Joswiak, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing
• John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering
• Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering
• Alan Dye, Vice President of Human Interface Design
• Molly Anderson, industrial design leader

In the sprawling interview, these Apple executives discuss the past, present, and future of the Mac. Here are just a few of the many quotes.

Alan Dye:

“What’s been so successful for us is really one studio full of designers across hardware and software design, and also sound design, material design, color design. We’re up to like 50 disciplines now, including haptics and things like that. We’ve worked really hard to keep it all together in one space, designing every product that Apple makes.”

Craig Federighi on some of the rough spots in the Mac’s history, such as the G4 Cube and the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar:

“In many cases, we’re going to take bold swings at big ideas and work hard to see where they take us. Sometimes those learnings turn into future evolutions. Sometimes we take a step back.”

Greg Joswiak on the current Mac lineup, which Levy suggests could be confusing to some consumers:

“I think it’s incredibly simple! We have a consumer lineup with an incredible MacBook Air available in two sizes, we have an iMac, and we have an iMac Mini. On the Pro side, we have this incredible MacBook Pro, we have Mac Studio, and we got the Mac Pro.”

Molly Anderson:

“There’s definitely the possibility for a revolution in the future. When we start a new project, we don’t start by thinking of the constraints of how popular our existing products are. We’re always focused on trying to design the best tool for the job.”

John Ternus:

“When we first started working with Apple silicon, it honestly did feel for us like the laws of physics had changed. All of a sudden, we could build a MacBook Air with no fan with 18 hours of battery life. The best arrow in our quiver is efficiency. Because if you can improve efficiency, everything gets better.”

I’ll send you to WIRED to read the full piece. What are your favorite Mac memories over the last 40 years? Let us know down in the comments.

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