Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue - Book Review

Apple is the last of the original "Holy Trinity" of personal computer manufacturers. Whereas Tandy and Commodore are long gone, by luck, good judgement, and even more luck (especially in the 90's!), Apple have not only survived but have become, at the time of writing, the third most valuable company in the world by market capitalisation. That doesn't mean much to the average person but some people's boats are floated by such things so, yeah, whatever. Anyway, to mark its fiftieth year, David Pogue has written what is intended to be a comprehensive history of the corporation. 

Before we dive into this absolute chonk of a tome, gentle reader, let us get the obvious out of the way first. Apple is, to put it mildly, a divisive company. Some absolutely love its products, corporate outlook, and sense of style (although not all at the same time), whereas others consider it an over-controlling crusher of personal choice and expression. This review isn't going to be a polemic either way. It's just a review of a book after all.

Must... resist... the... urge to caption the back cover photo!!!

Beginning with the two Steves, the author delivers a cleanly written and engaging history of the company. The layout is spacious and there's plenty of room for imagery to breathe. With a few sidesteps here and there, the narrative is delivered chronologically, and where hardware is discussed, boxouts provide the dates of availability, price at the time, some basic specs, and a factoid. Similarly, where significant individuals are introduced, they also receive a box out with a mini-bio including areas of interest before and after their time at Apple. 

Style, power, lead-acid batteries. What's not to like?

There isn't much left uncovered, with even cancelled hardware getting an airing too, although as a hardware person, I would like to have seen a smidge more detail on the "what might have beens." That being said, the book is already at near six hundred pages and the paper quality does come across as a compromise between print reproduction and sheer bulk. And if you ever wanted to know how the iPhone came about, well, you'll be well covered here.

If Robert Ludlum had written The Matrix novelisation. 

The tone can vary somewhat. Where criticism of the company is due, it is delivered with a light tough, perhaps too light, although to the credit of the author, it does not descend into full on fawning over the Church of Jobs and co. And yet, given the company's recent (cough) publicity (cough) with the current US Administration, no matter how warm and fuzzy using an Apple product might make you feel, they are, at the end of the day, there to make money and that's about it. 

Yes, cynical, I know, but it's true. The company just happens to be very good at it.

For all of their age, somehow the content still feels relevant.

Another (minor) flaw, but funnily enough only around the sections about the early 1990's, is that the dates get a bit confused. Events are mentioned in the wrong year, and the foretelling of ARM's contribution to Apple's financial survival is pushed a decade out. These aren't huge issues by any means, and it calms down once we head towards the millennium, but readers beware: using this tome as a reference will require additional confirmation before you start quoting it. Mind you, as I was taught at school, any and every source should be supported if being used as a reference. 

If forced in 1991 to pick either System 7 or Windows 3.0, I choose RISC OS 3.0 ;-)

All in all, this is an interesting read, and one that sheds a good deal of light on a tech company that was there at the very beginning of the personal computer revolution (as far as America was concerned - the Apple II was always stupidly over-priced in the UK), and one that has, in many ways, influenced the direction of travel for personal tech over the last 50 years.

As a single volume summary on the history of one of Tech's biggest companies, this one is hard to beat even once you take into account its idiosyncrasies. Leaving aside politics and corporate ethics (an oxymoron, surely?), it is a decent history and is an overall worthwhile contribution to the literature documenting Apple. You can pick up or order a copy in at the usual physical and online bookstores. 

Super Nintendo by Keza MacDonald - Book Review

It's exceedingly easy to view the video games industry with a cynical eye these days, where late stage capitalism and the general crappiness of the real world have combined to certainly leave your humble scribe more than a little jaded with the whole concept of gaming. So to avoid spiralling further down that particularly dark path, how about reading a book focused a company that is both synonymous with the industry and still, more than forty years after its first home console, striking out on new, inventive, and more importantly, fun directions? As luck would have it, Super Nintendo by Keza MacDonald is just the tonic. 

Coming in at nearly three hundred pages, the reader is taken on a historical tour of the Kyoto-based company via a dozen of its best know products and game series (I am not using the f-word here, that's too corporate and we're not talking about spreading fast food joints around the country!). Beginning with the Ultra Hand and ending with Splatoon, each chapter fuses the history of Nintendo and key individuals within a narrative that weaves in facts, amusing morsels and all out love for a company that remains as inventive today as it was when the Famicom landed in Japanese stores. 

Along the way, you will learn how Nintendo has managed to not only create genre defining video games, but also inspire others to celebrate that achievement in their own way. It's not just about video games either. I salute the level of collectorship of a certain gentleman in Alsace!

It has to be said that this is not an overly critical appraisal of the Japanese gaming giant. They have deserved criticism in the past (one does recall writing a missive to Edge back in the day - issue 97, the one with the Galleon cover - questioning their GameCube release strategy for the UK... I was a sarcastic so and so even then!), and yes, their legal teams make even Games Workshop's look like talented amateurs, but when it comes to delivering fun to gamers and non-gamers alike, they're among the best at what they do without behaving like many of the other large corporations that inhabit the video games world these days, as I'll note below.

What this book is, however, is a study Nintendo and its creations delivered with warmth and a genuine appreciation from an author who has decades of experience in reporting about the company and meeting its employees. This close connection shines through the text and as you discover more, you realise that by following its own path and indeed thinking like games players Nintendo has managed to thrive to this day, despite the odd mis-step and setback. This includes the Wii-U, the only Nintendo home console I have never owned, and the failure of which (alongside a tepid start to the 3DS's life) led then President of Nintendo, the late and sorely missed Satoru Iwata, to halve his salary and cut director payouts due to low sales figures, rather than let developers go. Then you have, as just one recent example, Microsoft's chainsaw approach to their gaming ambitions over the last couple of years. 

Anyhoo, gentle reader, you are not here to read about my deeply rooted cynicism of all things C-suite and AI related. 

Super Nintendo is a fantastic tome about a company that has made having fun the key reason to play video games, and one that should restore your faith in video games as a whole. Illuminating and uplifting, it is very much a reminder that gaming can, and indeed should, be joyous. Even if you're not a fan of Nintendo's vast array of gaming greats, I can still heartily recommend that you pick up a copy of Super Nintendo from the usual online and physical book stores.

You can follow the author on BlueSky: @mackeza.bsky.social, and you can read more of her work at the Guardian where she is the video games editor - that publication's weekly gaming newsletter is well worth signing up for too.