David Pogue’s wife Nicki woke him up to describe her dream: He’d written a book about Apple’s first 50 years.
Nah, he said. That anniversary had already come and gone.
But in the morning, he checked. The computer giant’s half-century mark was still 2 years away.
“Just enough time to write a book!” Pogue says.
A 600-page book, befitting the company’s business, technological and social impact on the globe over the past 5 decades.
No one was more suited to research and write the sprawling story than Pogue.
David Pogue (Photo/Jesse Ditmar)
He spent 13 years as a MacWorld correspondent, and another 13 as a New York Times tech writer.
He produced 2 enormously popular book series on Apple products: “Dummies” and “Missing Manuals.”
Pogue has spent a career exploring and explaining interesting topics: as a “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent (his current gig); a PBS “Nova” star; writing for Scientific American, and more.
(In an earlier life he was a Broadway conductor. You get the idea: Pogue is very curious, and very clever.)
Tomorrow (Tuesday, June 2, 7 p.m., Westport Library) Pogue returns to town, for an author talk.
The Trefz Forum is fitting. During his 2 decades here, he was deeply involved in the community. Among his many activities, he was a frequent Library speaker, panelist and moderator.
David Pogue, in the Westport Library’s “I geek …” campaign. (Photo/Pamela Einarsen)
The other day, Pogue chatted with “06880” about his book: “Apple: The First 50 Years.”
He speaks enthusiastically about many subjects. He’s especially animated about Apple.
Pogue cites their hallmarks — “beauty, elegance and simplicity.” And, he adds, “as a company, their support for equity, inclusion, LGBTQ rights, the environment is insane.”
He bought his first Apple in 1984, as a Yale University senior. College students could purchase the just-released Mac at half price. (“Brilliant marketing,” Pogue notes. “You stick with your first platform the rest of your life.”)
He lifted the computer out of the box, by its handles. He began drawing with MacPaint.
He’s been an Apple fan ever since.
The original Macintosh, with a monitor, floppy drive, keyboard and mouse.
In the early days, it was “David vs. Goliath,” Pogue recalls. Macs struggled, with 2% market share.
But, he adds, though Apple users like him paid more, “we thought we had better taste. The menu was simple. The text looked elegant. We felt very tribal.”
All these years later, that love for the product persists. Readers have posted hundreds of photos of Pogue’s book, next to their beloved desktops and laptops (and smartphones, watches and AirPods).
They wouldn’t do that for a book about Dells, or Androids.
About that book: After Nicki’s dream — and his realization that Apple was only 48 years old — Pogue went to work.
His first job was convincing company executives to grant access to current employees — including CEO Tim Cook, his top team, leading designers, and anyone else.
That wasn’t something they regularly did. Or even seldom.
But they trusted Pogue.
They gave him access not only to their employees, but to their archives in Cupertino, California.
And they agreed to his rule: Apple would have no editorial control over the content.
Evolution of the Apple logo.
He interviewed 150 Apple employees — present and past.
They told him a lot.
He learned about the Apple car. A “gorgeous,” fully electric vehicle, with 4 facing reclining seats, “world class” sound, and windows that acted as screens, it was 10 years — and $10 billion — in the making.
In 2024, the company killed it. It’s a story few know.
“No one would speak about it,” Pogue says. “But I found one guy who spilled the beans.”
Much of what the author found reinforced his belief that Apple’s insistence on excellence was more than corporate shoulder-patting.
During the development of Face ID, for example, they wanted to make sure it worked flawlessly.
On “Makeup Mondays” employees were encouraged to wear wigs, grow and suddenly shave beards, and otherwise attempt to fool prototypes. They tested it at bikers’ rallies and twins’ conferences.
“A home run would have been okay,” Pogue notes. “But they went for a grand slam.”
Why is a book about a tech company important?
“Two and a half billion — billion — people are carrying an Apple device right now,” Pogue says. “That’s 31% of every man, woman and child on earth.”
But they would not be here without “the greatest corporate turnaround in history.” During co-founder Steve Jobs’ 11 years away, Apple suffered a “long, dismal decline.” In 1996 they had 50 different Mac models, and 12 ad agencies.
At one point, 2 Apple attorneys sued each other in trademark court.
Six weeks from bankruptcy, Jobs returned. He pared the models down to 4, the ad agencies to just 1 (the “Think Different” campaign). Within a year, Jobs had righted the ship.
But none of that was foreordained. Jobs never finished college. He had no business training. His Apple III, Lisa and NeXT computers all failed.
Then came a stunning stream of successes: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMovie. Pogue tells that story too.
Apple’s impact on the world is profound, and indelible. Take just one product: the smartphone.
“It’s changed our brains, our habits, our children,” Pogue says.
“It launched AirBnb, DoorDash, Tindr. It also led to depression, loneliness, a rise in teen suicides.”
Yet with so many products, Apple “established beauty and simplicity as hallmarks,” Pogue says. “Other companies try to emulate them.” Few can.
A sample of Apple products.
They’re a leader in other ways too. With 9,000 parts suppliers around the globe, Apple can — and does — change entire industries.
When it told its power cord manufacturer to stop using a toxic chemical, they complied. “No one ever asked before,” the supplier said.
Now, all power cords — for everyone — are made that way.
So what’s ahead? Other companies — Bell Telephone, General Electric, IBM — once ruled their industry. Nothing lasts forever.
Yet “Apple has an unbelievably long runway of failure before they’re doomed,” Pogue says.
“Two and a half billion people are locked in. It’s expensive and painful to switch to a different platform. In the meantime, Apple has the best engineers in the world.
“And the biggest bank account.”
(For more information on David Pogue’s talk tomorrow at the Westport Library, click here. For more information on his book “Apple: The First 50 Years,” click here.)
(“06880” regularly covers technology, cool people, intriguing ideas, the Library — and, like today, their intersection. If you appreciate this hyper-local blog, please click here to support us. Thank you!)
