Fast Company:
The year was 1996.
Apple wasn’t doing well, suffering through the awkward years between the Mac and the iPod. Jobs would return officially in 1997, but in the meantime, Apple was contemplating how to make some fast cash by licensing its name. In this gap leading to its renaissance, Apple considered a concept that feels wild, yet, in retrospect, almost inevitable: the Apple Cafe.
Like many of you, I’m old enough to have been around when this idea first came to light in 1996. I’m also old enough to remember thinking, “Well, that’s not going to fly”. But perhaps the germ of this idea came to fruition in today’s Apple retail stores.
Nah, Apple’s dorkiest idea was iPod socks. https://www.macobserver.com/images/columns/rantsandraves/2005/20050618dadsgrads/RR40-01.gif
This reminds me of when Apple opened its first stores and how everyone thought it was going to fail in a few years, if not the first. Ah, such fun thinking back to all the doom sayers. Not that they aren’t still around of course.
“But perhaps the germ of this idea came to fruition in today’s Apple retail stores.” Bingo. They were searching for ways to get people exposure to their products. People never saw Macs except in the ghetto corners of computer stores. The Apple stores were obviously the better way. But of course it was the iPod that created the converts. The cost was low enough for people to dip their toe in the Apple waters. I look back on those days with a smile. How many staunch anti-Apple people did I know who came over to the Apple camp because they finally broke down and bought “a damned iPod.” Good days.
iPod socks were a tongue-in-cheek product though. It’s a different animal if you’re intentionally doing it with a sense of humor.
I’m not sure why this would remind you of that, since this would probably not have gone over well. I think this is more a reflection of Jobs’ ability to say no to bad ideas.
Did the magazines mention this back then? It does sound familiar.
We can easily make fun of this unfocused idea, but at least one restaurant company seems to be executing one part of it: the order-dinner-on-a-touchscreen idea. At least at some airports, anyway.
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Why wouldn’t this remind me of the eventual Apple stores? This was during a time when Apple was feeling around, trying to get a sense of what would work best to bring people closer to the “Apple experience”. It’s failure to get off the ground doesn’t change that.