The Knowledge Navigator is a concept described by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley in his 1987 book, Odyssey. It describes a device that can access a large networked database of hypertext information, and use software agents to assist searching for information.

Apple produced several concept videos showcasing the idea. All of them featured a tablet style computer with numerous advanced capabilities, including an excellent text-to-speech system with no hint of “computerese”, a gesture based interface reminiscent of the multitouch interface used on the iPhone and an equally powerful speech understanding system, allowing the user to converse with the system via an animated “butler” as the software agent.

In one vignette a university professor returns home and turns on his computer, in the form of a tablet the size of a large-format book. The agent is a bow-tie wearing butler who appears on the screen and informs him that he has several calls waiting. He ignores most of these, from his mother, and instead uses the system to compile data for a talk on deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. While he is doing this, the computer informs him that a colleague is calling, and they then exchange data through their machines while holding a video based conversation.

In another such video, a young student uses a smaller handheld version of the system to prompt him while he gives a class presentation on volcanoes, eventually sending a movie of an exploding volcano to the video “blackboard”. In a final installment a user scans in a newspaper by placing it on the screen of the full-sized version, and then has it help him learn to read by listening to him read the scanned results, and prompting when he pauses.

The videos were written and conceived by Hugh Dubberly and Doris Mitsch of Apple Creative Services, and produced by The Kenwood Group in San Francisco. Director: Randy Field. Director of Photography: Bill Zarchy. As a vision statement the films were groundbreaking, as powerful a vision of the future of computing as 2001: A Space Odyssey. It may be useful to note that the video opened with the statement “In the year 2010.” Most viewers missed this indication that the Knowledge Navigator was a visitor from the future and wanted the features now.

The astute bow tie wearing software agent in the video has been the center of quite a few heated discussions in the domain of human-computer interaction. It was criticized as being an unrealistic portrayal of the capacities of any software agent in the foreseeable future, or even in a distant future. Some user interface professionals like Ben Shneiderman of the University of Maryland, College Park have also criticized its use of a human likeness for giving a misleading idea of the nature of any interaction with a computer, present or future.

Compared to recent research in the field of ubiquitous computing and augmented reality interfaces many of the aspects of the Knowledge Navigator seem a bit quaint. For some however this video prototype was and/or still is a source of motivation for their work. They see it as a goal set in a future they might help create one day. To some extent the concept was also used to position the Apple Newton handheld device. Newton was released before the technology was mature however, and proved to be a commercial failure. Eventually, the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web and several devices marketed by Apple’s competitors would indeed fulfill some of the visions of the Knowledge Navigator.

Source:

Knowledge Navigator. (2008, August 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:46, November 2, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Knowledge_Navigator&oldid=234849787

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License

And another: “This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance…to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.”

And this is the TV spot:

Question: What makes Apple revolutionary?

Guy Kawasaki: if you were to ask people in 1983, you know, what would you like in a personal computer? They would have said, bigger, faster, cheaper, MS-DOS machine, bigger, faster, cheaper Apple II. No one would have described the Macintosh. And so the genius of Steve Jobs is not that he listens to the marketplace focus groups and marketing research and then he takes that research and he implements it, he does not believe in market research. Market research for Apple Computer is Steve’s left hemisphere is connected to his right hemisphere. That’s the focus group.

And so the lesson of Apple is, you know, you cannot necessarily just listen to what able are saying they need because they are going to define everything they need in terms they already know, bigger, faster, cheaper. The shrill revolutionary, then surely enchanting company creates a product or service before people can really define the need for that product or service. They anticipated where the market will go as opposed to simply reacting quickly to where the market is already going.

Steve Jobs

The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste, they have absolutely no taste, and what that means is – I don’t mean that in a small way I mean that in a big way. In the sense that they they don’t think of original ideas and they don’t bring much culture into their product ehm and you say why is that important – well you know proportionally spaced fonts come from type setting and beautiful books, that’s where one gets the idea – if it weren’t for the Mac they would never have that in their products and ehm so I guess I am saddened, not by Microsoft’s success – I have no problem with their success, they’ve earned their success for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third rate products.

Steve Ballmer

I will admit quite frankly that I think Windows today is probably four years behind, three years behind where it would have been had we not danced with IBM for so long. Because the amount of split energy, split works, split IQ in the company really cost our end customer real innovation in our product line and so whenever I hear these criticisms which I gotta to say sting eh sometimes, I say to myself just you watch, just you watch Windows 95, Windows 9…there’s no lack of focus there hasn’t been here for the last three or four years since we didn’t have this big spot with IBM. Even in the operating systems here now, you’ll start to see clear, clear…and people will recognise clear leadership.

We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win Microsoft has to lose.

On July 9, 1997, Gil Amelio was ousted as CEO of Apple by the board of directors after overseeing a 12 year record low stock price and crippling financial losses. Jobs stepped in as the interim CEO to begin a critical restructuring of the company’s product line. He would eventually become CEO and is serving in that position to the present day.

At the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be entering into partnership with Microsoft. Included in this was a five-year commitment from Microsoft to release Microsoft Office for Macintosh as well a US$150 million investment in Apple. It was also announced that Internet Explorer would be shipped as the default browser on the Macintosh. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates appeared at the expo on-screen, further explaining Microsoft’s plans for the software they were developing for Mac, and stating that he was very excited to be helping Apple return to success.

Transcript Macworld Expo, Boston, August-06-1997

Steve Jobs:

Now I’d like to talk about meaningful partners. Apple lives in an ecosystem, and it needs help from other partners. It needs to help other partners. And relationships that are destructive don’t help anybody in this industry as it is today. So during the last several weeks, we have looked at some of the relationships, and one has stood out as a relationship that hasn’t been going so well but had the potential, I think, to be great for both companies. And I’d like to announce one of our first partnerships today, a very, very meaningful one. And that is one with Microsoft. [Mix of applause and boos.]

I’d like to take you through this. The discussions actually began because there were some patent disputes. And, rather than … [Laughter.]

I know. Rather than repeating history, I’m extremely proud of both companies that they have resolved these differences in a very, very professional way. And this has led, I think, to an overall relationship that we’re announcing today that has got several parts to it, and we’re extremely excited about.

First part of it is a patent settlement and cross-license. The two companies have received a full cross-license for all patents that exist and for patents that are filed within the next five years. It has been a very serious patent settlement. The second part of this is, Microsoft is committing to release Microsoft Office on Macintosh for the next five years. They are going to release the same number of major releases as they release on Windows during that time. Their first release, they’re going to target to have it out near the end of the year, it might slip a few months into next year, but they’re working real hard on it, and it looks very, very good.

Next, we have taken a look at browsers out there and Apple has decided to make Internet Explorer its default browser on the Macintosh. [Audience boos.] Since we believe in choice, we’re going to be shipping other Internet browsers, as well, on the Macintosh, and the user can, of course, change their default should they choose to. [Applause]

But we believe that Internet Explorer is a really good browser, and we think it’s going to make a fine default browser. Java. We are going to be collaborating with Microsoft on Java to ensure that we can get the best from each other and ensure that there’s compatibility between our virtual machines. We think that will serve everybody’s interests. And lastly, Microsoft is making an investment in Apple. Microsoft is buying $150 million worth of Apple stock at market price. It is non-voting shares. [Cheers]

And they’ve agreed not to sell them for at least three years. So what this means is that Microsoft is going to be part of the game with us as we restore this company back to health, have a vested interest in that stock price going up. We’re going to be working together on Microsoft Office, on Internet Explorer, on Java. And I think that it’s going to lead to a very healthy relationship. So it’s a package announcement today. We’re very, very happy about it. We’re very, very excited about it. And I happen to have a special guest with me today via satellite downlink. And if we could get him up on the stage right now …

[Gates appears on screen. Mix of applause and boos.]

Bill Gates:

Some of the most exciting work that I’ve done in my career has been the work that I’ve done with Steve on the Macintosh. Whether it’s the first introduction or doing products like Mac Excel, these have been major milestones, and it’s very exciting to renew our commitment to the Macintosh. We have over 8 million customers using Microsoft software on the Macintosh. We make it very easy for people who use Macintosh to take their, their documents and work with all kinds of machines. We’re very excited about the new release we’re building. This is called Mac Office 98. We do expect to get it out by the end of this year. And we’ve got some, some real exciting features. It’s a product that’s going to require no setup. It’s going to be an easy transition from people in the past. And I think it’s going to really set a new benchmark for doing a good job with performance, and exploiting unique Mac features. In many ways it’s more advanced than what we’ve done on the Windows platform. [Applause.]

We’re also excited about Internet Explorer. And we’ve got a very dedicated team that’s down in California that works on that product. And the code is really specially developed for the Macintosh. It’s not just a port of what we’ve done in the Windows environment. [Applause.] And so we’re pleased to be supporting Apple. We think Apple makes a huge contribution to the computer industry. We think it’s going to be a lot of fun helping out, and we look forward to the feedback from all of you as we move forward doing more Macintosh software. Thanks. [Applause]

Steve Jobs:

Thank you, Bill. You know, where we are right now, is we’re shepherding some of the greatest assets in the computer industry. And if we want to move forward, and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win Microsoft has to lose. [Applause.] We have to embrace a notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. And if others are going to help us, that’s great, because we need all the help we can get. And if we screw up and we don’t do a good job, it’s not somebody else’s fault. It’s our fault. So I think that’s a very important perspective. I think if we want Microsoft Office on the Mac, we better treat the company that puts it out with a little bit of gratitude. We’d like their software. So the era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I’m concerned. This is about getting Apple healthy, and this is about Apple being able to make incredibly great contributions to the industry, to get healthy and prosper again. The last perspective I’d like to leave with you on this is sometimes points of view can really make you look at things differently. Like for me, when I was looking at the statistics and it hit me that Apple is the largest education company in the world, that was like a bolt of lightning. That’s huge. What an incredible base to build off of. Another bolt of lightning is that Apple plus Microsoft equals 100 percent of the desktop computer market. And so, whatever Apple and Microsoft agree to do, it’s a standard. And I think that you’ll see us work with Microsoft more because they’re the only other player in the desktop industry and I think that you’ll want to see Microsoft work with Apple more because Apple is the only other player in the desktop industry. So I hope we have even more cooperation in the future because the industry wants it.

Lastly, I want to just talk a little about Apple and the brand and what it means, I think, to a lot of us. You know, I think you always had to be a little different to buy an Apple computer. When we shipped the Apple II, you had to think different about computers. Computers were these things you saw in movies, they occupied giant rooms. They weren’t these things you had on your desktop. You had to think differently because there wasn’t any software at the beginning. You had to think differently when a first computer arrived at a school where there had never been one before and it was an Apple II. I think you had to think really differently when you bought a Mac. It was a totally different computer, worked in a totally different way, used a totally different part of your brain. And it opened up a computer world for a lot of people who thought differently. You were buying a computer with an installed base of one. You had to think differently to do that. And I think you still have to think differently to buy an Apple computer. And I think the people that do buy them do think differently and they are the creative spirits in this world. They are the people that are not just out to get a job done, they are out to change the world. And they’re out to change the world using whatever great tools they can get. And we make tools for those kinds of people. So hopefully what you’ve seen here today are some beginning steps that give you some confidence that we, too, are going to think differently, and serve the people that have been buying our products since the beginning. Because a lot of times people think that they’re crazy. But in that craziness, we see genius, and those are the people we’re making tools for. Thank you very much.

Steve Jobs realized later that the image of Gates looming over him and the audience was a mistake. “I wanted him to come to Boston,” Jobs told Walter Isaacson, author of the biography “Steve Jobs”. “That was my worst and stupidest staging event ever. It was bad because it made me look small, and Apple look small, and if everything was in Bill’s hands.” Gates was also embarrassed when he saw the videotape of the event. “I didn’t know that my face was going to be blown up to looming proportions,” he said.

Source:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/appletext.html

Walter Isaacson: Steve Jobs, Simon&Schuster, New York, 2011, Page 326.

History of Apple. (2008, October 16). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:02, October 19, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Apple&oldid=245772530

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License