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Mistakes, there have been a few. It is sobering to think that Apple's first personal computer-the I977 Apple II-preceded the first Microsoft-based PC by four years; and that even in I988, the Macintosh operating system was still outselling Windows machines. By I998, only six percent of households with computers had Macintoshes (according to an Odyssey consumer survey), and sales of Intel chips were estimated at more than 20 times those of the PowerPC. To most folks, that kind of change represents a lot of mistakes.
But Apple and its devotees have long since taught themselves not to judge success by numbers alone; legends are made from other things.
Recently, the business media have edged toward the same point of view, and Fortune magazine, sporting the legendary Apple founder and acting CEO Steve Jobs on its cover, even called the Cupertino computer-maker a "cultural phenomenon." A year or so ago, such a description would have been used in the past tense, and I.D. Magazine's line-up of 4o North American design-driven corporations would have had to stretch to include Apple.
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