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Forty years after the PC revolution began, the Mac continues to grow in popularity beyond Apple's admirers and could find newfound fame thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). Otherwise you will be abandoned.
Apple launched the Macintosh in 1984 with a groundbreaking television commercial that presented the machine as a tool of rebellion against a dystopian political system.
The computer nicknamed “Mac” won its admirers thanks to user-friendly features such as its graphical interface, clickable icons and a mouse.
“The impact of the Mac is huge,” Olivier Blanchard, research director at Futurum Group, told AFP. “Every laptop and PC (personal computer) has tried to emulate the Mac and its success.”
Macs have become the computer of choice not only for Apple fans, but also for artists, filmmakers and other creative professionals.
However, computers running Windows (Microsoft's operating system) dominate corporate offices thanks to lower-cost machines and widespread office automation and productivity tools.
Apple has been making inroads into enterprise, driven particularly by iPhone fans who use their smartphones for work and prefer Macs over PCs, which are more compatible with the Apple-branded ecosystem. .
“A lot of advertising and marketing is about making people feel special when they buy a Mac,” says Dag Spicer of the Silicon Valley Computer History Museum, which is organizing an exhibition to mark the anniversary.
“You know – be a rebel, an outsider, fight the system, since the first ad in 1984.”
“Rare development”
Recently, Apple promoted the professional use of the Vision Pro, its headset that allows you to integrate augmented and virtual realities into your real environment thanks to cameras and sensors.
Experts say the $3,500 headset, which has been on the market since Friday, is aimed more at businesses than at the general public.
“Apple wants to gain market share in enterprises,” said Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies. “It's clear that they want to move into the enterprise with Vision Pro and create a connection between Vision Pro and the Mac.”
The global PC market has weakened due to the increasing penetration of smartphones in daily life and the lack of important technological developments.
However, according to analysts, it will be somewhat energized by teleworking and the keen interest in machines capable of managing the new generation of AI.
“AI is the kind of development that rarely occurs in the PC market,” notes Olivier Blanchard.
“PCs are becoming much more powerful and easier to use, bringing the generative AI capabilities we’ve seen in the cloud (on servers) directly to the user.”
For him, the generative AI functions will give the impression of having a team of professional assistants at the computer.
The data used for AI stays local to machines, which will help protect them and reduce cloud costs, he says.
“Can’t escape it.”
Apple, always careful to maintain its image as a company that defines technological trends more than follows them, mentions AI very rarely.
But according to the analyst, the Californian company has still started developing its own specialized computer chips.
“We shouldn’t think that Apple isn’t investing in this area because it doesn’t talk about generative AI,” says Carolina Milanesi.
Apple already uses AI in its lenses, computer photo processing, its digital assistant Siri and many other applications.
And even if the brand seems to be lagging behind in the race to be the “smart” computer, when an AI-powered Mac comes to market, it will certainly integrate seamlessly into Apple's “ecosystem,” that galaxy of devices and services that it allowing him to continue to place his users in his universe and make significant profits from them.
“If the Mac doesn’t become an AI Mac next year, Apple will have questions,” emphasizes Olivier Blanchard. “AI is in everything, Apple can’t escape it.”