Apple launched its App Store for the Mac today. The press release announcing that the store was open for business includes this bit of puffery: "The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac…"
Revolutionary. Hmmm, where have I heard that word before? Oh yeah, in just about every Apple press release since 1999. Apple has declared a revolution for software, for Macs and mice, for its CD and DVD drives, for iPods and iPhones and iPads, for syncing music to a portable player, and even for its Internet strategy. Several of those "revolutionary" products no longer exist, and others were simply refined implementations of technologies that had already been done by others. No matter. If it comes from Cupertino, it must be revolutionary.
Here, from the Apple PR archives, is a little trip down memory lane. A word to the wise: If you plan a drinking game around an Apple press event, you might want to think twice before you include this word.
Apple Introduces Revolutionary Power Mac G4 Cube with "a revolutionary cooling design that does not require a fan" (July 19, 2000)
Apple Presents iPod: Ultra-Portable MP3 Music Player Puts 1,000 Songs in Your Pocket (October 23, 2001) "iPod’s revolutionary Auto-Sync feature makes it easy to get your entire music collection into iPod and update it whenever you connect iPod to your Mac. Simply plug your new iPod into your Mac with the supplied FireWire cable, and all of your iTunes songs and playlists are automatically downloaded into iPod at blazing FireWire speed."
Developers Rapidly Adopt Apple’s Rendezvous Networking Technology (September 10, 2002) "'Canon is adding our support to the growing adoption of Apple’s revolutionary Rendezvous networking technology,' said Amit Bagchi, Marketing director for Canon’s printer products."
Apple Announces DVD Studio Pro 3, which "features revolutionary new Alpha Transitions [and] also includes Compressor 1.2, the latest version of Apple’s revolutionary digital media encoding and compression tool" (April 18, 2004)
Apple Introduces Motion: Revolutionary New Application Redefines Motion Graphics (April 18, 2004) "“With its revolutionary technology, breakthrough ease-of-use and low $299 price tag, Motion may do for motion graphics what Final Cut Pro did for non-linear editing"
Apple’s New iMac G5 Line Delivers Faster Performance, Built-in Wireless & Mac OS X “Tiger” (May 3, 2005) "Tiger delivers more than 200 new features and innovations including Spotlight, a revolutionary desktop search technology…"
Apple Introduces iLife ’09 (January 6, 2009) "iMovie ’09 [offers] revolutionary super fast movie creation [and] the revolutionary Precision Editor…" plus: "the revolutionary new Faces feature in iPhoto."
Apple’s Revolutionary App Store Downloads Top One Billion in Just Nine Months (April 24, 2009)
Apple to Ship Mac OS X Snow Leopard (August 24, 2009) "Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) provides a revolutionary new way for software developers to write applications that take advantage of multicore processors"
Apple Unveils New iMac (October 20, 2009) "With brilliant LED displays and the revolutionary Magic Mouse, the new iMac delivers an amazing desktop experience...”
Apple Launches iPad (January 27, 2010) "'iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,' said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO."
Apple’s iAd Coming to Europe in December "Apple today announced it will expand its revolutionary iAd mobile advertising network to the UK and France this December, with Germany to follow in January…" (November 18, 2010)