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I think it was a combination of several factors: 1. Windows 95 USB support was terrible so nobody used it. But Windows 98 had just come out with good USB suppo

I think it was a combination of several factors: 1. Windows 95 USB support was terrible so nobody used it. But Windows 98 had just come out with good USB support. 2. Some PCs came with USB ports but most didn't. Legacy ports were always present. If you wanted USB you often had to add a card. So nobody used USB in PC-land. 3. Apple's market share was tiny but the "Bondi Blue" iMac (which only had USB ports, not legacy ports) was the first product they had made in a decade that was actually desirable. It was so popular that it made Apple a player in the market again. 4. Even though the Bondi Blue iMac's USB "hockey puck" mouse was ergonomically terrible, it didn't dissuade people from buying the computer, because they could just buy a different USB mouse due to factor 5. 5. Steve Jobs lobbied vendors to make USB peripherals by convincing them they would work on both the Mac and the PC. Which was true. 5 was probably the most important factor. Vendors had hundreds of peripherals ready to go on Day 1 of the Bondi Blue iMac's introduction, and most of them were blue. People plugged them in to Windows 98 machines and they just worked. The surge in USB device availability (plus Windows 98) caused PC manufacturers to begin including USB ports universally. But that surge was due to Steve Jobs' lobbying.

dreamcompiler 6y ago
And no, I haven't found a source yet. I tried. These are my memories of that time from following Apple very closely because I bought a bunch of Apple stock when Jobs came back and I went to Macworld and WWDC a lot in those days.
- bluGill 6y ago
  Mostly matches my memory, but I think Bill Gates was lobbying hard for usb everywhere. Designed for windows 98 stickers required USB ports as I recall so pc pretty much all had USB starting about that time.
- GeekyBear 6y ago
  >Microsoft Windows 95, OSR 2.1 provided OEM support for the devices in August 1997. The first widely used version of USB was 1.1, which was released in September 1998. Apple Inc.'s iMac was the first mainstream product with USB and the iMac's success popularized USB itself. Following Apple's design decision to remove all legacy ports from the iMac, many PC manufacturers began building legacy-free PCs, which led to the broader PC market using USB as a standard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#History The issue with USB on the PC side is that USB on Windows 95/OSR2 just never worked properly. People may remember the infamous Bill Gates demo of Windows 98 at Comdex where plugging in a USB scanner to demo Plug and Play crashed the computer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73wMnU7xbwE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73wMnU7xbwE When Windows 98 SE came out everything worked fine.

dreamcompiler 6y ago

And no, I haven't found a source yet. I tried. These are my memories of that time from following Apple very closely because I bought a bunch of Apple stock when Jobs came back and I went to Macworld and WWDC a lot in those days.

bluGill 6y ago
Mostly matches my memory, but I think Bill Gates was lobbying hard for usb everywhere. Designed for windows 98 stickers required USB ports as I recall so pc pretty much all had USB starting about that time.
GeekyBear 6y ago
>Microsoft Windows 95, OSR 2.1 provided OEM support for the devices in August 1997. The first widely used version of USB was 1.1, which was released in September 1998. Apple Inc.'s iMac was the first mainstream product with USB and the iMac's success popularized USB itself. Following Apple's design decision to remove all legacy ports from the iMac, many PC manufacturers began building legacy-free PCs, which led to the broader PC market using USB as a standard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#History The issue with USB on the PC side is that USB on Windows 95/OSR2 just never worked properly. People may remember the infamous Bill Gates demo of Windows 98 at Comdex where plugging in a USB scanner to demo Plug and Play crashed the computer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73wMnU7xbwE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73wMnU7xbwE When Windows 98 SE came out everything worked fine.