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USB ports not only existed, but were standard in new PCs. A quick search shows peripherals and monitors with USB hubs in PC World May-1998 (4/5 months before iM

USB ports not only existed, but were standard in new PCs. A quick search shows peripherals and monitors with USB hubs in PC World May-1998 (4/5 months before iMac launch). From that months number (Pages 172-184): "UNTIL RECENTLY , USB hardware was as scarce as hen's teeth . Now, after almost two years of foot-dragging, hardware companies are fina ll y delivering peripherals. We tested 18 of these new products" Among the products there are keyboards, mouses, joysticks, cameras, scanners, speakers... you name it. >Apple wasn't the first to market with USB (and Snell didn't claim it was), but Apple most certainly drove its mass-market adoption. Sure they were scarcely used, support began with Windows 95 OSR 2 in Aug-97. And relatively new computers were only a fraction of the market. But the real market driver was the PC. https://vintageapple.org/pcworld/ https://vintageapple.org/pcworld/ Edited to add link and page reference.

xenadu02 3y ago
You can attempt to rewrite history all you like but as someone who lived it there was a clear shift in the market pre-iMac and post-iMac. Less than a year after the iMac shipped there was at least an order of magnitude more USB devices than had been available previously. Every manufacturer jumped on the bandwagon. Funny enough you can't even question it - a ton of those devices used iMac-like translucency, color, or both. I was a diehard PC user way back then but even I wasn't shameless enough to claim the iMac had nothing to do with pushing USB forward.
- green_leaves 3y ago
  The change to USB was on the move already much before the iMac launches. Just check magazines since the end of 97, there are reviews of products before the launch. The iMac rode the wave with the rest. Sure a few USB peripherals would have been made translucent, so what?
  - xenadu02 3y ago
    I'm not saying the iMac was the sole driver of USB adoption nor even the majority of it... but it definitely had an impact far larger than the Mac's tiny marketshare at the time would otherwise indicate. A big enough impact to help drive USB adoption overall. So many peripherals were still PS/2 (for mice), parallel (eg Zip/Tape drives), or serial (soooooo many things especially bespoke, industrial, or specialized equipment). Think about it: do all PCs have USB ports? Definitely not. Do all PCs have a serial port? 99% yes. You're a manufacturer making a non-top-100 product. Do you use the new-fangled USB or do you use a serial FIFO? Obviously you use serial. That maximizes your audience. But the iMac changed the thinking: This new iMac thing is hot. Seems like Apple is on the rise again. If I want to sell to these customers (who are more affluent and known to buy more software/accessories) I don't have a choice: it must be USB. I know the majority of the PC install base doesn't have USB yet but most new PCs do so I can still reach a lot of the PC audience. So the next version of my product uses USB (or a USB-FIFO bridge). As more of the market switched to USB even existing PC users installed USB expansion cards. Would USB have eventually gotten there? Yes. Would it have done so as quickly? I don't think so. The wide-open nature of the PC has always been both its boon and bane. See the many attempts to supplant x86 in the PC world, the several attempts to replace or expand ISA before PCI, etc.
WWLink 3y ago
Usb ports existed on a few high end PCs but before 1999 or so they were super uncommon and nobody used them.
- green_leaves 3y ago
  You didn't bother to check an easy source. Another one: USB support was standard in chipsets for Intel and AMD chips. Aug97 link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/72 https://www.anandtech.com/show/72

xenadu02 3y ago

You can attempt to rewrite history all you like but as someone who lived it there was a clear shift in the market pre-iMac and post-iMac. Less than a year after the iMac shipped there was at least an order of magnitude more USB devices than had been available previously. Every manufacturer jumped on the bandwagon. Funny enough you can't even question it - a ton of those devices used iMac-like translucency, color, or both. I was a diehard PC user way back then but even I wasn't shameless enough to claim the iMac had nothing to do with pushing USB forward.

green_leaves 3y ago
The change to USB was on the move already much before the iMac launches. Just check magazines since the end of 97, there are reviews of products before the launch. The iMac rode the wave with the rest. Sure a few USB peripherals would have been made translucent, so what?
- xenadu02 3y ago
  I'm not saying the iMac was the sole driver of USB adoption nor even the majority of it... but it definitely had an impact far larger than the Mac's tiny marketshare at the time would otherwise indicate. A big enough impact to help drive USB adoption overall. So many peripherals were still PS/2 (for mice), parallel (eg Zip/Tape drives), or serial (soooooo many things especially bespoke, industrial, or specialized equipment). Think about it: do all PCs have USB ports? Definitely not. Do all PCs have a serial port? 99% yes. You're a manufacturer making a non-top-100 product. Do you use the new-fangled USB or do you use a serial FIFO? Obviously you use serial. That maximizes your audience. But the iMac changed the thinking: This new iMac thing is hot. Seems like Apple is on the rise again. If I want to sell to these customers (who are more affluent and known to buy more software/accessories) I don't have a choice: it must be USB. I know the majority of the PC install base doesn't have USB yet but most new PCs do so I can still reach a lot of the PC audience. So the next version of my product uses USB (or a USB-FIFO bridge). As more of the market switched to USB even existing PC users installed USB expansion cards. Would USB have eventually gotten there? Yes. Would it have done so as quickly? I don't think so. The wide-open nature of the PC has always been both its boon and bane. See the many attempts to supplant x86 in the PC world, the several attempts to replace or expand ISA before PCI, etc.

WWLink 3y ago

Usb ports existed on a few high end PCs but before 1999 or so they were super uncommon and nobody used them.

green_leaves 3y ago
You didn't bother to check an easy source. Another one: USB support was standard in chipsets for Intel and AMD chips. Aug97 link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/72 https://www.anandtech.com/show/72