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> If you’ve ever used a device with a USB or Bluetooth connection, you can thank Intel for that. Wasn't Apple a serious factor in getting both popular? I 'memb

> If you’ve ever used a device with a USB or Bluetooth connection, you can thank Intel for that. Wasn't Apple a serious factor in getting both popular? I 'member Apple was the first one to seriously deploying USB for its keyboards and mice, whereas the rest of the world was stuck with PS/2 (and the fact it wasn't supposed to do hot-plugging) or, even worse, that horrible large DIN plug for keyboards. And I also 'member that Windows' USB stack situation was horrible up until Windows 2000, with USB sticks shipping with tiny little driver CDs that contained the manufacturer's implementation of an USB storage class driver for 98/ME. And IIRC they were also the first one to have a Bluetooth stack that didn't outright suck (it took Windows until W7 to ship with its own native BT stack, so every chipset vendor shipped their own package, with different feature sets and a host of interoperability issues).

epcoa 2y ago
> Wasn't Apple a serious factor in getting both popular? I don’t think so, especially for BT. > And IIRC they were also the first one to have a Bluetooth stack that didn't outright suck Bluetooth already was well adopted on non smart mobile phones (feature phones) and then cars primarily for headsets but also OBEX - (2002-2003) long before anyone cared much about desktop use for peripherals, let alone Apple. Apple had nothing to do with popularizing Bluetooth. For USB, it is more nuanced but I think usually overstated. Apple is still a minority in desktop marketshare, but in the 90s even though they were recovering with the iMac, they had basically come from the brink. I don’t think they had the market pull people take for granted now. Intel and VIA were already sticking USB controllers into their Pentium/AMD chipsets “for free”, the ports were inevitably showing up on every bargain basement Wintel PCs. The numbers just dwarf anything Apple was doing even if they adopted early. It’s also not like Apple had market power to compel anybody like Microsoft to do anything like they would a few years later. (Further evidence would be the glut of cheap USB accessories in BRIC countries where Apple had essentially 0% market share in those days). A few years later Apple would make FireWire commonplace on a number of peripheral classes for a short while.
burnte 2y ago
> Wasn't Apple a serious factor in getting both popular? USB was invented by Intel. Yes, Apple going all in on USB on the iMac was a huge push for USB which had still been languishing on the PC side, slowly adopted but poorly used. However, someone had to invent it. Bluetooth was more about Intel's influence, they weren't nearly as instrumental as they were with USB.

epcoa 2y ago

> Wasn't Apple a serious factor in getting both popular? I don’t think so, especially for BT. > And IIRC they were also the first one to have a Bluetooth stack that didn't outright suck Bluetooth already was well adopted on non smart mobile phones (feature phones) and then cars primarily for headsets but also OBEX - (2002-2003) long before anyone cared much about desktop use for peripherals, let alone Apple. Apple had nothing to do with popularizing Bluetooth. For USB, it is more nuanced but I think usually overstated. Apple is still a minority in desktop marketshare, but in the 90s even though they were recovering with the iMac, they had basically come from the brink. I don’t think they had the market pull people take for granted now. Intel and VIA were already sticking USB controllers into their Pentium/AMD chipsets “for free”, the ports were inevitably showing up on every bargain basement Wintel PCs. The numbers just dwarf anything Apple was doing even if they adopted early. It’s also not like Apple had market power to compel anybody like Microsoft to do anything like they would a few years later. (Further evidence would be the glut of cheap USB accessories in BRIC countries where Apple had essentially 0% market share in those days). A few years later Apple would make FireWire commonplace on a number of peripheral classes for a short while.

burnte 2y ago

> Wasn't Apple a serious factor in getting both popular? USB was invented by Intel. Yes, Apple going all in on USB on the iMac was a huge push for USB which had still been languishing on the PC side, slowly adopted but poorly used. However, someone had to invent it. Bluetooth was more about Intel's influence, they weren't nearly as instrumental as they were with USB.