How computers were advertised in the 1990s
Nowadays, no one will surprise anyone with a hard disk. Terabyte HDD can be taken for 50 dollars. But there were times when advertising a 10 megabyte drive seemed like a bit of a science fiction novel. Here, for example, a very profitable summer offer from the 1980s. The participants of the vintagecomputing project found this miracle.
If you, with the thought: “need to take”, hurry to respond to the announcement, read first what is printed in small print. $ 3495 is for a not quite new disk. A 10-megabyte, which no one has used yet, will cost a little more, at $ 4,495. But honestly, it's worth it.
Agree, after you remember it, or see for the first time, you start to look at modern smartphones, ultrabooks, smart watches and other hordes of gadgets in a different way.
In the 80s we looked out of the corner of the eye, now we will deal with our main theme, the 1990s. There is also something to look at. Namely, here is a selection of advertisements of those times in which you can find computers, peripherals and software.
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NeXT was founded by Steve Jobs in 1985. The NeXTcube workstation is made in a cube-shaped case with a side of 12 inches. Black color endowed the computer with a special style and called for the solution of serious problems in business and science. Worked NeXTcube running the operating system NeXTSTEP. It was produced and sold from 1990 to 1993.
In 1990, Powergax 386/33 from Northgate Computer was sold. The order could be issued by mail or even by e-mail.
In 1991, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Thanks to the graphical interface of this OS, the company has made the IBM-compatible PC a real competitor to the Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga. The Windows 3.x family of operating systems ran on top of DOS. Here's the ad for Windows 3.0 or Windows 3.1, which was played on TV in the early 1990s.
“It just works better,” a television advertisement of those times from Compaq.
Now - advertising servers from CSS Laboratories from 1990. These were powerful i486 machines equipped with zero latency cache memory.
Here is an article about interactive tablets for computers:
And so told in those days about pocket network adapters from Xircom:
Advertisement of the program Magellan 2.0 from Lotus, which allowed searching documents:
Here we have a Logitech trackball ad from the 1990s. The reader is asked to stop feeling like a stranger, using unnatural devices for humans.
Microsoft, for $ 50, offered a PC update that allows access to all available memory:
Dell's 1992 ad:
In advertising Circuit City talk about the possibility to buy a computer by credit card:
Apple Macintosh Performa was sold from 1992 to 1997:
Here's a great Commodore 128 ad. Unfortunately, in 1994, the company declared bankruptcy. Here you can find their other promotional materials.
IBM has great people on the move:
Advertising IBM PS / 1 in 1993 with Theodore Roosevelt:
Radio Shack advertises the 486th PC in 1993:
1996 was a great year for the computing industry. According to Dataquest, the supply of computers reached 59.7 million units, which was 24.7% more than in the previous year. Compaq, a market leader, continued to move forward, increasing shipments by more than 1.2 million compared to 1995. IBM shipped 4.8 million computers and ranked second, previously owned by Apple.
Apple Power Macintosh in 1997:
Apple Power Mac G4 in 1999:
Someone with these old announcements may have discovered something that he seemed to know about, and somehow didn’t really think about it. Someone they will cause a fit of nostalgia. It can quickly end, but it is possible that it will force the ancient car to get from the far corner of the storeroom, uncover, turn on, listen to the amazing sounds of the disk drive at 5.25, wait for the DOS boot ...
Perhaps, it is sometimes useful to look into the past - not only for the sake of memories, but also in order to assess where we are now, and also - to carefully consider where we will be in the future.
Dear readers, we are sure that among you there will be those who can remember something interesting about computers of past years. If so, we are waiting for your stories.
If you, with the thought: “need to take”, hurry to respond to the announcement, read first what is printed in small print. $ 3495 is for a not quite new disk. A 10-megabyte, which no one has used yet, will cost a little more, at $ 4,495. But honestly, it's worth it.
Agree, after you remember it, or see for the first time, you start to look at modern smartphones, ultrabooks, smart watches and other hordes of gadgets in a different way.
In the 80s we looked out of the corner of the eye, now we will deal with our main theme, the 1990s. There is also something to look at. Namely, here is a selection of advertisements of those times in which you can find computers, peripherals and software.
')
Computer Advertising 1990s
NeXT was founded by Steve Jobs in 1985. The NeXTcube workstation is made in a cube-shaped case with a side of 12 inches. Black color endowed the computer with a special style and called for the solution of serious problems in business and science. Worked NeXTcube running the operating system NeXTSTEP. It was produced and sold from 1990 to 1993.
In 1990, Powergax 386/33 from Northgate Computer was sold. The order could be issued by mail or even by e-mail.
In 1991, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Thanks to the graphical interface of this OS, the company has made the IBM-compatible PC a real competitor to the Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga. The Windows 3.x family of operating systems ran on top of DOS. Here's the ad for Windows 3.0 or Windows 3.1, which was played on TV in the early 1990s.
“It just works better,” a television advertisement of those times from Compaq.
Now - advertising servers from CSS Laboratories from 1990. These were powerful i486 machines equipped with zero latency cache memory.
Here is an article about interactive tablets for computers:
And so told in those days about pocket network adapters from Xircom:
Advertisement of the program Magellan 2.0 from Lotus, which allowed searching documents:
Here we have a Logitech trackball ad from the 1990s. The reader is asked to stop feeling like a stranger, using unnatural devices for humans.
Microsoft, for $ 50, offered a PC update that allows access to all available memory:
Dell's 1992 ad:
In advertising Circuit City talk about the possibility to buy a computer by credit card:
Apple Macintosh Performa was sold from 1992 to 1997:
Here's a great Commodore 128 ad. Unfortunately, in 1994, the company declared bankruptcy. Here you can find their other promotional materials.
IBM has great people on the move:
Advertising IBM PS / 1 in 1993 with Theodore Roosevelt:
Radio Shack advertises the 486th PC in 1993:
1996 was a great year for the computing industry. According to Dataquest, the supply of computers reached 59.7 million units, which was 24.7% more than in the previous year. Compaq, a market leader, continued to move forward, increasing shipments by more than 1.2 million compared to 1995. IBM shipped 4.8 million computers and ranked second, previously owned by Apple.
Apple Power Macintosh in 1997:
Apple Power Mac G4 in 1999:
Results
Someone with these old announcements may have discovered something that he seemed to know about, and somehow didn’t really think about it. Someone they will cause a fit of nostalgia. It can quickly end, but it is possible that it will force the ancient car to get from the far corner of the storeroom, uncover, turn on, listen to the amazing sounds of the disk drive at 5.25, wait for the DOS boot ...
Perhaps, it is sometimes useful to look into the past - not only for the sake of memories, but also in order to assess where we are now, and also - to carefully consider where we will be in the future.
Dear readers, we are sure that among you there will be those who can remember something interesting about computers of past years. If so, we are waiting for your stories.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/322072/
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