50 Years of Think Different: Apple Wraps a Global Golden Anniversary
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It was 50 years ago today that Apple Computer Inc. was officially formed in Steve Jobs’ garage, and the company is now officially wrapping up two weeks of anniversary celebrations with a special animated homepage tribute that walks visitors through some of the company’s most iconic creations, from the Mac and iPod to the iPhone, App Store, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro.
In an appropriate twist, Apple went with a Picasso-style sketch art animation that hearkens back to the 1980s Macintosh era. As you watch, you’ll see drawings of the original Macintosh to the Finder, iMacs, AirPods, iPod, and much more (see if you can identify them all).
The celebration is actually a rare “throwback” moment for Apple — a company that’s rarely waxed nostalgic — but as CEO Tim Cook said as he kicked things off last month, “we couldn’t let this milestone pass without thanking the millions of people who make Apple what it is today.” Still, the company wants to ensure that we remain grounded in the present and future of Apple, and the message on its homepage makes it clear that the time for reflection on the past is the exception, not the norm.
At 50 years, it’s only natural to look back. But Apple has always looked forward, building tools and delivering experiences that enrich people’s lives. As we celebrate how far we’ve come, we’re inspired by where we’ll go — together.
Today’s home page animation is accompanied by a tweet from Tim Cook where Apple’s chief executive shows a 30-second “rewind” video retrospective of Apple’s greatest hits, from last month’s MacBook Neo to the original Apple-1.
The video is presented in a vintage VHS videotape style, including the garbled sound of music and other sounds playing rapidly backwards as it rewinds through the years, showing actual photos of — rather appropriately — 50 Apple products. It’s not quite one per year, and there are some definite outliers, like the Apple Card, which makes an appearance in 2019, but it still feels like a nice nod to 50 years of Apple.
Over the past three weeks, Apple has hosted a cavalcade of high-profile events, from surprise concerts to one-off Today at Apple sessions featuring special guests, spanning the globe from Chengdu, Seoul, and Bangkok to Vancouver, New York City, London, and Paris.
Apple kicked things off on Friday, March 14, with a surprise concert in New York featuring Alicia Keys, who brought her signature pink piano to Apple Grand Central for a private event attended by Apple senior executives and special guests. Nevertheless, the venue allows many folks passing through the busy Grand Central Station to also enjoy Keys’ performance, even if they had to watch at a distance.
The following week, Apple brought the fun to China and South Korea with another surprise concert featuring Li Yuchun (Chris Lee) at China’s Taikoo Li store in Chengdu, and a special Today at Apple session with South Korean boy band CORTIS at its Myeongdong Store in Seoul. A few days later, the celebrations hit London when Mumford & Sons played Apple Battersea.
Several other today at Apple sessions also ran around the globe, featuring figure skating icon Elladj Baldé in Vancouver, DJ Myd, graphic designer So Me, the ambient vibes of SOPORI FM, and Trente, all in Paris, and Crybaby art toy designer Molly in Bangkok.
That all culminated last night at Apple Park when the company held a grand finale anniversary concert on the rainbow stage featuring none other than Sir Paul McCartney. While it was strictly an employee-only event, social media lit up with posts from staffers as McCartney did his opening sound checks. The concert itself kicked off with an introduction by Cook, who declared McCartney “one of the most influential artists of all time,” adding that he’s “been a lifelong fan of his music and so have billions of people all over the planet.”
McCartney played an expansive setlist spanning his entire career, from The Beatles to his later solo albums, including “Help,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Blackbird,” “Lady Madonna,” “Something,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “From Me To You,” “Getting Better,” “Let It Be,” and “Hey Jude.” Hits from his Wings era included “Coming Up,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Let ‘Em In,” “Band On The Run,” followed by solo favorites “Maybe I’m Amazed” and “Every Night” and closing with “Golden Slumbers.”
If enjoying McCartney’s musical performance wasn’t enough, there were also fireworks to add to the mix — the James Bond “Live and Let Die” track was accompanied by a pyrotechnics segment.
