How computers were advertised in the 1990s
- Transfer
These days you will not surprise anyone with a hard drive. A terabyte HDD can be borrowed for $ 50. But there were times when advertising on a 10 megabyte drive seemed a bit like an excerpt from a science fiction novel. Here, say, a very profitable summer offer from 1980. The participants in the vintagecomputing project found this miracle .
If you, with the thought: “you have to take it”, hurry up to respond to the announcement, first read what is printed in small print. $ 3,495 is for a not entirely new disc. 10-megabyte, which no one has ever used, will cost a little more expensive, at $ 4495. But honestly, it's worth it.
Agree, after you remember this, or when you see it for the first time, you start to look differently at modern smartphones, ultrabooks, smart watches and other hordes of gadgets.
In the 80s, we glanced out of the corner of our eyes, now we will take up our main theme, the 1990s. There is also something to see. Namely, here is a selection of advertisements of those times in which you can find computers, peripherals and software.
NeXT was founded by Steve Jobs in 1985. 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 solving serious problems in business and science. NeXTcube was running the NeXTSTEP operating system. They produced and sold it from 1990 to 1993.
In 1990, PowerMax 386/33 from Northgate Computer was sold. The order could be placed by mail or even by e-mail.
In 1991, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Thanks to the graphical interface of this OS, the company made the IBM-compatible PC a real competitor to the Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga. Operating systems of the Windows 3.x family worked on top of DOS. Here's an ad for Windows 3.0 or Windows 3.1, which was played on TV in the early 1990s.
“It just works better,” was the television ad of the time from Compaq.
Now - server ads from CSS Laboratories from the 1990s. These were powerful i486 machines equipped with zero latency cache memory.
Here is an article about interactive tablets for computers:
And so in those days they talked about pocket network adapters from Xircom:
Lotus Magellan 2.0 advertising that allowed you to search through documents:
Here we have a Logitech trackball ad from 1990. The reader is encouraged to stop feeling like an alien using devices that are unnatural for humans.
Microsoft, for $ 50, offered an update for the PC, allowing access to all available memory:
Dell Ads from 1992:
The Circuit City advertisement talks about the possibility of buying a computer with a credit card:
Apple Macintosh Performa sold from 1992 to 1997:
Here is a great Commodore 128 ad. Unfortunately, in 1994 the company filed for bankruptcy. Here you can find their other promotional materials.
At IBM, great people are always on the move:
An ad for the 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, computer shipments reached 59.7 million units, up 24.7% from the previous year. Compaq, the market leader, continued to move forward, increasing shipments by more than 1.2 million compared to 1995. IBM shipped 4.8 million computers and finished second, which previously belonged to Apple.
Apple Power Macintosh in 1997:
Apple Power Mac G4 in 1999:
Someone, these old ads, may open something that he seems to know about, but somehow he didn’t think much. Someone will cause an attack of nostalgia. It can end quickly, but it is possible that it will make you take an ancient car from a far corner of the storeroom, uncover, turn it on, listen to the amazing sounds of the drive at 5.25, wait for DOS to load ... It
’s sometimes useful to look into the past - not just for the sake of memories, but in order to appreciate where we got now, and also to carefully think about 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: “you have to take it”, hurry up to respond to the announcement, first read what is printed in small print. $ 3,495 is for a not entirely new disc. 10-megabyte, which no one has ever used, will cost a little more expensive, at $ 4495. But honestly, it's worth it.
Agree, after you remember this, or when you see it for the first time, you start to look differently at modern smartphones, ultrabooks, smart watches and other hordes of gadgets.
In the 80s, we glanced out of the corner of our eyes, now we will take up our main theme, the 1990s. There is also something to see. Namely, here is a selection of advertisements of those times in which you can find computers, peripherals and software.
1990s Computer Advertising
NeXT was founded by Steve Jobs in 1985. 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 solving serious problems in business and science. NeXTcube was running the NeXTSTEP operating system. They produced and sold it from 1990 to 1993.
In 1990, PowerMax 386/33 from Northgate Computer was sold. The order could be placed by mail or even by e-mail.
In 1991, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Thanks to the graphical interface of this OS, the company made the IBM-compatible PC a real competitor to the Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga. Operating systems of the Windows 3.x family worked on top of DOS. Here's an ad for Windows 3.0 or Windows 3.1, which was played on TV in the early 1990s.
“It just works better,” was the television ad of the time from Compaq.
Now - server ads from CSS Laboratories from the 1990s. These were powerful i486 machines equipped with zero latency cache memory.
Here is an article about interactive tablets for computers:
And so in those days they talked about pocket network adapters from Xircom:
Lotus Magellan 2.0 advertising that allowed you to search through documents:
Here we have a Logitech trackball ad from 1990. The reader is encouraged to stop feeling like an alien using devices that are unnatural for humans.
Microsoft, for $ 50, offered an update for the PC, allowing access to all available memory:
Dell Ads from 1992:
The Circuit City advertisement talks about the possibility of buying a computer with a credit card:
Apple Macintosh Performa sold from 1992 to 1997:
Here is a great Commodore 128 ad. Unfortunately, in 1994 the company filed for bankruptcy. Here you can find their other promotional materials.
At IBM, great people are always on the move:
An ad for the 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, computer shipments reached 59.7 million units, up 24.7% from the previous year. Compaq, the market leader, continued to move forward, increasing shipments by more than 1.2 million compared to 1995. IBM shipped 4.8 million computers and finished second, which previously belonged to Apple.
Apple Power Macintosh in 1997:
Apple Power Mac G4 in 1999:
Summary
Someone, these old ads, may open something that he seems to know about, but somehow he didn’t think much. Someone will cause an attack of nostalgia. It can end quickly, but it is possible that it will make you take an ancient car from a far corner of the storeroom, uncover, turn it on, listen to the amazing sounds of the drive at 5.25, wait for DOS to load ... It
’s sometimes useful to look into the past - not just for the sake of memories, but in order to appreciate where we got now, and also to carefully think about 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.