Here’s an interesting video about the history of Apple’s commercials:
30 Years of Apple
Video uploaded by samdprod via G-Marketing
On a sidenote: Apple is being sued by the Beatles, or what’s left of them. Here’s how that started:
In 1968 The Beatles started Apple Records, a label that mostly focused on releasing music for either The Beatles or some other artists at that time. That label expanded to some projects on the side, with subdivisions called Apple Electronics and Apple Films (and some other divisions)
Steve Jobs created his first Apple in 1976, with a focus on graphical interfaces and tools. Already in 1981 there was a first lawsuit in which Jobs had to pay $ 80.000 for the use of the apple logo, which he had used as a tribute to The Beatles. Back then Jobs made the promise to never step into the music industry.
In 1989 there was a second lawsuit, when Jobs introduced a program to create music. In 1991 a new settlement was agreed upon, this time for $ 26 million. In exchange he was granted some rights which allowed him (and Apple) to develop products that could be used to reproduce or play music. Selling music was a right that wasn’t included in the deal.
Today Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr & Olivia Harrison are going to sue again, this time because iTunes & iPod are violating the agreement they settled for the case of 1989, settled in 1991. 1991’s agreement can be interpreted in different ways: is Apple just offering channels for data-transmission or is it really doing what it had promised not to do: selling music.
According to some sources, the talks have started already and it could be the largest settlement ever; excluding class-action cases. Some even whisper that the settlement might include the members of the Beatles side to gain a nice and comfy seat in Apple’s managers board. Time will tell…