John Battelle Quotes

I started working at Apple about 18 months after I bought my Apple II.

I left Apple in April of 1984, pretty soon after the introduction of the Mac.

I imported the first Mac into England in 1984; you know, the beige box. I imported what I think were the first four that came into England. I never opened the instruction manual. That was the best thing about it.

Why is it that I notice so many brilliant scientists using Macs for their personal computers; why does the Lawrence Livermore & Berkeley Labs buy millions of dollars worth of Macs?

Apple took the edge off the word 'computer.'

Apple has always been, and always will be, a hardware-first company. It produces beautiful devices with elegant designs and humane operating-system software.

I use an IBM Thinkpad. I just use it like a typewriter, but when I started using it in 1987, I thought I won't be able to write anymore, so I thought I'd go back to the typewriter. But you couldn't go back to the typewriter after using the computer.

Google's done a super good job on search; Apple's done a great job on the IPod.

When I was finishing grad school, the hot new PC was the IBM 286. Bulky. Immobile. Expensive. I touched-typed easily and quickly, but nevertheless, I realized that the machine was a chain.

Microsoft certainly makes products for the Macintosh.

I did not, like my children and people today, grow up with television as part of my life.

I love my BlackBerry, I love my Apple Mac, I love technology.

Not to go too far, but Microsoft is probably used by most people out there.

I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft.

I have a PC because I don't know how to use a Mac. Actors always have Macs with them, and when I try to use someone else's, I can't get the hang of it. It's very strange; I don't like it.

I think the idealism has always been marketing. Even back in the early days of Apple and the 'pirate' mentality, they were building a computer that they wanted to differentiate from IBM and Microsoft.

When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have.

When I first got to Apple, which was in '84, the Mac was already out, and 'Newsweek' contacted me and asked me what I thought of the Mac. I said, 'Well, the Mac is the first personal computer good enough to be criticized.'

I've never used an app.

What I've found is that a lot of people in the media industry tend to use Macs because they're so good for graphics and music.

I've had the iPad for a nice little minute, not into gadgets like that, though.

I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: "Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end".

Steve Jobs knows how to hold his hand out, to build beautiful products and make people pay for them.

I got my first computer at the age of 6. To me, it was magic. By the time I was 12, I wanted to know the secrets behind the wizardry, and that started my journey toward computer programming. This was the early 1990s, when computers weren't built for the mass market.

Commercialism in the Western world has got us by the scruff of the neck. It's a technological takeover, and we can't even see it happening because we're too busy enjoying it.