191591
submission
Gammu writes:
For the past fifteen plus years, Photoshop has turned into the killer app for graphics designers on the Mac. It was originally written as a support app for a grad student's thesis and struggled to find wide commercial release. Eventually, Adobe licensed the app and has sold millions of copies. Read about its early history at SiliconUser.
162191
submission
Gammu writes:
Apple's explosive growth in the past ten years is largely a result of its new music strategy, which was devised outside the company. At a time when online music stores were struggling and when affordable MP3 players often had a capacity of 32 MB, Apple released a music store with static pricing and a music player with a 1.8" hard drive. After their initial release in 2001, Apple has become the largest MP3 player maker in the world and the iTunes Store is the largest online music service (even beating out Microsoft and the record companies with pressplay). Read about the history of Apple's music strategy at iPod Observer.
156957
submission
Gammu writes:
Like many things in the film industry (video, wide format film, etc.), CGI was pioneered by George Lucas. Pixar had its start at Lucasfilm where it produced productivity apps and special effects for films like Star Trek II. The team's real ambition were feature films though. After Steve Jobs bought the company in 1985, Pixar began moving into production and eventually released Toy Story. Read about the earily (pre-Jobs) history of Pixar at Low End Mac.