The 1990s, Windows, Mobile Phones And The Matrix. #003
Windows 3.1
I remember Windows 3.1, DOS, and System 6 on my Mac Classic. In the big scheme of things, Windows hasn't been around that long. We take many of these things for granted.
In the early 1990s, we moved into the domain of Google. A relatively small investment, to some people, a parent's garage; now it's worth billions. Google developed quickly because of the technology behind it and the availability of technology surrounding it (geographically speaking). To start a company twenty years ago and to have it at that value is totally revolutionary to anything else that we've seen until now.
Few reading will remember the Psion organiser. The Psion was small (approximately 6×3 inches). Using a ‘clam’ type case, it opened up to reveal a small keyboard with the equivalent of a word processor and spreadsheet. It was brilliant.
The Nokia Communicator was a phone that opened up in half to reveal a keyboard that could send faxes. It is somewhat ironic that until very recently the National Health Service in the UK was still actively purchasing fax machines.
At the time, this was high-tech stuff. There were two phones at that period that were the equivalent of the iPhone in terms of popularity. One was the Nokia banana phone, the other one was the Sony ‘Mars Bar’.
Around the same time (1999), ‘The Matrix’ was released in the cinema. I mention the Matrix specifically, because of the banana phone and the technology used in the production of that film.
The Matrix was a step change in digital marketing and the use of technology in the production of products and services. The use of cameras encircling actors 360 degrees, the use of green screens and C.G.I. work changed the way in which you could visualise the story.
Since then, the most recent step change I can think of in the film industry is probably the ‘Planet of the Apes Trilogy’, and the way in which real actors have cameras in front of their faces to match expressions that are then incorporated using C.G.I.
In this case, the use of this technology in the production of the product created hype or inertia for good reason.
