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The machine on which Apple is now placing such high hopes started out as a minor project. Mac, as the computer is affectionately called within the firm, began life in 1979, when Jef Raskin, the writer of the first comprehensive manual for the Apple II, was asked to build a computer that would sell for less than $500 and work through a television set. He built a cardboard mock-up and recommended that Apple produce a battery-powered portable home computer that might cost about $1,000. Raskin code-named the machine Macintosh, misspelling the name of his favorite kind of apple. Working with just two others in cramped offices near Apple's headquarters, Raskin tried to make the Macintosh as easy to use as a television set or any other household appliance.
The Mac project coincided with a period of byzantine office politics inside the young company. Apple co-founder Steven Jobs, at the time a vice president, wanted to head the development of the Lisa program, but Apple President Michael Scott and Marketing Boss A.C.
("Mike") Markkula regarded I him as too erratic and inexperienced to handle a major project.
" As a consolation, Jobs was given the Mac program and Raskin shoved aside. Recalls former Apple Accountant Gary Martin:
"Jobs got Mac because it was a small group. Scott and Markkula thought it would keep him out of their hair and he wouldn't bother the Lisa people."
Jobs immediately tried to put his stamp on the project, which he regarded as a test in which he could prove himself.
He wanted to rename it Bicycle, but backed off when the members of his new group protested.
The engineers and programmers were stirred by Jobs' aggressive style. Says Mac Programmer Andy Hertzfeld: "Steve said, I'll get this team that will make a cheap computer and blow the Lisa team off the face of the earth.'" Jobs recruited some veterans of Apple's early days and bet John Couch, then head of the Lisa division, $5,000 that Mac would beat Lisa to the shop window.
The new boss played both nanny and scold to the Mac group, which has grown from 50 in 1982 to 100 today and has an average age of 28. He often spent nights and weekends hovering around the lab as his chief hardware engineer, Burrell Smith, 28, designed five vastly different versions of the computer. To spur his team, Jobs staged frequent parties, sushi dinners and seaside retreats, presented medals to workers, and rewarded the most valuable engineers and programmers with Apple stock options tucked into thin gray envelopes. He embossed their names on the inside of the machine and teased them with promises of fame when the computer came out. Last year when the Mac group moved into a larger home, Jobs spent $ 1 million on decor. The building now has an atrium and fake skylights. He also installed a Toshiba Compact Digital Disc player and 6-ft. tall Martin-Logan speakers that play classical and rock music 24 hours a day.