Connecting Point’s 43rd birthday is this month. And to celebrate, we’ve got a pretty good sale, with zero hoops to jump through: For four days, starting April 13th, we’re offering forty-three dollars off any new Mac or PC. AND we’re knocking forty-three dollars off Apple’s awesome HomePod™ smart speaker.
But hurry: it only runs April 13th through 16th — and then it’s over!
Happy birthday to us! Back in 1975, the company that would eventually be known as Connecting Point was born. Now, 42 years later, we’ve moved to a beautiful new location at the corner of Poplar and McAndrews in Medford. To celebrate our 42nd birthday and our new digs, Connecting Point’s got some very special offers in store for you…
We’re also offering the $99 Epson Expression Home XP-430 printer/scanner/copier for just 42 dollars with any new computer purchase (and yes, you may combine this with the first offer!).It’s all part of Connecting Point’s BIRTHDAY AND REBIRTH SALE, celebrating both 42 years as the Rogue Valley’s technology experts – and the move to our beautiful new location at 1251 East McAndrews Road, Medford.
Come join the party at Connecting Point, southern Oregon’s only Apple Premier Partner — and home to sales and service for the best and brightest computers, devices, peripherals, and accessories.
This sale runs from Friday, April 14th through Sunday, April 30th, 2017. Rain checks will be available for all offers except wired speakers, which are limited to stock on hand. Also: Yes, the first and second offers may be combined for even more savings!
Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, and iPad Pro are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Considering how high the company flies today, it’s sobering to recall the lows Apple hit in the 1990’s. Apple spent the bulk of that decade frantically scrambling to come up with a hit, introducing one failed product after another: a digital camera, a portable CD audio player, powered computer speakers, a gaming console (no, really), and a bizarre set-top box for television. CEO John Sculley bet the farm on Apple’s entry into the nascent “personal digital assistant” category, resulting in the Newton – innovative, before its time – and to this day, one of the most spectacular failures in the company’s history. Literally dozens of indistinguishable Mac models were trotted out, with a bewildering alphabet soup of names, numbers, and specifications.
The original iMac went off like a torpedo to the bow of the Good Ship Computer. It looked and operated like nothing the world had seen.
Market share continued to erode, stock prices plummeted, and Microsoft Windows was mopping the floor with Apple. Sculley was succeeded by Michael Spindler, who was superseded by Gil Amelio. In July 1997, a desperate board of directors fired Amelio amidst record-low stock prices and staggering financial losses.
It was arguably Apple’s darkest hour.
Then co-founder Steve Jobs stepped back up as interim CEO (dubbed “iCEO”), drastically pared down the sprawling product line, and began working on a radical new design with Jonathan Ive.
You can see what they came up with in the photo above. The original iMac went off like a torpedo to the bow of the Good Ship Computer. It looked and operated like nothing the world had seen. And it effectively saved the company, selling almost 800,000 units in its first five months.
Jobs and Ive would later collaborate on the iPod and iPhone, among many, many other projects. Apple was on a roll – a roll that has yet to slow.
Photo credit: Bob Pennell, Mail Tribune
Feel like a little more nostalgia? Read an August 16, 1998 Medford Mail Tribune article about the original iMac’s introduction. Connecting Point is prominently featured in the story – along with a face long familiar to our customers.
