Mike Scott was Apple’s first (and controversial) CEO. He led the company from February 1977 to March 1981, and during his tenure he nearly canceled the Macintosh project and laid off 40 employees in a day he called “Black Wednesday,” which he said would make the company “fun.”

In reality, this got him fired shortly after, but there was another interesting move during his tenure: special crusade against typewriters.

In an internal statement issued on February 1, 1980, Scott warned that “you all better read this” and then added that “effective immediately, typewriters will no longer be available for purchase or rental.”

In this message, Scott argued that “Apple is an innovative company” and therefore should focus on segments. like word processorsThis document was probably written on an Apple II and is interesting, but it has a few errors: “priority” and three spaces between “and” and “persuade.”

Scott suggested using the Apple II word processor, called “Apple Writer Systems”, which was extremely simple (like WordStar’s predecessor) and primitive.

He even promised that those who gave up their typewriters for the app would be the first to get access to Apple’s “new high-performance systems,” although he didn’t specify which ones because the promise was vague.

This was clearly a unique move by Scott, who wanted to lead his own employees into the future. His opinion was correctTraditional typewriters, even electric typewriters, have now become almost a vanishing commodity in homes and offices.

Microsoft and Office, yes, ultimately won the game and became the new work tools in most offices around the world – Microsoft Word would be born in October 1983 – but they made a move before anyone else at Apple. The typewriter’s days were numbered.

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