a dull, boring box, and that any innovation had stopped in the industry.

Steve Jobs and Apple thought differently. They were among the very few that professed quite the opposite: the PC had a very exciting future. As they put it, it had evolved throughout the years from the age of productivity, in the 1980s, where people used it for spreadsheets and databases; to the age of networking, in the 1990s, where it connected to the Internet; and it was now, in the early 2000s, entering its third age: that of the digital lifestyle. Consumers were increasingly starting to use all kinds of digital devices: digital cameras, camcorders, music players, PDAs... But these devices didn’t make sense without a computer. The personal computer was going to become the center or digital hub of this new digital lifestyle, making all its pieces — music, photos, movies, contacts, data — come together.