I remember when the Mac was introduced. It was quite a revolutionary product in that IBM compatible PC's at the time were still DOS based, and mostly running 8088 processors. 1984 was also the year in which the 80286 processor based IBM PC AT was introduced, but the operating system was still DOS.
In Fortune 500 companies of that time, most data processing was done on IBM mainframes, and although very few PC's occupied any desktops at that time, about the only PC's that one would find there were IBM or clones thereof. If they were connected to the mainframe at all, it was through either 3270 terminal emulation through a 3270 terminal controller or via dialup as an ASCII terminal. Steve Jobs wanted to try to capture the hearts and minds of the Fortune 500 top data processing executives with the enhanced functionality of the Mac's user interface. One very astute move on his part was to invite many of these guys to the Mac unveiling and to give each one a Mac to take home with them. While Apple didn't gain a huge amount of market share in that segment, it was recognized that the platform was suitable to some applications.
That was only 21 years ago, but in the timeline of events defining the evolution of computers and electronic communication, it was an era eons in the past.
