September 30, 2002: Apple introduces iSync, a tool that lets Mac users synchronize their address books and calendars with their cellphones, iPods and Palm OS-compatible handheld organizers via Bluetooth.
“iSync is the beginning of something really big,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs says in a press release announcing the iSync public beta. “With the push of a button, iSync synchronizes the address book and calendar on your Mac with those on your mobile phone.”
It represents a big leap forward in the ability of computers and mobile devices to talk with one another. And it hints at some of Apple’s later advances.
iSync: The start of something big
Today, iSync is something of a forgotten app. The idea of an audience applauding the ability to call contacts from your Mac using your cellphone seems as retro as the early Sony Ericsson mobile phones used in Jobs’ iSync demo.
In fact, iSync was an ingenious tool. Using an open SyncML standard, it made it possible for the first time for Macs to easily talk with Apple’s still-new iPod as well as gadgets made by third-party manufacturers.
It was, as Jobs stated during a Paris introduction to the technology, the arrival of “Mac to mobile.”
Sure, other proprietary apps would let you sync a specific device to your computer. But iSync’s wireless approach made it something everyone could do. In short, it made syncing painless. That’s something Apple is still trying to perfect today with services and features like iCloud and Handoff.
Predicting Apple’s future
Image: Apple
Apple didn’t actually develop iSync. (A company called FusionOne built it.) However, iSync fit perfectly into Apple’s “digital hub” strategy.
At the time, hearing Jobs talk about the importance of cellphones, PDAs and Macs — and their life-transforming capabilities, if one device could speak to the other — is a pretty neat summary of what Apple managed to do with the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac less than a decade later.
“You want to start looking at your phone as a peripheral to your Mac,” Jobs said.
Since iPhone sales far outnumber Mac sales today, Apple likely would not use those exact words now. Still, the impulse that these devices should talk to each other certainly seems right on the money. So does Jobs’ early dissatisfaction with tiny cellphone keyboards, expressed during his talk.
And, hey, who doesn’t get a tiny bit nostalgic at the sight of Apple’s old brushed-metal icons?
