Known as one of the greatest commercials aired during the Super Bowl – and to many, one of the most iconic ads of all time – the 1984 Macintosh commercial widely disrupted the PC industry with a bold statement that introduced Apple as a contender to the then-dominant IBM.

Check it out below.

Challenging the status quo
Apple’s Macintosh commercial challenged the status quo. Everyone believed that IBM would continue as the industry leader in the PC market, and they did, for a number of years even after the commercial aired. Within mainstream society, as well as in the tech scene, IBM’s dominance was not questioned.

This fixated view was turned on its head when Apple made a statement by airing this commercial and providing a new choice for personal computers. If Apple had not had the courage to produce such a shocking ad with their vision, the personal computer (and mobile devices) as we know today would look significantly different.

A new era for the internet
Bringing it back to the domain industry, it’s interesting to draw the parallels between 1984-IBM’s control of the PC market and 2015-.com’s stranglehold on the domain market. Not only is the state of the market strikingly similar, but Apple and XYZ’s bold approach to marketing are alike. Apple didn’t want to target a single audience – they marched in with a vision that everyone with access to electricity will own a Macintosh PC. As with .xyz and other extensions, I want to provide everyone in the world with the option to secure affordable and memorable domains for any need.

With the introduction of over 600 new domain extensions, the market has seen over five million new gTLD registrations in the past year. As a result, thousands of end user websites are going live every day, showing that new gTLD registries are providing consumers with valuable and flexible naming options with options like .xyz, .College, and .rent.

Until last year, this was unheard of!

It’s only the beginning for new domain extensions
Apple disrupted the market in the 1980s, and 30 years later, continues to innovate and grow as one of the largest and most influential tech companies. As the foundation and core of the internet – domain names – are rapidly evolving with new extensions, my question to you is: how will the internet landscape look 30 years down the line?

Here are my thoughts…
As the next generation internet of users gravitate toward more memorable domain options, new extensions will disrupt the status quo of the current domain name market. I believe that the combination of innovative registries and the internet users’ desire for choice in their online presence, will result in new extensions becoming the norm. Within the next 30 years, there will be more new gTLD domains than .com domains, and the status quo will be transformed as we know it.

Have an opinion? Comment below.

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