eWorld was an online service operated by Apple Inc. between June 1994 and March 1996. The services included email (eMail Center), news, software installs and a bulletin board system (Community Center). Users of eWorld were often referred to as "ePeople."
Based on a similar service from America Online, eWorld was expensive compared to other services and not well marketed, and failed to attract a high number of subscribers. The service was only available on Apple's Macintosh and Apple IIGS and had limited support on the Newton MessagePad handheld devices, though a PC version had been planned.
History
In the early 1990s online services were becoming widely popular, just as Apple was looking into replacing their aging online service known as AppleLink. AppleLink had originally been developed at the urging of Jon Ebbs, Apple's head of support, who convinced the management that they could lower support costs using an online service. AppleLink had initially been available only to dealers when it launched in 1985, but was later opened to developers and became the de facto internal e-mail service within Apple.
The "back end" of AppleLink was hosted by GE Information Services who charged Apple about $300,000 a year, as well as charging the end users up to $15 for daytime access to the system. Apple had tried to negotiate a better rate on several occasions, but GE knew that switching would cost Apple even more, and refused to lower the costs.
Nevertheless, Apple began to implement changes. Before the advent of eWorld, Apple had started a consumer-oriented online support service known as AppleLink Personal Edition. Related to the older system in name only, this service was run by Quantum Computer Services, who earlier had established the Q-Link online service for the Commodore 64 personal computer. Quantum's Steve Case moved to California for three months to convince Apple to let Quantum run their new consumer service. In 1987, Apple allowed Quantum to run the service and granted them use of the Apple logo. Apple received a 10% royalty for all the system's users while Quantum generated revenue by running the service.
The ideologies of the companies soon clashed. Quantum wanted to bundle the AppleLink software with new Macs and distribute it through direct marketing. At the time Apple did not believe in giving away non-system software for free. That, coupled with Apple's strict design guidelines, caused Quantum to eventually terminate their contract. Steve Case had, however, negotiated a rather beneficial contract, granting Quantum rights to the use of the Apple logo and preventing Apple from marketing its own online service.
In 1991, Quantum was renamed America Online and the service was opened up to PC and Macintosh users. Apple wanted out of their contract with GE, which was costing them far more money than it was saving, and wanted to provide their own Mac-only competition to AOL's service. They canceled their GE contract and formed an Online Services Group. The group licensed the original AppleLink Personal Edition software from AOL and developed it into what would be known as eWorld. The group also struck a deal with AOL to help develop the service and spent 1993 working on the new software and various services to be offered. According to an AOL press release on January 5, 1994, eWorld was "created using technology licensed from America Online. The two companies have been collaborating to build the platform for Apple’s online services since December 1992, when America Online granted Apple a non-exclusive license to use the company’s interactive services platform."
On January 5, 1994, Apple announced eWorld at the 1994 Macworld Conference & Expo, where they invited attendees to become beta testers for the service. On June 20 of that year, the service went into full operation. The eWorld service was a combination of the vast technical and support archives of the previous AppleLink services and a more traditional community service like AOL and CompuServe. The eWorld service was only accessible from Macs and in parts, Newton OS-operated devices. A Windows version was promised to appear in 1995; it never left the early beta stage.
Features
The primary portal of the service was the eWorld software. The software was based around a "town hall" metaphor where each of the service’s branches was an individual "building". Over 400 media and technology companies created information products on the service. Several Mac software and hardware companies opened up virtual forums on the service to provide customer support and general product information to subscribers. The main eWorld portal also encompassed a wide variety of news and information services.