But Jobs had more than one job, as it were. While Disney computers were becoming best known for their high-end graphics and sound users, Jim Henson and Steve Jobs were growingly increasingly interested in a much humbler audience: kids. Specifically, Henson wanted to produce a small, cheap, simple windowing-GUI-based system that “even a 4-year-old can figure out.” Much as he had with Sesame Street, Henson wanted to give the underprivileged children a fighting chance at education, this time computer literacy, and thus he and Jobs brainstormed a new closed system with big, colorful, and soft keys, an extremely simple and intuitive mouse-and-GUI system, and a colorful, non-threatening appearance. Furthermore, it would be dirt cheap, with bulk discounts for educators and some charity discounts or giveaways such that “every elementary school in the world” should be able to afford a lab of a couple dozen computers. Jim quickly sketched out a small, dome-shaped computer with Mickey Mouse ears on the monitor. Jobs took it to the Imagine, Inc., team, and they set to work.
The idea grew into “Project Mickey”, an idea that was quickly blessed by both Consumer Products VP Bo Boyd and Marketing VP Jack Lindquist due to the positive branding and potential profits that came with it. The Imagine, Inc., team soon developed the Magical Integrated Computer Kernels for the Education of Youth (MICKEY) system, a fully integrated computer system with mouse ears on the monitor and the mouse alike, and the red, yellow, white, and black color pallet of the eponymous mouse. It had limited expansion capability and only a relative handful of software applications (the games were universally educational), but the primary goal was to teach basic computer literacy to the very young. Introduced at the 1988 Disney EXPO, schools across North America bought the system, as did some schools in South America, Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Nintendo even began license-builds of MICKEY for the Asian market. Private sales were noteworthy as well, with an entire secondary market emerging for “used MICKEYs”. [6]