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Apple® & Mac® Milestones

Wikipedia has an extensive series of articles on the history of Apple® Computer, the Mac® Computers, and Mac OS®. The following milestones are based upon those articles.

Apple® Computer was founded on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne and later incorporated January 3, 1977 without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak.

Apple® I, a kit sold as a motherboard, was the first product and was introduced in April 1976 and on sale in July of 1976. It had a 1 MHz MOS 6502 processor and 4 kB of RAM. About 200 units were produced and sold for $666.66..

Apple II® went on sale on June 5, 1977 with the same processor as the Apple® I. It sold for $1,298 for the basic unit and need a TV to use as a monitor. The Apple II® displayed the multicolor Apple® logo which was used until 1998.

Apple III® was introduced in May 1980 with a 2 MHz Synertek 6502A processor at a price of $3,500. Problems with early models such as overheating killed sales. An updated model in 1983 was a failure due to its poor reputation. About this time IBM and Microsoft were taking the lead in the personal computer business. Apple® hung on by maintaining a close relationship with schools.

Apple Lisa® was conceived in 1979, based on the Xerox Alto computer which pioneered the Graphic User Interface (GUI) that all Macs and Windows are based on. It was released in January 1983 for $9,995 and had very limited software: LisaWrite, LisaCalc, LisaDraw, LisaGraph, LisaProject, LisaList, and LisaTerminal. It had a 5 MHz Motorola 68000 processor and two 5 1/4 inch double-sided floppy drives which were not compatible with other 5 1/4 inch diskettes..

Macintosh® or Mac 128K® was a low cost GUI computer with 128kB of memory developed in parallel with the Apple Lisa®. It was introduced at Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. It was well received and was sold for $2,495 bundled with the what-you-see-is-what-you-get applications: MacWrite (word processing) and MacPaint (drawing). It had a 9" black and white monitor built-in as an all-in-one computer plus a single-button mouse and a keyboard. It had an 8 MHz Motorola 68000 processor and one 400 kB floppy drive but was usually purchased with an External Disk Drive. Although Steve Jobs had overseen the successful introduction of the Mac®, an industry-wide sales slump towards the end of 1984 caused a deterioration in Jobs' working relationship with Sculley, and at the end of May 1985 – following an internal power struggle and an announcement of significant layoffs – Sculley relieved Jobs of his duties as head of the Macintosh division.

Fat Mac® or Mac 512K® was the nickname for an update to the all-in-one Macintosh featuring 512kB of Memory introduced in September 1984. New programs such as Macromedia FreeHand, QuarkXPress and Adobe Illustrator made this model even more popular.

LaserWriter®, Apple® Computer's new laser printer introduced in 1985 and software such as Boston Software's MacPublisher and Aldus PageMaker made the Macintosh® the choice for desktop publishing.

Macintosh Plus®, introduced on January 10, 1986 as an update to the the all-in-one Macintosh 512K®, offered one MB of RAM, expandable to four, and a revolutionary SCSI parallel interface, allowing up to seven peripherals—such as hard drives and scanners—to be attached to the machine. Its floppy drive was increased to an 800 kB capacity. Selling for $2,599, the Plus was an immediate success and remained in production until October 15, 1990; on sale for just over four years and ten months, it was the longest-lived Mac® in Apple® Computer's history. An enhanced version of the Mac 512K® debuted as the Macintosh 512Ke® in April 1986. It differed from the original 512K in that it had an 800 kB floppy disk drive and the same improved ROM as the Mac Plus®. The 512Ke was code named the Mac® Minus.

Macintosh II® was introduced in March 1987 with a 16 MHz Motorola 68020 processor, expansion slots, support for color graphics, internal hard drive, and dual floppy drives in a desktop case that looked like a IBM PC with a detached monitor. The base price with no monitor was $3,898. At the same time the Macintosh SE® was introduced. It was an updated Mac Plus® with an expansion slot, an optional internal hard drive or dual floppy drives, and used ADB for the keyboard and mouse.

Macintosh IIx® with its 16 MHz 68030 processor was introduced in September 1988 as an update to the Mac II® desktop with a 1.44 MB SuperDrive® at a base price of $7,769.

The Mac Plus® box was kept alive when the the all-in-one Macintosh SE/30® was introduced in January 1989 with the 16 MHz 68030 processor.

A cost reduced version, the Macintosh IIcx® was introduced in March 1989 and this was upgraded to 25 MHz in the Macintosh IIci® which was introduced in September 1989.

Macintosh Portable® was introduced with a 16 MHz 68000 processor in September 1989. It was the first Mac® "laptop" but weighed in at a hefty 15.8 pounds because of its lead-acid batteries. It sold for $6,500.

Macintosh IIfx® was introduced in March 1990 as an updated Mac II® desktop with a 40 MHz 68030 processor and had a much-improved speedy architecture. By this time Macs had worked their prices up from the original $2,495 to $9,900 for the IIfx. These more expensive Macs meant that the Apple® was leaving its popular base behind but getting entrenched in desktop publishing and graphic arts..

Macintosh Classic® introduced in October 1990 was the first Macintosh sold at a price under $1,000. It used the same processor case and processor as the Mac Plus®, but added more RAM memory, and space for an internal hard drive. It was compatible with older Mac® Operating Systems, but could also run the new System 7 when it came out.

Macintosh LC® introduced low-cost color computing in November 1990 with a 16 MHz 68020 processor starting at $2,500. It was a desktop unit that required a separate monitor, but had a lower profile than the similar Mac II® Computers.

System 7® was the first major improvement of the Macintosh Operating System. It was introduced in May 1991 and was improved but not superceded until 1997. It had major advantages such as multitasking, virtual memory, file sharing, QuickTime, and QuickDraw® 3D. System 7 version 7.6 in 1997 was the first version to be called Mac OS®. It appeared shortly after Microsoft's Windows 3.0 and extended Apple's leadership in the GUI market.

PowerBook 100® was the first low-end notebook Macintosh computer. It was introduced in October 1991 with a 16 MHz Motorola 68000 processor and weighed in at 5.1 pounds and sold for $2,500. It had a 20 MB hard drive, and ADB and Serial ports. It was accompanied by the PowerBook 140® with a 16 MHz 68030 processor, 40 MB hard drive and internal 1.44 MB Superdrive (floppy) and the PowerBook 170® with a 25 MHz 68030 processor. Color versions with the ability to drive external monitors were introduced in 1993.

Macintosh Classic II® was introduced in October 1991 as a faster more powerful version of the all-in-one Macintosh Classic® with a 16 MHz 68030 processor and a 40 MB or 80 MB internal hard drive. The base price was $1,900. The processor was that of the Macintosh LC®. This was to be the last black & white compact Macintosh®, but was sold until September 1993.

Macintosh LC II®, an updated desktop Mac LC®, was introduced in March 1992 with a 16 MHz 68030 processor and optional floating-point processor. The base price was $1,400 without a monitor or hard drive. It added speed, virtual memory, and compatibility with RAM Doubler.

In the early 1990s, Apple® felt the competition from competitors who were running Microsoft Windows 3.0. Apple® responded by introducing a profusion a new Macintosh lines including Quadra® (1991-1994), Centris® (1993), LC® (1990-1994), Power Mac® (1994-2006), and Performa® (1992-1997. Unfortunately these lines were marketed poorly with many similar or identical models and defied Apple's reputation for simplicity.

PowerBook Duo 210® subnotebook computer was introduced in October 1992 with a 25 MHz 68030 processor, 9" flat screen, and a trackball, all in only 4.2 pounds and sold for $2,250. What is unique is that the Duo fits in a Duo Dock® with expansion ports, floppy drive and a port for a CRT display and which would accept a floating-point chip, more RAM, and another hard drive. The basic Duo Dock® cost $500. The last version, the PowerBook Duo® 2300c was introduced in August 1995 and had a 100 MHz PPC chip, color screen and 750 MB or 1.1 GB hard drive. It was produced until mid 1997.

PowerBook 500® series PowerBook® was introduced in May 1994 with 25 MHz 68LC040 or better processors, 160 MB or better hard drives and either color or black/white displays. The base price was $2,270. It was the first PowerBook® featuring a full sized keyboard with function keys.

PowerBook 1400® subnotebook computer was introduced in November 1996 with 117 to 166 MHz PPC 603e processor, with a 11" color display and CD-ROM drive with a base price of $2,000. The PowerBook 2400® and 3400 introduced in early 1997 with a 180/240 MHz PPC processor, 10" color display and 1.3 GM hard drive marked the end of the Duo line. They had a SCSI port, ADB port, and weighed 4.4 pounds.

In 1996, Apple® bought Steve Jobs' company, NeXT, for US$402 million, bringing Jobs back to the company he founded. In 1997 he became Apple's interim CEO after the directors lost confidence in and ousted then-CEO Gil Amelio in a boardroom coup. Gil Amelio had only been CEO for 1 year. He had succeeded Michael Spindler who was CEO the prior 3 years and John Sculley that was CEO the 10 years after Steve Jobs left Apple. In March of 1998, in order to concentrate Apple® Computer's efforts on returning to profitability, Jobs immediately terminated a number of projects such as Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc. Jobs works at Apple® for an annual salary of US$1, and this earned him a listing in Guinness World Records as the "Lowest Paid Chief Executive Officer." At the 2000 keynote speech of Macworld Expo in San Francisco, the company dropped the "interim" from his title, making him permanent CEO of Apple. His current salary at Apple® officially remains US$1 per year, although he has traditionally been the recipient of a number of lucrative "executive gifts" from the board, including a US$46 million jet in 1999 and just under 30 million shares of restricted stock in 2000-2002. As such, Jobs is well compensated for his efforts at Apple® despite the nominal one-dollar salary.

Power Mac® G3 was introduced in November 1997. It was called the beige G3 or platinum G3 and had 233 to 366 MHz processors, 100BASE-TX Ethernet, and 4 to 6 GB hard drives. It was offered as a minitower, a desktop and an all-in-one with a built in screen. The base desktop sold for $1,999. Unfortunately this version was not to be Mac OS X® compatible.

PowerBook® G3 was introduced in November 1997 with 250 MHz G3 processor, a 12" LCD screen. This first model, called the Kanga, does not support OS X. This went through a number of reincarnations ending up with 500 MHz G3 processor, AirPort® wireless networking and FireWire® when introduced in February 2000. These subsequent models were OS X compatible.

iMac® G3 was introduced by Steve Jobs in May 1998 as Apple's low priced all-in-one desktop with a 233 MHz G3 processor, a 15-inch monitor, a 4GB internal hard drive and a unique Bondi-blue and white case, all for $1,299. This model signified the introduction of an internal CD drive and USB ports for all peripherals. Two controversial points were a round mouse and no internal floppy drive. The floppy drive was never to return, but an oblong mouse did evolve. The iMac3 evolved with faster chips up to 700 MHz and different color including Strawberry, Blueberry, Lime, Grape, Tangerine, Graphite, Ruby, Snow, Indigo, Sage and even some patterns.

iBook® G3 was introduced in July 1999 with a 300 MHz G3. It followed the styling of the iMac® G3 and was very unique. It had USB, Ethernet, modem ports, video out, an optical drive and AirPort® wireless compatibility. The first ones were Tangerine and Blueberry and had a base price of $1,599. In February 2002 a speed increase to 366 MHz and Graphite were offered. In September 2003, FireWire® and Indigo and Key-lime were added.

Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White) was introduced in January 1999 as a colorful tower style computer with 300 to 450 MHz G3 processors, DVD ROM drives, and FireWire® at a base price of $1,599. This was the first Power Mac® that would be Mac OS X® compatible. It introduced a novel tower style case that could be opened without a screwdriver. In August 1999, the 400 to 450 MHz Power Mac® G4 was introduced in Graphite and White with a base price of $2,499. The G4 wasn't discontinued until June 2004.

PowerBook® G4 Titanium was introduced in January 2001 with 400 or 500 MHz G4 processors, 12" or 17" screen and was only 1" thick. The base price was $2,599. A new line of Aluminum PowerBook® G4s was introduced in January 2003, with a 866 MHz G4 processor, in 12", 15" or 17" screens.

iTunes, a digital media player application, was introduced by Apple® in January 2001 for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program later became an interface to manage the contents on Apple's popular iPod® digital media players. In 2003, iTunes® could connect to the iTunes® Store to download purchased digital music, music videos, television shows, iPod® games, audio books, various podcasts, and feature length films.

Mac OS X® 10.0 was released in March 2001. This was a major change, going to a Unix based system. It was released before all components were finished. However it did introduce Dock, Terminal, Mail, Address Book, Text Edit, PDF support, AppleScript® , Sherlock® and protected memory. By version Mac OS X® 10.1 in September 2001, all major components were finished and working well including iTunes® and Image Capture for use with digital cameras.

Apple® Retail Stores were first opened in Glendale, CA and McLean, VA in May 2001. Today their are over 180 stores in the US, the UK, Japan, Canada and Italy.

iPod® portable MP3 music players were introduced by Apple® in October 2001 with either 5 or 10 GB of memory for $399 or $499. This first model featured a rotating scroll wheel.

iMac® G4 was introduced in January 2002 with a 700 MHz G4 processor, 40 GB hard drive, DVD drive and a 15" flat panel LCD screen for $1,499. Most notable besides the flat screen was the dome shaped base. The iMac® G4 went through a number of updates until in November 2003 it was released in a 1.25 GHz model with a 20" flat LCD screen. However, all were white.

iPod® second generation portable MP3 music players were introduced by Apple® in July 2002 with either 10 or 20 GB of memory. This first model featured a stationary touch-sensitive wheel.

Mac OS X® 10.2, Jaguar, in August 2002 was a performance increase, but also introduced a new Address Book, iChat, a new Sherlock, and Inkwell.

iTunes® Store was introduced in April 2003 to sell individual songs for $.99 to feed the iPod® market but worked on all computers and other MP3 players. Videos were added to the store in October 2005.

iPod® third generation portable MP3 music players were introduced by Apple® in April 2003 with 10 to 40 GB of memory. This was the first model to use a Dock Connector and work with USB or FireWire.

Mac OS X® 10.3, Panther, was released in October, 2003 and introduced Fax support, TextEdit support for MS Word documents, security improvements, better PDF support, and Font Book.

iPod® mini portable MP3 music players were introduced by Apple® in January 2004 with either 4 or 6 GB of memory. This model was smaller and featured a click wheel.

Power Mac® G5 was introduced in June 2003 as an update to the Power Mac® G4 tower with 1.6 to 2.7 GHz G5 Processors and at least an 80 GB hard drive for a base price of $1,999. It was changed to a Dual-core processors with speeds of 2.0 to 2.5 GHz in October 2005.

iPod® Photo portable media players were introduced by Apple® in July 2004 with 20 to 60 GB of memory. It featured a monochrome monitor but added a color monitor in October 2004.

iMac® G5 was introduced in August 2004 with 1.6 to 2.1 GHz G5 processor, USB 2.0, FireWire® 400, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, Bluetooth and either a 17" or 20" flat screen monitor at a base price of $1,999.. The entire computer is inside the monitor and is easily user serviced due to its modular design. Its life was short since it was soon replaced with the Intel iMac® which looked identical.

G4 Mac Mini® miniature desktop computer was introduced in January 2005 with a 1.25 GHz G4 processor,40 GB hard drive, Combo drive, graphics card, 2 USB 2 ports, 1 FireWire® 400 port, and Ethernet for $499. It provided a very inexpensive way for a person with a keyboard, mouse and monitor to own a Mac.

Pod® shuffle portable MP3 music player wa introduced by Apple® in January 2005 with either 512 MB or 1 GB of memory. This model was smaller, had flash memory and no screen.

Mac OS X® 10.4, Tiger, was released in April 2005. It was a major update and introduced Spotlight, iChat AV, Safari ™ RSS, Mail 2, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Dictionary/Thesaurus, .Mac® syncing, and QuickTime® 7.

Apple Mighty Mouse©, a multibutton USB mouse was introduced by Apple® on August 2, 1005. This was Apple's first multibutton mouse. On 25 July 2006, Apple released the wireless Mighty Mouse which uses Bluetooth 2.0.

iPod® nano portable MP3 music players were introduced by Apple® in September 2005 with 1 to 8 GB of memory. This model was smaller than the mini featured flash memory and a color screen.

iPod® Video portable media players were introduced by Apple® in October 2005 with 30 to 80 GB of memory. It had a larger screen to play videos and had a USB only interface.

Apple® switched to Intel processors in January 2006 with the introduction of the iMac® Core Duo and the MacBook Pro. This major change was IBM's failure to meet its commitments with the previous chip. This was especially true with the lap tops where the power consumption of the IBM chips exceeded expectations. The problem was so serious that the IBM G5 chip was never suitable for the Power Books. This change necessitated that all software be rewritten to run on the Intel Macs. However, Apple® created Rosetta® software to run older software on the Intel Macs and it was done without a noticeable reduction in speed. One side effect of the change was that software is available that permits running Windows and Mac OS X® simultaneously on the Intel Macs. Unfortunately the Window OS is vulnerable to viruses when run on any platform whether it is an Intel Mac® or whatever.

Intel iMac® was introduced in January 2006 with a 1.83 to 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo processor starting at $1299. The case was identical to the iMac® G5. In September 2006 the Intel iMac® was revised to use a 1.83 to 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a claimed 50% increase in speed and the starting prices was reduced to $999. With a new 24 inch monitor that was also introduced it cost $1,999.

MacBook Pro® became available in February 2006 with 1.67 to 1.83 MHz Intel Core Duo Processors, 15" monitor, and 80 to 160 GB hard drives. The 17" monitor was offered in April 2006. Both were updated to the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor in June 2007. However the MacBook Pro has many features that didn't appear on the MacBook such as a better graphics card, lighter weight, larger screen size, high resolution output for an external monitor, illuminated keyboard, and FireWire® 800.

Intel Mac Mini® miniature desktop computer was introduced in February 2006 with a 1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo processor, 60 GB hard drive, 4 USB 2 ports, 1 FireWire® 400 port, Ethernet, AirPort, Bluetooth, Apple® Remote, Front Row, and Combo Drive for $599.

MacBook® became available in May 2006 with a 1.83 to 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and 13" screen for $1,099 and up. It weighs 5.1 pounds. The processor of the MacBook is as fast as the MacBook Pro. The MacBook is easily serviced by the owner with many modular components.

Mac Pro® with a 3 GHz with either 4-core or 8-core Intel Xeon processor was introduced in August 2006. It was packaged as a tower the same as the Power Mac® G5. This powerful market was designed to compete with high-end Unix workstations such as those by Sun and SGI. This power was priced starting at $2,200 plus monitor. The Mac Pro® will run 3 different operating systems: Mac OS X® 104.7 or later, MS Windows XP and Vista, and Linux. A third party emulator such as SheepShaver is necessary to run Mac OS® 9 classic applications. Internal memory can be increased to 16 GB but memory DIMMs must be fitted with a heat sink to prevent overheating.

iPod® shuffle portable MP3 music players were introduced by Apple® in January 2005 with either .512 or 1 GB of memory. This iPod® was very small and had no screen or click wheel. Color versions were added in September 2006.

Apple, Inc. became the corporate name on January 9, 2007.

AppleTV is a set top box introduced in March 2007 with a 40 GB hard drive which was later upgraded to 160 GB and started at $299. This is an HDTV compatible video player. It can play downloads or streaming video which is networked from a computer. It has an Apple® Remote to control it. It has 6 modes: Movies, TV Shows, Music, You Tube, Podcasts, and Photos.

iPhone™ was introduced in June 2007 by Apple® in partnership with AT&T with 4 to 8 GB of memory beginning at $499. iPhone's has a touch screen and its functions include those of a camera phone, a multimedia player, mobile phone, and Internet services like e-mail, text messaging, web browsing, Visual Voicemail and wireless connectivity. It should do the functions of an iPod, cell phone and Blackberry.

iPod touch® was introduced on September 5. The iPod touch looks similar to the iPhone, but is slightly smaller and much thinner. It features a 3.5-inch wide display. It has a touch screen, Wi-Fi and Safari but does not have a phone, camera or email. It will play music for 22 hours or video for 5 hours. The functions include Music, Videos, iTunes, Safari, YouTube, Calendar, Contacts, Clock, and Calculator.The 8 GB model debuted at $299 and the 16 GB model at $399.

Mac OS X® 10.5, Leopard, was introduced on October 26, 2007. It introduced Time Machine, Front Row, Photo Booth, Spaces, Spotlight, Quick Look, Webclip, and iCal sharing and also has Boot Camp for running Windows XP or Vista on Intel-based Macs.

MacBook Air™, was introduced on January 30, 2008. It is part of the MacBook family and features a solid-state hard drive. It weighs 3.0 pounds (1.36 kg) and is 0.76 inches (1.93 cm) thick at its thickest point and 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) at its thinnest, making it the thinnest notebook currently in production.

Time Capsule™, was introduced on February 29, 2008. It is a wireless network-attached storage device combined with a wireless router made designed to work with the Time Machine backup utility in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard". Time Capsule includes a full AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n wireless, an Ethernet WAN port, three Ethernet LAN ports, and one USB port. Storage is provided by either 500 GB or 1 TB sizes hard drives.

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Links for Mac® Enthusiasts:

• Apple® Store - Available online and at retail stores for all Apple® products and accessories
• Apple TV® - Download movies & TV shows from iTunes® and watch on your widescreen TV
• Downloads - Downloads of recent Updates for Mac OS X® and other Apple® Products
• iPhone™ - Apple's new combination cell phone/iPod/internet browser
• iPod® - Portable movie, TV show and music players
• iTunes® Store - Apple's movie, TV show, book and music Download Center
• Leopard - Apples long-awaited new version of Mac OS X®
• LV Apple® Store - The coming Lehigh Valley Apple® Retail Store.
• Manuals - On line manuals for Macs & other Apple® products
• Macs - Newest Apple® Macs and Accessories
• News - Latest News From Apple
• Safari ™ 3 - Apple's Browser for Mac® & Windows
• Software
  • Aperture® - Post-Production Tool for Photographers
  • Final Cut Express® - For editing and mixing movies and music on a budget
  • Final Cut Studio® - For professional editing and mixing motion graphics and music
  • .Mac® - For Email, Websites, Blogs, File Sharing, Photocasting, Backups, etc.
  • iLife® - Includes iPhoto, iMovieHD, iDVD, GarageBand™ & iWeb
  • iTunes® - For downloading and playing music, movies, TV shows, books, etc.
  • iWork® - Includes Pages & Keynote for design publications & presentations
  • Logic® Express - For music creation and production
  • Logic® Pro - For professional music creation and production
  • Mac OS X® - The Operating System for Macs
  • Mac OS X® Server - The Operating System for Mac® Servers
  • Quicktime - For creating and playing movies, slide shows and music
  • Shake - A professional special effects program to work with Final Cut Studio®
• Support - Support for Apple® products and services
• Training - Apple® Training Units lead to Apple® Certification Program

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