History of Macintosh Computers

The history of Macintosh computers began when Apple introduced the first Macintosh in 1984. First to its board of directors and then to the world. The Mac had a mouse just like its predecessor, the Apple Lisa computer. But it did not include arrow keys on the keyboard in order to encourage use of the mouse for navigation. There was not Ctrl key either - this was added later.

Definition of GUI

What does GUI mean? According to Princeton's WorldNetWeb, it is a user interface based on graphics incorporating icons, pictures and menus instead of text. It also uses a mouse and keyboard as an input device.

The Macintosh introduced a different type of GUI that used square pixels - instead of rectangle pixels as on the Lisa. Memory chip costs forced the the computer to use 128K of memory instead of 256K. For this reason, Apple introduced Fat Mac which contained 512K.

10th Anniversary in the History of Macintosh Computers

Macintosh reached their 10th anniversary in 1994 with an unexpected development. They introduced their first product set for the DOS environment.

In 1985, Microsoft office applications (Word 1.0 and Excel 1.0) were included in Macintosh computers. The first expandable Mac, the Macintosh Plus, was introduced on January 16, 1986. The Macintosh Plus keyboard included arrow keys and a numeric keypad, much like today's computers. The Macintosh Plus also introduced SCSI support in 1986. This allowed the computer to support up to seven other devices such as external hard drives, printers, tape drives, scanners and more.

In 1996 Apple made a big leap by discontinuing the use of Motorola 680x0 family of processors after 12 years of usage in Mac computers. This was the end of the vintage Mac era.

One Million Macs

The one-millionth Macintosh was built in 1987. Macintosh II was introduced as a model for the first color Mac computer. The Mac IIci came out in 1989, as the first Macintosh computer with speed greater than 16 MHz. Mac IIci ran with a speed of 25 MHz and also enabled a 30 percentage boost in performance with the addition of 32 KB level II Cache.

Apple released, for the first time, a Beta version of its next generation operating system called Mac OS X, on September 13th, 2000 - a turning point in Macintosh operating system history. In 2002, Apple introduced its G4 iMac that was superior in appearance to the G3 iMac. It had a brand new design and a flat display screen.

Apple introduced its Mac Mini in 2005, a very compact computer, with dimensions of 6.5 inches square and 2 inches in height.

In another unexpected surprise, just a week before the 2008 Mac World Expo, Apple introduced its updated Apple Mac Pro.

Silver Anniversary in the History of Macintosh Computers

Macintosh celebrated its 25th anniversary on January 24th, 2009. Having marked its silver jubilee in Macintosh history, Apple continues to innovate, compete and provide something new every year. What will they come up with next?

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