Macintosh History

How much do you know about Apple Macintosh History? Here is a quick journey through history of Macintosh computers from its introduction to the present.

Did you know?

Apple introduced the first Macintosh computer in 1984, first to its board of directors and then to the world. The Macintosh had a mouse just like its predecessor, the Lisa, but excluded the arrow keys on its keyboard in order to encourage mouse usage for navigation.

The first Mac computer also did not have a Ctrl key which was included later. The Macintosh introduced a different type of GUI that used square pixels - instead of rectangle pixels as used in the Lisa. Memory chip costs forced the the computer to use 128K of memory instead of 256K. It was for this reason that Apple introduced Fat Mac which contained 512K.

Microsoft office applications (Word 1.0 and Excel 1.0) were included in Macintosh for the first time in 1985. For the first time in Macintosh history an expandable version of Macintosh called Macintosh Plus was introduced on January 16, 1986. The Macintosh Plus keyboard included additions such as arrow keys and a numeric keypad, much like the computer we enjoy today. Macintosh Plus also introduced SCSI support in 1986 that allowed the computer to support seven other devices like hard drives, printers, tape drives, scanners etc.

The one-millionth Macintosh was built in 1987. Macintosh II was introduced in 1987 as a model for the first color Mac computer. Apple introduced Mac IIci, 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.

10th Anniversary in the History of Macintosh Computers

Macintosh reached its 10th anniversary in 1994 and introduced its first set of products for DOS which was a much unexpected development. 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 is the year that put an end to the Vintage Mac era. 

Apple released, for the first time, a Beta version of its next generation OS 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 2008, just a week before the Mac World Expo, Apple introduced its updated Apple Mac Pro, another unexpected surprise.

Silver Anniversary in Apple Macintosh History

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. Let us watch to see what the Macintosh will have to offer in the next decade of the 21st century.

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