July 18, 1994: Apple launches the Quadra, LC and Performa 630 Macintoshes, three similar computers with slight differences tailored for the professional, educational and home markets. Aimed at multimedia use, the new 630 series Macs bring innovative hardware and software at a much more affordable price than previous Apple computers.
630 series Macs: All things to all people
Buyers could configure the new 630 series Macs for less than $2,000. While the idea of paying more than $4,300 (adjusted for inflation) for a decent multimedia computer sounds over the top today, in 1994, these new Macs looked like a total steal.
The previous top-end Macs — the Quadra 700 and Quadra 900 — cost between $6,000 and $8,500. That’s the equivalent of between $13,000 and $18,400 in 2024 dollars.
Apple wanted to bring down this price while still giving users the ability to tap into exciting new technologies like a CD-ROM drive, version 2.0 of the QuickTime multimedia software, and a comm slot for a modem or Ethernet card.
Apple adds multimedia hardware for Macs
Cupertino also launched three new multimedia add-ons, hardware that gave the new 630 series Macs a range of capabilities:
- Apple Video card offered composite video, S-video input, audio in, video overlay and a 320×240 video window.
- Apple Video/TV added a television tuner and remote control for TV and CD-ROM to basic Apple Video.
- The high-end Apple Presentation System let users send video to large-screen TVs and print to VCR tapes.
The big difference between the Quadra and the other two models came down to the processors inside. The Quadra 630 was the last Mac designed around the Motorola 68040 processor, while a cheaper Motorola 68LC040 powered the LC and Performa versions. All of them ran at 33 MHz.
In all, the 630 series Macs were good — if not necessarily inspiring — computers. Apple tried to appeal to average customers with these kitted-out multimedia Macs. The education- and home-oriented models — the LC and the Performa respectively — were less powerful than the pro-oriented Quadra model. However, they proved more successful than the business version. Many considered the high-end Quadra underpowered for its users’ main tasks.
Apple continued to walk this line over the years, trying to be all things to all people without pushing too far in any one direction.
Did you own a Quadra, LC or Performa 630 Mac? Tell us how you used these multimedia Macs in the comments section below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
3 responses to “Today in Apple history: Multimedia Macs take on the world”
It was introduced at the end of the Mac II era and unusual in the huge number of variants available, which ranged between consumer and pro-level. There were well over a dozen versions, with weird combinations of a SCSI and IDE internals, an external SCSI port, various combinations of processors and RAM, plus a PC compatible version that included a 486 card that could share RAM and other services (while running far slower than a competing PC). It was a decent machine, even though the choices were far more confusing than any computer store salesman could manage. As a result, Apple only offered a limited selection at brick and mortar stores.
This was at a pivotal time, when Windows had taken the lead and with Apple locked into a pattern of terminally brain-dead marketing while cracking the sales whip to the point that it’s sales management team resorted to channel-stuffing, resulting in stacks of Performas by the front doors and no one to buy them. It would be a few years before the G3s arrived but thanks to the surge in the purchase of home computers Apple was able to hang on. It would be a long four years and a tough road for Apple before the iMac, which totally redefined the consumer desktop.
Thanks. That’s a great overview! :)
I loved my Performa 630! It was a really great machine. I have upgraded it to 36MB RAM, a really big external SCSI HD (2,7GB in 5,25 inch with double height!), MPEG decoder card, Video In card, TV module, 10 baseT/10base2 Ethernet and an external 33.6 Modem.
For those times it was just amazing that you could cut videos (Adobe Premiere LE as far as I remember), make your own Multimedia applications using HyperCard or (what I preferred) HyperStudio. I really loved my 630 even though in those days the 68LC040 was too slow for newer applications within a few years. And I have always missed the possibility to make 3D stuff (because the CPU had no FPU).
Especially compared to todays machine this one had great upgrade options. I whish todays iMacs would be a little more Performa (but not too much from the 5xxx models) ;-)