Macintosh

October 19, 1992: Apple launches the Mac IIvx, the first Macintosh computer to ship with a metal case and, more importantly, an internal CD-ROM drive.

The last of the Macintosh II series, the Mac IIvx experiences one of the more notorious price adjustments in Apple history. Within five months of shipping, Apple slashes the computer’s launch price of $2,949 to $1,899. That’s one way to reward early adopters!

September 27, 1979: Years before the Macintosh will ship, Steve Jobs and Jef Raskin clash for the first time over the direction of the R&D project to produce Apple’s revolutionary computer. Raskin, the founder of the Macintosh project, wants to produce a machine that’s affordable for everyone. Apple co-founder Jobs wants a computer that’s going to be the best, regardless of price.

Guess who won?

August 31, 2004: Apple launches the iMac G5, a distinctive, white plastic computer that looks a little like the world’s biggest iPod.

Housed in a 2-inch-thick enclosure reminiscent of Apple’s Cinema Displays, the new all-in-one machine bridges the gap between the pleasing plasticity of the iconic original iMac and the minimalist form factor of the ultra-slim aluminum Macs that will follow.

“Just like the iPod redefined portable digital music players, the new iMac G5 redefines what users expect from a consumer desktop,” says Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, in a press release. “With the entire system, including a gorgeous 17- or 20-inch display, just two inches thin, a lot of people will be wondering ‘where did the computer go?’”

August 25, 1995: Apple releases the PowerBook 5300, the Mac laptop that will save the world from alien invaders in the 1996 blockbuster movie Independence Day.

The computer will make many more big-screen appearances, too. See some of the laptop’s most high-profile Hollywood cameos below.

July 27, 1955: Joanna Hoffman, who will join the original Macintosh and NeXT teams and become Steve Jobs’ first right-hand woman, is born in Poland.

Six months younger than Jobs, the marketing executive is one of the few people willing and able to stand up to the oftentimes-fierce Apple co-founder during the first part of his career.

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.

July 4, 1985: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs visits Moscow for the first time, with the aim of selling Macs to the Russians. During his two-day trip to the Soviet Union, Jobs lectures computer science students, attends a Fourth of July party at the American embassy and discusses opening a Mac factory in Russia.

He also reportedly almost runs afoul of the KGB by praising assassinated Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

May 16, 1994: Apple launches the PowerBook 540c, one of the best laptops in the company’s history.

Part of the innovative 500 series of PowerBooks, the 540c is the laptop to own in 1994. Blisteringly fast, packed with innovative features, and offering the best notebook display on the market, it’s a triumph on every level. Although for $5,539 (over $11,900 in today’s money), it had better be…

May 3, 1984: Apple marks the all-important first 100 days of Mac sales, signaling whether the product launch is a hit with customers.

The results outstrip even Steve Jobs’ most optimistic targets. Unfortunately, not everything is as positive as it seems following the successful Mac launch.

April 14, 1986: The “low-cost” Macintosh 512Ke brings hardware upgrades — and a bit of confusion — to the low end of the Mac lineup.

The Mac 512Ke is an “enhanced” (hence the “e”) model of the Mac 512K. The upgrade addresses complaints that the original Mac lacked enough memory. The 512Ke adds a double-density 800KB floppy drive and a 128KB ROM to the Mac 512K formula.

April 10, 1985: During a fateful meeting, Apple CEO John Sculley threatens to resign unless the company’s board of directors removes Steve Jobs as executive VP and general manager of the Macintosh division.

Sculley’s threat triggers a series of events that ultimately will result in Jobs’ exit. The marathon board meeting — which continues for several hours the next day — leads to Jobs losing his operating role within the company. However, the Apple board allows him to stay on as chairman. Things won’t exactly play out like that.

April 7, 1997: Apple’s System 7 operating system receives its last update with the shipment of Mac OS 7.6.1.

The update brings a few bug fixes and support for Apple’s new PCI Power Macs and the PowerBook 3400. Most importantly, it marks the end of the System 7 era, which dawned way back in 1991.

March 20, 1997: Apple launches its Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, a futuristic, special-edition Mac that’s ahead of its time in every way. Not part of any established Mac line, it brings a look (and a price!) unlike anything else available — and Apple delivers them to buyers in a limo!

And yet the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh promptly bombs. Today, it’s a collector’s piece.

March 19, 1990: The ultra-fast Macintosh IIfx makes its debut, sporting a hefty price tag appropriate for such a speedy machine.

The fastest Macintosh of its day, it boasts a CPU running at a “wicked fast” 40 MHz. It gains an additional speed bump from a pair of Apple-designed, application-specific integrated circuits. Prices start at $9,870 and run up to $12,000 — the equivalent of $23,989 to $29,166 in 2024 money!

March 14, 1994: Apple introduces the Power Macintosh 7100, a midrange Mac that will become memorable for two reasons.

The first is that it is among the first Macs to use new PowerPC processors. The second is that it results in Apple getting taken to court by astronomer Carl Sagan — not once but twice.

March 1, 1991: Apple introduces the Apple IIe Card, a $199 peripheral that lets users turn Macs into fully functioning Apple IIe computers.

The ability to emulate the popular Apple IIe on a Mac brings Apple’s two operating systems side by side for the first time. While not quite the equivalent of Apple letting you run iOS on a Mac today, it’s not a world away.

January 24, 1984: Apple ships its first Mac, the mighty Macintosh 128K.

Bringing a mouse and graphical user interface to the masses, and heralded by an acclaimed Super Bowl commercial that’s still talked about today, the first-gen Mac will quickly become one of the most important personal computers ever released.

January 17, 1984: A week before its famous airing during Super Bowl XVIII, Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial debuts as a trailer in movie theaters. To hype its revolutionary new Macintosh computer, Apple buys several months of promotion from theatrical ad distributor ScreenVision.

Cupertino’s sci-fi-tinged “1984” spot — which depicts a sledgehammer-wielding freedom fighter taking on a Big Brother figure supposed to represent IBM — gets such a favorable audience reaction that some theater owners continue to roll the ad after Apple’s contract ends.

November 26, 1984: “The next generation of interesting software will be done on the Macintosh, not the IBM PC,” predicts Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in a BusinessWeek cover story. Gates’ praise for the Mac would seem almost unthinkable coming out of Gates’ mouth just a few years later.

However, the interview arrives at a time when Microsoft is best known as one of the biggest Mac developers.

November 21, 1985: Following Steve Jobs’ departure, Apple comes close to signing its own death warrant by licensing the Macintosh’s look and feel to Microsoft. The Apple-Microsoft deal — struck by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Apple CEO John Sculley — comes hot on the heels of the Windows operating system’s release.

The pact gives Microsoft a “non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, nontransferable license to use [parts of the Mac technology] in present and future software programs, and to license them to and through third parties for use in their software programs.” If you’re wondering when did Bill Gates step down as CEO, his departure marked a major shift in Microsoft’s leadership.

Oh, boy!

November 16, 1982: Intent on giving Apple’s upcoming personal computer a memorable name Steve Jobs pens an impassioned plea to audio company McIntosh Laboratory. In the letter, he asks permission to use the name “Macintosh.”

You can probably guess how the resulting discussions turned out!

Apple only shows off its finished products, which makes the company’s secret prototypes and early concepts all the more fascinating. Details of these first-draft designs usually don’t come out until years after Apple dreams them up and discards them. Even if you’re well-versed in Apple history, these alternate-history unreleased Apple products will intrigue and confuse.

The wild and crazy ideas go back more than 40 years. If anything, it proves that Apple continuously skates toward the next hit. The quest for innovation continues, no matter whether the company is in dire straits or cruising on success. Keep reading or watch our video to see the wildest Apple products that might have been.

Apple launched Vision Pro on the 40th anniversary of the Macintosh. That’s surely not a coincidence — both are ground-breaking computers that show where the company is headed for the coming decades.

Anyone highly critical of Vision Pro because it appeals only to a niche audience and is very expensive needs to remember that those exact same criticisms were leveled at the original Macintosh in 1984. If the current problems really are proof the AR headset is inescapably doomed — as some have argued — then there never would have been a second-generation Macintosh.

I was around when both computers launched. That gives me perspective on what Apple’s past can tell us about the company’s future.

Back in the early 1980s, Alfred DiBlasi made his bones selling tons of Apple computers on Long Island, New York. A diehard Mac fan and an undeniably colorful character, DiBlasi has decades of wild Apple stories to tell.

Like the time he met the two Steves — Jobs and Wozniak at a meeting in Manhattan. (Spoiler alert: While the prickly Jobs refused a handshake, Woz gave DiBlasi a big hug.)

These days, DiBlasi — one of the few people on the planet who uses a much-maligned “Trashcan” Mac Pro as a daily driver — posts things like incredibly detailed walkthroughs of the Apple Lisa and the NeXTCube on his YouTube channel.

Prior to the Mac’s 40th anniversary, DiBlasi talked with Cult of Mac about everything Apple, from the clunky computers that preceded the Macintosh 128K to how the machine evolved over time.

You can watch the full conversation on our YouTube channel, or read up on the highlights below. (We recommend you watch the video — DiBlasi’s a hoot.)

To celebrate the Macintosh’s 40th birthday, the author of a celebrated book about Macs created a website featuring photos of every Mac ever released.

Jonathan Zufi, author of Iconic: A Photographic Tribute To Apple Innovation, just launched Mac40th.com, a new website with more than 1,000 photos of every Mac, ever.

“So many people have come across a Mac at some point in their lives,” Zufi said in an email to Cult of Mac. “Mac40th.com is about giving fans a fun trip down memory lane with the hope that the Macintosh’s 40th anniversary evokes happy memories for anyone who has ever had an experience with an Apple Mac.”