May 13, 1991: Apple releases System 7, the biggest upgrade to the Mac operating system since the original Mac shipped in 1984. System 7 is whip-fast, beautiful to look at, and boasts a bevy of innovative features.
The longest-lasting of Apple’s classic Mac operating systems, it will remain current until System 8 replaces it in 1997.
May 11, 1998: As part of his mission to turn Apple around, Steve Jobs spells out the company’s strategy for the Mac operating system going forward.
The company will ship Mac OS 8.5 and the first customer release of an OS called Rhapsody that fall, he says at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California. The big news, however, is that Apple is hard at work creating a major new operating system called OS X.
May 10, 1999: The third-generation PowerBook G3 comes in 20% slimmer and 2 pounds lighter than its predecessor, but most people remember the laptop for its “bronze” keyboard.
Although it doesn’t get a new name to distinguish it from previous laptops in the lineup, fans call it “Lombard” after Apple’s internal code name (or simply the “PowerBook G3 Bronze Keyboard”).
May 8, 1997: Apple launches the PowerBook 2400c laptop, a 4.4-pound “subnotebook” that’s the MacBook Air of its day.
The PowerBook 2400c predicts the rise of speedy, lightweight notebooks, while also paying tribute to Apple’s past. Its design echoes the original PowerBook 100. Even years later, it remains a cult favorite among many Mac users.
May 6, 1998: Steve Jobs unveils the iMac G3, a brightly colored, translucent computer that will help save Apple.
Ten months after Jobs’ new management team takes over, the iMac loudly announces that the days of Apple quietly fading into the background are over.
July 15, 1998: Apple reports its third profitable quarter after the return of Steve Jobs, continuing the company’s remarkable turnaround.
Cupertino earns $101 million for the quarter, largely thanks to the success of the Power Mac G3. In the same quarter a year earlier, Apple lost $56 million. This marks the first time in three years that the company managed three straight profitable quarters.
April 29, 1997: Steve Jobs’ friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, calls off his bid to take over Apple.
Ellison’s plan is to reinstall Jobs, who is then just an adviser to Apple CEO Gil Amelio, as the company’s chief executive. He also wants to take Apple private again.
December 13, 1994: Apple strikes a deal with Bandai, Japan’s largest toymaker, to license Mac technology for the creation of a new videogame console.
Based on the PowerPC 603 CPU and running a stripped-down, CD-ROM-based version of Mac OS, Apple calls the resulting game machine the “Pippin.” Unfortunately, it becomes a total sales disaster.
April 3, 1995: Apple introduces the Macintosh LC 580, an affordable computer offering good multimedia capabilities on a budget.
It quickly proves popular in the educational market. If you used a Mac in the classroom in the mid-1990s, there’s a good chance it was this very model!
October 23, 1999: Apple releases Mac OS 9, the last version of the classic Mac operating system before the company will make the leap to OS X a couple years later.
It does not veer far from OS 8 in terms of look and feel. However, OS 9 adds a few nifty features that make it well worth the upgrade.
November 22, 1995: Toy Story, Pixar’s first feature-length movie, lands in theaters. The charming film wows the world with the wonders of computer animation.
The most successful of Steve Jobs’ business ventures during his wilderness years outside Apple, the box office smash hit makes his belief in the power of computer graphics pay off in a big way.
August 9, 1995: Netscape Communications, the company behind the Macintosh’s then-web browser Netscape Navigator, floats on the stock market.
While not totally an Apple-centric moment, this was big news for Mac fans in 1995 — and the experience of using Netscape Navigator to surf the internet on a Macintosh is something many older Apple users will still remember fondly.
July 18, 1994: Apple ships its PowerBook 150 laptop, the company’s first truly affordable PowerBook — and the last to feature the original case design, which included a built-in trackball mouse.
While it’s a normal sight to see students using Apple laptops today, there was a time when Mac notebooks were out of the reach of your average learner. That all changed in the 1990s — and the PowerBook 150 played an important role.
July 8, 1991: The first beta version of QuickTime arrives, making it possible for people to play movies on their Macs for the first time, with no extra hardware needed.
While allowing videos to run on a computer seems par for the course in 2016, QuickTime represented an enormous leap forward in 1991 — and cemented Apple’s position as a groundbreaking computer company for creatives.
July 7, 1997: Apple CEO Gil Amelio officially steps down from his role, turning the company over to the returning Steve Jobs, who immediately begins making his presence felt.
If you’re looking to pinpoint a turning point when Apple began the transition from the ailing company it was in the first half of the 1990s to the powerhouse it is today, this is it!
Given its position as the company’s earliest arch-nemesis, Apple’s partnership with IBM was massive news when it was announced a couple of years ago. But it wasn’t the first time the two companies had agreed to help one another.
On 30 June 1993, Apple and IBM shipped their first collaborative product: the catchily-named “SNA.ps 5250” emulation software package, which for the first time let Mac users run software available previously only for IBM PCs. It was the first step in allowing Macs and PCs to talk to each other in a way that didn’t trap their respective users in proprietary ecosystem hell.
Arriving on this day in 1993, the Macintosh LC 520 was among the first of Apple’s LC 500 series of medium-price Macs.
Selling for $2,000, it was particularly popular in educational institutions, a market Apple continues to pursue today. If you went to school in the decade of Nirvana, Bill Clinton and Pulp Fiction, this could well have been the Mac you used!
27 June 1997 marked the last day in the worst financial quarter in Apple history, in which Apple lost $56 million — effectively bringing an end to then-CEO Gil Amelio’s 500 days running the company.
The $56 million loss contributed to an overall Apple loss of $1.6 billion during Amelio’s reign: effectively wiping out every cent of profit Cupertino had earned since fiscal 1991. In other words — ouch!
On June 20, 1994, Apple launched its short-lived eWorld service. Why is eWorld so significant? Because it represented Apple’s first deep dive into being a provider of internet services — several years before Steve Jobs returned to the company and embraced the importance of going online.
Part messaging service, part news aggregator — and all with Apple’s customary premium prices — eWorld was ahead of its time.
