Macbook M1 History

Macintosh
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This article is about the computer brand. For the fruit, see McIntosh (apple).
For other uses, see McIntosh.
Not to be confused with Mackintosh.

Clockwise from top: MacBook Air (2015), iMac G5 20" (2004), Macintosh II (1987), Power Mac G4 Cube
(2000), iBook G3 Blueberry (1999) and original Macintosh 128K (1984)

The Macintosh (mainly Mac since 1998)[1] is a family of personal computers designed,

manufactured, and sold by Apple Inc. (originally as Apple Computer, Inc.) since January
1984.
The original Macintosh is the first successful mass-market all-in-one desktop personal
computer to have featured a graphical user interface, built-in screen, and mouse.
[2]
 Apple sold the Macintosh alongside its popular Apple II, Apple IIGS, Apple III,
and Apple Lisa families of computers until the other models were discontinued in the
1990s.
Early Macintosh models were relatively expensive, [3] hindering competitiveness in a
market dominated by the much cheaper Commodore 64 for consumers, as well as
the IBM Personal Computer and its accompanying clone market for businesses,
[4]
 although they were less expensive than the Xerox Alto and other computers with
graphical user interfaces that predated the Mac, except Atari ST. Macintosh systems
were successful in education and desktop publishing, making Apple the second-largest
PC manufacturer for the next decade. In the early 1990s, Apple introduced the
Macintosh LC II and Color Classic which were price-competitive with Wintel machines at
the time.
However, the introduction of Windows 3.1 and Intel's Pentium processor, which beat
the Motorola 68040 used in then-current Macintoshes in most benchmarks, gradually
took market share from Apple, and by the end of 1994 Apple was relegated to third
place as Compaq became the top PC manufacturer. Even after the transition to the
superior PowerPC-based Power Macintosh line in the mid-1990s, the falling prices of
commodity PC components, poor inventory management with the Macintosh Performa,
and the release of Windows 95 contributed to continued decline of the Macintosh user
base.
Upon his return to the company, Steve Jobs led Apple to consolidate the complex line of
nearly twenty Macintosh models in mid-1997 (including models made for specific
regions) down to four in mid-1999: the Power Macintosh G3, iMac G3, 14.1" PowerBook
G3, and 12" iBook. All four products were critically and commercially successful due to
their high performance, competitive prices, and aesthetic designs, and helped return
Apple to profitability.
Around this time, Apple phased out the Macintosh name in favor of "Mac", a nickname
that had been in common use since the development of the first model. After
their transition to Intel processors in 2006, the complete lineup was Intel-based. This
changed in 2020 when the M1 chip was introduced to the MacBook Air, entry level
MacBook Pro and Mac Mini.
Its current lineup includes three desktops (the all-in-one iMac and the desktop Mac
Mini and Mac Pro), and two notebooks (the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro).
Its Xserve server was discontinued in 2011 in favor of the Mac Mini and Mac Pro.
Apple has developed a series of Macintosh operating systems. The first versions initially
had no name but came to be known as the "Macintosh System Software" in 1988, "Mac
OS" in 1997 with the release of Mac OS 7.6, and retrospectively called "Classic Mac
OS". Apple produced a Unix-based operating system for the Macintosh
called A/UX from 1988 to 1995, which closely resembled contemporary versions of the
Macintosh system software. Apple does not license macOS for use on non-Apple
computers, however, System 7 was licensed to various companies through Apple's
Macintosh clone program from 1995 to 1997. Only one company, UMAX Technologies,
was legally licensed to ship clones running Mac OS 8. [5]
In 2001, Apple released Mac OS X, a modern Unix-based operating system which was
later rebranded to simply OS X in 2012, and then macOS in 2016. Its final version
was macOS Catalina, as Apple went on to release macOS Big Sur in 2020. The current
version is macOS Monterey, first released on June 7, 2021.[6] Intel-based Macs can run
native third party operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, and Microsoft
Windows with the aid of Boot Camp or third-party software. (The same feat has been
accomplished on ARM-based Apple silicon, but it requires an operating system built for
it.) Volunteer communities have customized Intel-based macOS to run illicitly on non-
Apple computers.
 The Macintosh family of computers has used a variety of different CPU architectures
since its introduction. Originally they used the Motorola 68000 series of
microprocessors. In the mid-1990s they transitioned to PowerPC processors, and again
in the mid-2000s they began to use 32- and 64-bit Intel x86 processors. Apple began
transitioning CPU architectures to its own Apple silicon for use in the Macintosh
beginning in 2020.[7]

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
o 2.11978–84: Development and introduction
o 2.21984: Debut
o 2.31984–90: Desktop publishing
o 2.41990–98: Decline and transition to PowerPC
o 2.51998–2005: Revival
o 2.62005–2011: Switch to Intel processors and unibody redesign
o 2.72011-2016: Post-Jobs era
o 2.82016–2019: Critical reviews and lack of quality
o 2.92019–2020: Fixing flaws and focus on professionals
o 2.102020–present: Transition to Apple silicon
 3Timeline of Macintosh models
 4Current product line
 5Hardware
 6Software
 7Market share and user demographics
o 7.11984–97: Success and decline
o 7.21997–2007: Comeback
o 7.32007–present: "Post-PC" era
 8See also
 9References
 10Further reading
 11External links

Etymology[edit]
The Macintosh project began in 1979 when Jef Raskin, an Apple employee, envisioned
an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. He wanted to name the
computer after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh[8] /ˈmækɪnˌtɒʃ/ MAK-in-tosh), but
the spelling was changed to "Macintosh" for legal reasons as the original was the same
spelling as that used by McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., an audio equipment manufacturer.
[9]
 Steve Jobs requested that McIntosh Laboratory give Apple a release for the newly
spelled name, thus allowing Apple to use it. The request was denied, forcing Apple to
eventually buy the rights to use this name. [10] A 1984 Byte magazine article suggested
Apple changed the spelling only after "early users" misspelled "McIntosh". [11] However,
Jef Raskin had adopted the "Macintosh" spelling by 1981, [12] when the Macintosh
computer was still a single prototype machine in the lab.

History[edit]

The original Macintosh 128k

See also: History of Apple Inc.

1978–84: Development and introduction[edit]

A prototype of the Macintosh from 1981 (at the Computer History Museum)
The original Macintosh featured a radically new graphical user interface. Users interacted with the computer
using a metaphorical desktop that included icons of real life items, instead of abstract textual commands.

In 1978 Apple began to organize the Apple Lisa project, aiming to build a next-

generation machine similar to an advanced Apple II or the yet-to-be-introduced IBM PC.
In 1979 Steve Jobs learned of the advanced work on graphical user interfaces (GUI)
taking place at Xerox PARC. He arranged for Apple engineers to be allowed to visit
PARC to see the systems in action.[13] The Apple Lisa project was immediately redirected
to use a GUI, which at that time was well beyond the state of the
art for microprocessor abilities; the Xerox Alto required a custom processor that
spanned several circuit boards in a case which was the size of a small refrigerator.
Things had changed dramatically with the introduction of the 16/32-bit Motorola
68000 in 1979, which offered at least an order of magnitude better performance than
existing designs and made a software GUI machine a practical possibility. The basic
layout of the Lisa was largely complete by 1982, at which point Jobs's continual
suggestions for improvements led to him being kicked off the project. [14]
At the same time that the Lisa was becoming a GUI machine in 1979, Jef Raskin began
the Macintosh project. The design at that time was for a low-cost, easy-to-use machine
for the average consumer. Instead of a GUI, it intended to use a text-based user
interface that allowed several programs to be running and easily switched between, and
special command keys on the keyboard that accessed standardized commands in the
programs. Raskin was authorized to start hiring for the project in September 1979, [15] and
he immediately asked his long-time colleague, Brian Howard, to join him. [16] His initial
team would eventually consist of himself, Howard, Joanna Hoffman, Burrell Smith,
and Bud Tribble.[17] The rest of the original Mac team would include Bill Atkinson, Bob
Belleville, Steve Capps, George Crow, Donn Denman, Chris Espinosa, Andy
Hertzfeld, Bruce Horn, Susan Kare, Larry Kenyon, and Caroline Rose with Steve
Jobs leading the project.[18] In a 2013 interview, Steve Wozniak insinuated that he had
been leading the initial design and development phase of the Macintosh project until
1981 when he experienced a traumatic airplane crash and temporarily left the company,
at which point Jobs took over. In that same interview, Wozniak said that the original
Macintosh "failed" under Jobs and that it was not until Jobs left that it became a
success. He attributed the eventual success of the Macintosh to people like John
Sculley "who worked to build a Macintosh market when the Apple II went away". [19]
Smith's first Macintosh board was built to Raskin's design specifications: it had
64 kilobytes (kB) of random-access memory (RAM), used the 8-bit Motorola 6809E
microprocessor, and could support a 256×256-pixel black and white raster
graphics (bitmap) display. Bud Tribble, a member of the Mac team, was interested in
running the Apple Lisa's graphical programs on the Macintosh and asked Smith whether
he could incorporate Lisa's 68000 microprocessor into the Mac while still keeping the
production cost down. By December 1980, Smith had succeeded in designing a board
that not only used the 68000 but increased its speed from Lisa's 5 MHz to 8 MHz; this
board also had the capacity to support a 384×256-pixel display. Smith's design used
fewer RAM chips than the Lisa, which made the production of the board significantly
more cost-efficient. The final Mac design was self-contained and had the
complete QuickDraw picture language and interpreter in 64 KB of ROM – far more than
most other computers which typically had around 4 to 8 KB of ROM; it had 128 kB of
RAM, in the form of sixteen 64-kilobit (kb) RAM chips soldered to the logicboard.
Although there were no memory slots, its RAM was expandable to 512 kB by means of
soldering sixteen IC sockets to accept 256 kb RAM chips in place of the factory-installed
chips. The final product's screen was a 9-inch (23 cm), 512x342
pixel monochrome display, exceeding the size of the planned screen. [20]
Burrell's innovative design, combining the low production cost of an Apple II with the
computing power of Lisa's Motorola 68000 CPU, began to receive Jobs's attentions.
[21]
 InfoWorld in September 1981 reported on the existence of the secret Lisa and
"McIntosh" projects at Apple. Stating that they and another computer "are all scheduled
to be ready for release within a year", it described McIntosh as a portable computer with
the 68000 and 128KB memory, and possibly battery-powered. [22] Realizing that the
Macintosh was more marketable than the Lisa, Jobs began to focus his attention on the
project. Raskin left the team in 1981 over a personality conflict with Jobs. After
development had completed, team member Andy Hertzfeld said that the final Macintosh
design is closer to Jobs's ideas than Raskin's.[15] When Jobs was forced out of the Lisa
team in 1982, he devoted his entire attention to the Macintosh.
Jobs commissioned industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger to work on the Macintosh line,
resulting in the "Snow White" design language; although it came too late for the earliest
Macs, it was implemented in most other mid- to late-1980s Apple computers. [23]
1984: Debut[edit]
In 1982 Regis McKenna was brought in to shape the marketing and launch of the
Macintosh.[24] Later the Regis McKenna team grew to include Jane Anderson, Katie
Cadigan and Andy Cunningham,[25] who eventually led the Apple account for the agency.
[26]
 Cunningham and Anderson were the primary authors of the Macintosh launch plan. [27]
[28][29]
 The launch of the Macintosh pioneered many different tactics that are used today in
launching technology products, including the "multiple exclusive," event marketing
(credited to John Sculley, who brought the concept over from Pepsi), creating a
mystique about a product and giving an inside look into a product's creation. [30]
After the Lisa's announcement, John Dvorak discussed rumors of a mysterious
"MacIntosh" project at Apple in February 1983.[31] The company announced
the Macintosh 128K—manufactured at an Apple factory in Fremont, California—in
October 1983, followed by an 18-page brochure included with various magazines in
December.[32][33] The Macintosh was introduced by a US$1.5 million Ridley
Scott television commercial, "1984".[10]:113 It aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl
XVIII on January 22, 1984, and is now considered a "watershed event" [34] and a
"masterpiece".[35] McKenna called the ad "more successful than the Mac itself." [36] "1984"
used an unnamed heroine to represent the coming of the Macintosh (indicated by
a Picasso-style picture of the computer on her white tank top) as a means of saving
humanity from the "conformity" of IBM's attempts to dominate the computer industry.
The ad alludes to George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four which described
a dystopian future ruled by a televised "Big Brother."[37][38]
Two days after "1984" aired, the Macintosh went on sale, and came bundled with two
applications designed to show off its interface: MacWrite and MacPaint. It was first
demonstrated by Steve Jobs in the first of his famous Mac keynote speeches, and
though the Mac garnered an immediate, enthusiastic following, some labeled it a mere
"toy."[39] Because the operating system was designed largely for the GUI, existing text-
mode and command-driven applications had to be redesigned and the programming
code rewritten. This was a time-consuming task that many software developers chose
not to undertake, and could be regarded as a reason for an initial lack of software for
the new system. In April 1984, Microsoft's MultiPlan migrated over from MS-DOS,
with Microsoft Word following in January 1985.[40] In 1985 Lotus
Software introduced Lotus Jazz for the Macintosh platform after the success of Lotus 1-
2-3 for the IBM PC, although it was largely a flop.[41] Apple introduced the Macintosh
Office suite the same year with the "Lemmings" ad. Infamous for insulting its own
potential customers, the ad was not successful.[42]
Apple spent $2.5 million purchasing all 39 advertising pages in a special, post-election
issue of Newsweek,[43] and ran a "Test Drive a Macintosh" promotion, in which potential
buyers with a credit card could take home a Macintosh for 24 hours and return it to a
dealer afterwards. While 200,000 people participated, dealers disliked the promotion,
the supply of computers was insufficient for demand, and many were returned in such a
bad condition that they could no longer be sold. This marketing campaign caused CEO
John Sculley to raise the price from $1,995 to $2,495 (equivalent to $6,000 in 2020). [3]
[42]
 The computer sold well, nonetheless, reportedly outselling the IBM PCjr which also
began shipping early that year; one dealer reported a backlog of more than 600 orders.
[44][45]
 By April 1984 the company sold 50,000 Macintoshes, and hoped for 70,000 by early
May and almost 250,000 by the end of the year.[46]
1984–90: Desktop publishing[edit]
Most Apple II sales had once been to companies, but the IBM PC caused small
businesses, schools, and some homes to become Apple's main customers. [47] Jobs
stated during the Macintosh's introduction "we expect Macintosh to become the third
industry standard", after the Apple II and IBM PC. Although outselling every other
computer, and so compelling that one dealer described it as "the first $2,500 impulse
item", Macintosh did not meet expectations during the first year, especially among
business customers. Only about ten applications including MacWrite and MacPaint
were widely available,[44][48] although many non-Apple software developers participated in
the introduction and Apple promised that 79 companies including Lotus, Digital
Research, and Ashton-Tate were creating products for the new computer. After one
year for each computer, the Macintosh had less than one-quarter of the PC's software
selection—including one word processor, two databases, and one spreadsheet—
although Apple had sold 280,000 Macintoshes compared to IBM's first-year sales of
fewer than 100,000 PCs.[49] MacWrite's inclusion with the Macintosh discouraged
developers from creating other word processing software. [50]
Although Macintosh excited software developers, [44] they were required to learn how to
write software that used the graphic user interface, [49] and early in the computer's history
needed a Lisa 2 or Unix system to write Macintosh software. [51] Infocom had developed
the only third-party games for the Mac's launch by replacing the buggy early operating
system with the company's own minimal bootable game platform.[52] Despite
standardizing on Pascal for software development Apple did not release a native-code
Pascal compiler. Until third-party Pascal compilers appeared, developers had to write
software in other languages while still learning enough Pascal to understand Inside
Macintosh.[53]
The Macintosh 128K, originally released as the Apple Macintosh, is the original Apple
Macintosh personal computer. Its beige case consisted of a 9 in (23 cm) CRT monitor
and came with a keyboard and mouse. A handle built into the top of the case made it
easier for the computer to be lifted and carried. This was synonymous with the release
of the iconic 1984 TV Advertisement by Apple. This model and the 512k released in
September of the same year had signatures of the core team embossed inside the hard
plastic cover and soon became collector pieces.
In 1985 the combination of the Mac, Apple's LaserWriter printer, and Mac-specific
software like Boston Software's MacPublisher and Aldus PageMaker enabled users to
design, preview, and print page layouts complete with text and graphics—an activity to
become known as desktop publishing. Initially, desktop publishing was unique to the
Macintosh, but eventually became available for other platforms. [54] Later, applications
such as Macromedia FreeHand, QuarkXPress,
and Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator strengthened the Mac's position as a graphics
computer and helped to expand the emerging desktop publishing market.

The Apple Macintosh Plus at the Design Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden

The Macintosh's minimal memory became apparent, even compared with other
personal computers in 1984, and could not be expanded easily. It also lacked a hard
disk drive or the means to easily attach one. Many small companies sprang up to
address the memory issue. Suggestions revolved around either upgrading the memory
to 512 KB or removing the computer's 16 memory chips and replacing them with larger-
capacity chips, a tedious and difficult operation. In October 1984 Apple introduced
the Macintosh 512K, with quadruple the memory of the original, at a price of US$3,195.
[55]
 It also offered an upgrade for 128k Macs that involved replacing the logic board.
Apple released the Macintosh Plus on January 10, 1986, for a price of US$2,600. It
offered one megabyte of RAM, easily expandable to four megabytes by the use
of socketed RAM boards. It also featured a SCSI parallel interface, allowing up to seven
peripherals—such as hard drives and scanners—to be attached to the machine.
Its floppy drive was increased to an 800 kB capacity. The Mac Plus was an immediate
success and remained in production, unchanged, until October 15, 1990; on sale for just
over four years and ten months, it was the longest-lived Macintosh in Apple's
history[56] until the 2nd generation Mac Pro that was introduced on December 19, 2013,
surpassed this record on September 18, 2018. In September 1986 Apple introduced the
Macintosh Programmer's Workshop, or MPW, an application that allowed software
developers to create software for Macintosh on Macintosh, rather than cross
compiling from a Lisa. In August 1987, Apple unveiled HyperCard and MultiFinder,
which added cooperative multitasking to the operating system. Apple began bundling
both with every Macintosh.

The Macintosh II, the first Macintosh model with color graphics

Updated Motorola CPUs made a faster machine possible, and in 1987 Apple took
advantage of the new Motorola technology and introduced the Macintosh II at $5500,
powered by a 16 MHz Motorola 68020 processor.[57] The primary improvement in the
Macintosh II was Color QuickDraw in ROM, a color version of the graphics language
which was the heart of the machine. Among the many innovations in Color QuickDraw
were the ability to handle any display size, any color depth, and multiple monitors. The
Macintosh II marked the start of a new direction for the Macintosh, as now for the first
time it had an open architecture with several NuBus expansion slots, support for color
graphics and external monitors, and a modular design similar to that of the IBM PC. It
had an internal hard drive and a power supply with a fan, which was initially fairly loud.
[58]
 One third-party developer sold a device to regulate fan speed based on a heat
sensor, but it voided the warranty.[59] Later Macintosh computers had quieter power
supplies and hard drives.
The Macintosh SE, updated Compact Macintosh design using Snow White design language

The Macintosh SE was released at the same time as the Macintosh II for $2900 (or
$3900 with hard drive), as the first compact Mac with a 20 MB internal hard drive and an
expansion slot.[60] The SE's expansion slot was located inside the case along with the
CRT, potentially exposing an upgrader to high voltage. For this reason, Apple
recommended users bring their SE to an authorized Apple dealer to have upgrades
performed.[61] The SE also updated Jerry Manock and Terry Oyama's original design and
shared the Macintosh II's Snow White design language, as well as the new Apple
Desktop Bus (ADB) mouse and keyboard that had first appeared on the Apple
IIGS some months earlier.
In 1987 Apple spun off its software business as Claris. It was given the code and rights
to several applications, most notably MacWrite, MacPaint, and MacProject. In the late
1980s, Claris released a number of revamped software titles; the result was the "Pro"
series, including MacDraw Pro, MacWrite Pro, and FileMaker Pro. To provide a
complete office suite, Claris purchased the rights to the Informix
Wingz spreadsheet program on the Mac, renaming it Claris Resolve, and added the
new presentation software Claris Impact. By the early 1990s, Claris applications were
shipping with the majority of consumer-level Macintoshes and were extremely popular.
In 1991 Claris released ClarisWorks, which soon became their second best-selling
application. When Claris was reincorporated back into Apple in 1998, ClarisWorks was
renamed AppleWorks beginning with version 5.0. [62]

The Macintosh Portable, Apple's first battery-powered Macintosh

In 1988 Apple sued Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard on the grounds that they infringed

Apple's copyrighted GUI, citing (among other things) the use of rectangular,
overlapping, and resizable windows. After four years, the case was decided against
Apple, as were later appeals. Apple's actions were criticized by some in the software
community, including the Free Software Foundation (FSF), who felt Apple was trying to
monopolize on GUIs in general, and boycotted GNU software for the Macintosh platform
for seven years.[63][64]
With the new Motorola 68030 processor came the Macintosh IIx in 1988, which had
benefited from internal improvements, including an on-board MMU.[65] It was followed in
1989 by the Macintosh IIcx, a more compact version with fewer slots [66] and a version of
the Mac SE powered by the 16 MHz 68030, the Macintosh SE/30.[67] Later that year,
the Macintosh IIci, running at 25 MHz, was the first Mac to be "32-bit clean." This
allowed it to natively support more than 8 MB of RAM,[68] unlike its predecessors, which
had "32-bit dirty" ROMs (8 of the 32 bits available for addressing were used for OS-
level flags). System 7 was the first Macintosh operating system to support 32-bit
addressing.[69] The following year, the Macintosh IIfx, starting at US$9,900, was unveiled.
Apart from its fast 40 MHz 68030 processor, it had significant internal architectural
improvements, including faster memory and two Apple II CPUs (6502s) dedicated
to input/output (I/O) processing.[70]
1990–98: Decline and transition to PowerPC[edit]
The third version of Microsoft Windows, Windows 3.0, was released in May 1990.
Although still a graphical wrapper that relied upon MS-DOS, 3.0 was the first iteration of
Windows which had a feature set and performance comparable to the much more
expensive Macintosh platform. While the Macintosh was still mainly regarded as
superior to Windows at the time, by this point, Windows "was good enough for the
average user".[71] It also did not help matters that during the previous year Jean-Louis
Gassée had steadfastly refused to lower the profit margins on Mac computers. Finally,
there was a component shortage that rocked the exponentially-expanding PC industry
in 1989, forcing Apple USA head Allan Loren to cut prices, which dropped Apple's
margins.[71]

The Macintosh LC II with a Macintosh 12" RGB Display.

In response, Apple introduced a range of relatively inexpensive Macs in October 1990.

The Macintosh Classic, essentially a less expensive version of the Macintosh SE, was
the least expensive Mac offered until early 2001.[72] The 68020-powered Macintosh LC,
in its distinctive "pizza box" case, offered color graphics and was accompanied by a
new, low-cost 512×384 pixel monitor.[73] The Macintosh IIsi was essentially a 20 MHz IIci
with only one expansion slot.[74] All three machines sold well,[75] although Apple's profit
margin on them was considerably lower than that on earlier models. [72]
Apple improved Macintosh computers by introducing models equipped with newly
available processors from the 68k lineup. The Macintosh Classic II[76] and Macintosh LC
II, which used a 16 MHz 68030 CPU,[77] were joined in 1991 by the Macintosh
Quadra 700[78] and 900,[79] the first Macs to employ the faster Motorola 68040 processor.

The PowerBook 100

Apple released their first portable computer, the Macintosh Portable in 1989. Although
due to considerable design issues, it was soon replaced in 1991 with the first of
the PowerBook line: the PowerBook 100, a miniaturized portable;
the 16 MHz 68030 PowerBook 140; and the 25 MHz 68030 PowerBook 170.[80] They
were the first portable computers with the keyboard behind a palm rest and a built-in
pointing device (a trackball) in front of the keyboard.[81] The 1993 PowerBook 165c was
Apple's first portable computer to feature a color screen, displaying 256 colors with 640
× 400-pixel resolution.[82] The second generation of PowerBooks, the 68040-
equipped 500 series, introduced trackpads, integrated stereo speakers, and built-
in Ethernet to the laptop form factor in 1994.[83]
As for Mac OS, System 7 introduced a form of virtual memory, improved the
performance of color graphics, and gained standard co-operative multitasking. Also
during this time, the Macintosh began to shed the "Snow White" design language, along
with the expensive consulting fees they were paying to Frogdesign. Apple instead
brought the design work in-house by establishing the Apple Industrial Design Group,
becoming responsible for crafting a new look for all Apple products. [84]
Intel had tried unsuccessfully to push Apple to migrate the Macintosh platform to Intel
chips. Apple concluded that Intel's complex instruction set computer (CISC) architecture
ultimately would be unable to compete against reduced instruction set computer (RISC)
processors.[85] While the Motorola 68040 offered the same features as the Intel
80486 and could on a clock-for-clock basis significantly outperform the Intel chip, the
486 had the ability to be clocked significantly faster without suffering from overheating
problems, especially the clock-doubled i486DX2 which ran the CPU logic at twice the
external bus speed, giving such equipped IBM compatible systems a significant
performance lead over their Macintosh equivalents. [86][87] Apple's product design and
engineering did not help matters as they restricted the use of the '040 to their expensive
Quadras for a time while the 486 was readily available to OEMs as well as enthusiasts
who put together their own machines. In late 1991, as the higher-end Macintosh
desktop lineup transitioned to the '040, Apple was unable to offer the '040 in their top-of-
the-line PowerBooks until early 1994 with the PowerBook 500 series, several years
after the first 486-powered IBM compatible laptops hit the market which cost Apple
considerable sales. In 1993 Intel rolled out the Pentium processors as the successor to
the 486, while the Motorola 68050 was never released, leaving the Macintosh platform a
generation behind IBM compatibles in the latest CPU technology. In 1994 Apple
abandoned Motorola CPUs for the RISC PowerPC architecture developed by the AIM
alliance of Apple Computer, IBM, and Motorola.[88] The Power Macintosh line, the first to
use the new chips, proved to be highly successful, with over a million PowerPC units
sold in nine months.[89] However, in the long run, spurning Intel for the PowerPC was a
mistake as the commoditization of Intel-architecture chips meant Apple could not
compete on price against "the Dells of the world". [85]
Notwithstanding these technical and commercial successes on the Macintosh, the
falling costs of components made IBM PC compatibles cheaper and accelerated their
adoption, over Macintosh systems that remained fairly expensive. A successful price
war initiated by Compaq vaulted them from third place to first among PC manufacturers
in 1994, overtaking a struggling IBM and relegating Apple to third place. [90][91][92]
Furthermore, Apple had created too many similar models that confused potential
buyers. At one point, its product lineup was subdivided into Classic, LC, II,
Quadra, Performa, and Centris models, with essentially the same computer being sold
under a number of different names.[93] These models competed against Macintosh
clones, hardware manufactured by third parties to whom Apple had licensed System 7.
This succeeded in increasing the Macintosh's market share somewhat and provided
cheaper hardware for consumers, but hurt Apple financially as existing Apple customers
began to buy cheaper clones which cannibalized the sales of Apple's higher-margin
Macintosh systems, while Apple continued to bear the burden of developing Mac OS.
Apple's market share further struggled due to the release of the Windows 95 operating
system, which unified Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products.
Windows 95 significantly enhanced the multimedia ability and performance of IBM PC
compatible computers and brought the abilities of Windows substantially nearer to parity
with Mac OS.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 following the company's purchase of NeXT,
he ordered that the OS that had been previewed as System 7.7 be branded Mac OS 8,
a name Apple had previously wished to preserve for the never-to-appear next
generation Copland OS. This maneuver effectively ended the clone lines, as Apple had
only licensed System 7 to clone manufacturers, not Mac OS 8. The decision caused
significant financial losses for companies like Motorola, who produced the StarMax;
Umax, who produced the SuperMac;[94] and Power Computing, who offered several lines
of Mac clones, including the PowerWave, PowerTower, and PowerTower Pro. [95] These
companies had invested substantial resources in creating their own Mac-compatible
hardware.[96] Apple bought out Power Computing's license but allowed Umax to continue
selling Mac clones until their license expired, as they had a sizeable presence in the
lower-end segment that Apple did not. In September 1997 Apple extended Umax's
license allowing them to sell clones with Mac OS 8, the only clone maker to do so, but
with the restriction that they only sell low-end systems. Without the higher profit margins
of high-end systems, however, Umax judged this would not be profitable and exited the
Mac clone market in May 1998, having lost US$36 million on the program. [10]:256[97][98]
1998–2005: Revival[edit]

The iMac G3, introduced in 1998. While it led Apple's return to profitability, its associated mouse was one of
consumers' least favorite products.[99]

In 1998 Apple introduced its new iMac which, like the original 128K Mac, was an all-in-
one computer. Its translucent plastic case, originally Bondi blue and later various
additional colors, is considered an industrial design landmark of the late 1990s. The
iMac did away with most of Apple's standard (and usually proprietary) connections, such
as SCSI and ADB, in favor of two USB ports.[100] It replaced a floppy disk drive with a CD-
ROM drive for installing software,[101][102] but could not write to CDs or other media without
external third-party hardware. The iMac proved to be phenomenally successful, with
800,000 units sold in 139 days.[103] It made the company an annual profit of
US$309 million, Apple's first profitable year since Michael Spindler took over as CEO in
1995.[104] This aesthetic was applied to the Power Macintosh G3 and later the iBook,
Apple's first consumer-level notebook computer, filling the missing quadrant of Apple's
"four-square product matrix" (desktop and portable products for
both consumers and professionals).[105] More than 140,000 pre-orders were placed
before it began shipping in September,[106] and by October proved to be a large success.
[107]

The iMac also marked Apple's transition from the "Macintosh" name to the more
simplistic "Mac". Apple completed the elimination of the Macintosh product name in
1999 when "Power Macintosh" was retired with the introduction of the Power Mac G4.
In early 2001 Apple began shipping computers with CD-RW drives and emphasized the
Mac's ability to play DVDs by including DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM drives as standard.
[108]
 Steve Jobs admitted that Apple had been "late to the party" on writable CD
technology, but felt that Macs could become a "digital hub" that linked and enabled an
"emerging digital lifestyle".[109] Apple would later introduce an update to its iTunes music
player software that enabled it to burn CDs, along with a controversial "Rip, Mix, Burn"
advertising campaign that some[110] felt encouraged media piracy.[111] This accompanied
the release of the iPod, Apple's first successful handheld device. Apple continued to
launch products, such as the unsuccessful Power Mac G4 Cube,[112] the education-
oriented eMac, and the titanium (and later aluminum) PowerBook G4 notebook for
professionals.
The original iMac used a PowerPC G3 processor, but G4 and G5 chips were soon
added, both accompanied by complete case redesigns that dropped the array of colors
in favor of white plastic. As of 2007, all iMacs use aluminum cases. On January 11,
2005, Apple announced the Mac Mini, priced at US$499, making it the cheapest Mac. [113]
[114]

Mac OS continued to evolve up to version 9.2.2, including retrofits such as the addition
of a nanokernel and support for Multiprocessing Services 2.0 in Mac OS 8.6, though its
dated architecture made replacement necessary.[115] From its beginnings on an 8 MHz
machine with 128 KB of RAM, it had grown to support Apple's latest 1 GHz G4-
equipped Macs. Since its architecture was first established, the lack of base features
that were already common on Apple's competition, like preemptive
multitasking and protected memory, reached a critical mass. As such, Apple
introduced Mac OS X, a fully overhauled Unix-based successor to Mac OS 9. OS X
uses Darwin, XNU, and Mach as foundations, and is based on NeXTSTEP. It was
released to the public in September 2000 as the Mac OS X Public Beta, featuring a
revamped user interface called "Aqua". At US$29.99, it allowed adventurous Mac users
to sample Apple's new operating system and provide feedback for the actual release.
[116]
 The initial version of Mac OS X, 10.0 "Cheetah", was released on March 24, 2001.
Older Mac OS applications could still run under early Mac OS X versions, using an
environment called "Classic". Subsequent releases of Mac OS X included 10.1
"Puma" (2001), 10.2 "Jaguar" (2002), 10.3 "Panther" (2003) and 10.4 "Tiger" (2005).
2005–2011: Switch to Intel processors and unibody redesign[edit]
Apple discontinued the use of PowerPC processors in 2006. At WWDC 2005, Steve
Jobs announced this transition, revealing that Mac OS X was always developed to run
on both the Intel and PowerPC architectures. [117] This was done to make the company's
computer more modern, keeping pace with Intel's low power Pentium M chips,
especially for heat-sensitive laptops.[118] The PowerPC G5 chip's heavy power
consumption and heat output (the Power Mac G5 had to be liquid-cooled) also
prevented its use in Mac notebook computers (as well as the original Mac mini), which
were forced to use the older and slower PowerPC G4 chip. These shortcomings of the
PowerPC chips were the main reasons behind the Mac's transition to Intel processors,
and the brand was revitalized by the subsequent boost in processing power available
due to greater efficiency and the ability to implement multiple cores in Mac CPUs.
All Macs now used x86-64 processors made by Intel, and some were renamed as a
result.[119] Intel-based Macs running OS X 10.6 and below (support has been
discontinued since 10.7) can run pre-existing software developed for PowerPC using
an emulator named Rosetta,[120] although at noticeably slower speeds than native
programs. However, the Classic environment is now unavailable on the Intel
architecture. Intel chips introduced the potential to run the Microsoft Windows operating
system natively on Apple hardware, without emulation software such as Virtual PC. In
March 2006 a group of hackers announced that they were able to run Windows XP on
an Intel-based Mac. The group released their software as open source and has posted
it for download on their website.[121] On April 5, 2006, Apple announced the availability of
the public beta of Boot Camp, software that allows owners of Intel-based Macs to install
Windows XP on their machines; later versions added support for Windows
Vista and Windows 7. Classic was discontinued in Mac OS X 10.5, and Boot Camp
became a standard feature on Intel-based Macs.[122][123]
Starting in 2006, Apple's industrial design shifted to favor aluminum, which was used in
the construction of the first MacBook Pro. Glass was added in 2008 with the introduction
of the unibody MacBook Pro. These materials are billed as environmentally friendly.
[124]
 The iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Mini lines currently all use aluminum
enclosures, and are now made of a single unibody.[125][126][127] Chief designer Sir Jonathan
Ive guided products towards a minimalist and simple feel, [128][129] including the elimination
of replaceable batteries in notebooks.[130] Multi-touch gestures from
the iPhone's interface have been applied to the Mac line in the form of touch pads on
notebooks and the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad for desktops.
On February 24, 2011, Apple became the first company to bring to market a computer
that used Intel's new Thunderbolt (codename Light Peak) I/O interface. Using the same
physical interface as a Mini DisplayPort, and backwards compatible with that standard,
Thunderbolt boasts two-way transfer speeds of 10 Gbit/s.[131]
2011-2016: Post-Jobs era[edit]
The iMac was redesigned in 2012 to feature significantly thinner side edges, faster
processors, and the removal of the SuperDrive.
At WWDC 2012, the new MacBook Pro with Retina display was announced, with a
thinner body, faster CPUs and GPUs, a higher pixel density display similar to the
iPhone's, MagSafe 2, and quieter impeller fans on the 15” model. It received mostly
positive reviews, with Nilay Patel of The Verge calling it “one of the best displays to ever
ship on a laptop”,[132] although other reviewers criticized the lack of some ports and the
removal of the SuperDrive.
On WWDC 2013, the new Mac Pro was unveiled, with Phil Schiller saying “Can't
innovate anymore, my ass!” in response to critics stating that Apple without Jobs could
not innovate.[133] It had an entirely new design, being much smaller, with a glossy dark
gray cylindrical body, with a thermal core in the middle, with the components of the Mac
built around it. It was released to generally positive reviews, although some criticized
the lack of much upgradability.
Apple released a service program in 2015 to let users of 2011 15” MacBook Pros get
their logic board replaced, due to a fatal flaw where the Nvidia dedicated GPU becomes
overheated and generates artifacts on the display, or refuses to function entirely.
The MacBook was brought back in 2015 with a completely redesigned aluminum
unibody chassis, with a 12” display, low power Intel Core M processors, a much more
smaller logic board, tiered batteries to maximize use of the space, lack of any fans, a
new Butterfly keyboard, a single USB-C port, and a solid-state Force Touch trackpad
with pressure sensitivity. It was praised for its portability, but criticized for the lack of
performance, and the need to use adapters to use most USB peripherals, and high
starting price, the same as the 13” MacBook Pro's.
In the same year, the MacBook Pro was updated to have more battery life, faster flash
storage and the same Force Touch trackpad from the MacBook, being completely still in
usage, with a Taptic Engine linear oscillator simulating the feel of a standard trackpad. [134]
2016–2019: Critical reviews and lack of quality[edit]
The 4th generation MacBook Pro was released at an Apple Special Event in October
2016, with a thinner design, the replacement of all ports except the headphone jack with
USB-C ports, the Butterfly keyboard from the MacBook, P3 wide color gamut display,
and the Touch Bar, an touchscreen OLED display strip replacing the function keys and
the escape key on some models of the MacBook Pro, with a UI that changes and
adapts depending on the application being used. It also replaces the power button with
a Touch ID sensor on models with the Touch Bar. It was released to mixed reviews,
with most reviewers criticizing the Touch Bar, which made it harder to use the function
keys by feel, as it had no tactile feedback. The Verge's Miranda Nielsen described it as
“I felt like a kid learning how to type again.”,[135] with Dana Wollman from Engadget hitting
the Touch Bar when she meant to hit the delete key. [136] The USB-C ports were also a
source of frustration for many users, especially the professional demographic of the
MacBook Pro, requiring users to buy adapters or “dongles” to connect USB-A and SD
card devices.
A few months later many users reported the Butterfly keyboard on the MacBook and
MacBook Pro getting stuck, or not registering letters. The problem was identified as dust
or small foreign objects such as sand and food crumbs getting under the keyboard,
jamming it and requiring customers to take it to an Apple Store or authorized service
center to repair it.[137]
After years had gone by without the Mac Pro getting any meaningful updates, VP of
marketing Phil Schiller admitted in 2017 that the current Mac Pro did not meet
expectations and in an interview with tech reporters, said the following:
“We know there are a number of customers who continue to buy our current Mac Pros.
To be clear, our current Mac Pro has met the needs of some of our customers, and we
know clearly not all of our customers. None of this is black and white, it’s a wide variety
of customers. Some… it’s the kind of system they wanted; others, it was not.”
“-As we’ve said, we made something bold that we thought would be great for the
majority of our Mac Pro users. And what we discovered was that it was great for some
and not others. Enough so that we need to take another path. One of the good things,
hopefully, with Apple through the years has been a willingness to say when something
isn’t quite what we wanted it to be, didn’t live up to expectations, to not be afraid to
admit it and look for the next answer.”
Craig Federighi, SVP of software engineering, also admitted in the same interview:
“ I think we designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner, if you will. We designed a
system with the kind of GPUs that at the time we thought we needed, and that we
thought we could well serve with a two GPU architecture. That that was the thermal limit
we needed, or the thermal capacity we needed. But workloads didn’t materialize to fit
that as broadly as we hoped.”
[138]

The iMac Pro was revealed at WWDC 2017 by John Ternus with Intel Xeon W
processors and Radeon Vega graphics. [139] It was partly a stopgap for professional users
until the next generation Mac Pro arrived.
In 2018, Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro with faster processors and a third-generation
Butterfly keyboard, and the redesigned MacBook Air with a Retina display released in
the same year added silicone gaskets to prevent dust and small objects from getting in,
and launched a program to repair affected keyboards free of charge, [140] but users
continued to be affected by the issue.[141]
Some models of the 2018 MacBook Pro 15” had a flaw where the Core i9 processor
would get uncomfortably hot, with YouTuber Dave Lee recording a maximum
temperature of 93 degrees Celsius under load, and thermal throttled to the point it was
slower than the 2017 15” MacBook Pro with a Core i7 CPU. [142] Apple patched this issue
by releasing a supplemental update to High Sierra, and stated:
“Following extensive performance testing under numerous workloads, we’ve identified
that there is a missing digital key in the firmware that impacts the thermal management
system and could drive clock speeds down under heavy thermal loads on the new
MacBook Pro. A bug fix is included in today’s macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental
Update and is recommended.” After installing the patch, Dave Lee noted that the
MacBook Pro alleviated the issues, now not being nearly as hot. [143]
The MacBook Air was redesigned with a Retina display, Butterfly keyboard, Force
Touch Trackpad, and removed all ports save for the headphone jack and replaced them
with 2 Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports.[144]
2019–2020: Fixing flaws and focus on professionals[edit]
The 2019 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air refreshes both removed the Butterfly
keyboard and replaced them with what Apple dubbed the “Magic Keyboard”, which is
largely identical to the scissor-switch mechanism used in MacBooks prior to 2016. The
Touch Bar and Touch ID was also made standard on all MacBook Pros, with the Touch
ID/power button now separated and moved more to the right, and the escape key now
made physical and detached from the Touch Bar too.
At WWDC 2019, then VP of hardware engineering John Ternus revealed the all-new
Mac Pro, with a new design more akin to the Power Macs than the cylindrical design of
the previous Mac Pro, with far more upgradability with Apple's own custom-designed
PCIe expansion cards, the MPX modules, although standard PCIe devices such as
AMD graphics cards work as well, although compatibility differs depending on the card.
Almost every part is user-replaceable, with iFixit giving it a 9/10 repairability score. [145] It
gained positive reviews, with reviewers praising the modularity and upgradability, and
quiet cooling, while also meeting the demands of professionals who were unsatisfied
with the previous generation Mac Pro.
2020–present: Transition to Apple silicon[edit]
In April 2018, Bloomberg published rumors stating that Apple intended to drop Intel
chips and replace them with ARM processors similar to those used in its phones,
causing Intel's shares to fall 6%. The Verge, commenting on the rumors, stated that
such a decision made sense, as Intel was failing to make any significant improvements
to its lineup and could not compete for battery life with ARM chips. [146][147]
At WWDC 2020, Tim Cook announced the transition to in-house SoCs, built upon
an ARM architecture, over a two-year timeline.[7] On November 10, 2020, Apple
announced the first Macs to ship with Apple silicon: the MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and the
13" MacBook Pro.[148] The MacBook Air was the only Mac to move exclusively to Apple
silicon with this announcement, as the 13" MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini are still being
sold with the option of an Intel processor. [149] Paralleling the transition from PowerPC to
Intel, Macs with Apple silicon can run software designed for Intel chips using an
emulator called Rosetta 2.[150]
Apple allowed select developers to rent a Developer Transition Kit (DTK) for $500, with
the agreement that they would return it after a year. [151] The DTK was a Mac Mini with the
iPad Pro's A12Z Bionic chip inside instead of a more traditional x86 Intel processor, to
help developers optimize their apps for the upcoming Arm Macs. [152]
At an online November 2020 special event, Apple unveiled the first batch of ARM Macs,
the MacBook Air, the 13” MacBook Pro, and the Mac Mini. They all had a custom-
designed Apple M1 system on a chip (SoC), faster than any ARM processor ever
produced by Apple, featuring 4 high-performance cores and 4 low-power cores, a 7-
core GPU option in the MacBook Air or an 8-core GPU on more expensive models of
the Air, and as standard on the Pro and Mini.[153] Furthermore, they have a 16-core neural
engine for up to 11 times faster machine-learning performance. As these chips are a lot
less power-hungry, the MacBook Pro 13" has a battery life of up to 20 hours. [154]
It was released to immensely positive reviews, [155][156] with most reviewers saying that it
had longer battery life, was much cooler, and much faster than the Intel chips used in
the previous generation. The Rosetta 2 translation software also worked with most Intel
applications, with not much of a performance decrease, and much faster performance
and adoption than Windows and Microsoft’s Surface Pro X.
The iMac Pro was quietly discontinued in March 6, 2021 after only receiving 2 minor
updates.[157]
On April 20, 2021, the new 24” iMac was revealed, [158] coming in 7 new colors and the
Apple M1 chip. The entire enclosure is now made from 100% recycled aluminum and is
11.5mm thin. The screen was upgraded from a 21.5” size to 24” 4.5K Retina display,
with thinner white bezels.