tion:
$9,995.00, Standard Memory: 1Mbyte. The predecessor to the Macintosh
on which most of the major developments were based. (This machine had
its genesis in a visit the Steve Jobs made to the Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center (P.A.R.C.) where he saw a demonstration of the Xerox
'Alto'. The Alto was the first machine to have a fully implemented,
mouse driven, graphical user interface -- a GUI). The LISA may have
actually been a better machine than the early Macintosh, but it was
very expensive to manufacture and did not sell in the needed
volumes. Not too long before the final demise of this design, it
received some ROM and display hardware changes to allow it to run
Macintosh software and was redesignated the "Macintosh XL". Following
this change, the unit began to sell in volumes that surprised Apple
executives, but sales were still not enough to save the line.
The LISA/Mac XL line was finally discontinued in mid-1984.
1983: Visicorp, the successor to Personal Software, develops the
Visi-On windowing system. It is based on an intermediate engine so that
it can run on a wide variety of computers, but this generality affects
its performance. Many concepts and people came from
Xerox Parc. The two initial applications are a spread sheet and a
1983: John Sculley leaves as PepsiCo president and joins Apple at the
invitation of Steve Jobs, who reportedly asked him, "Do you want to
spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a
chance to change the world?"
1983: Microsoft announces that it will develop a Windows-oriented
operating system for Intel-based microprocessor systems, challenging
Apple's innovation, but Windows 1.0 is not shipped until 1985.
The announcement puts broad committment to alternatives in abeyance.
1983, December: Apple III+ introduced. Price at Introduction:
$2,995.00 Standard Memory: 256k. The Apple III+ (lower price, more
memory, many internal fixes/updates) was the final effort to address
the problems and save the line. It failed. In April 1984, only 4
months after the introduction of the Apple III+, the line was killed.
1984, January: Apple Macintosh introduced.
Price at Introduction: $2,495.00. Standard Memory: 128Kb.
1984, April?: Apple IIc portable introduced. Price at Introduction:
$1,295.00 Had 80 column display capability, a built-in 5.25 inch
diskette drive, mouse and printer ports, and a game port. The first
real 'portable' entry in the Apple II line.
1984: Commodore founder Jack Tramiel buys Atari from Warners, lays off most of the Atari staff.
1985: Steve Jobs leaves Apple to start NeXT computers, focusing on the
educational market. He receives substantial funding.
1985: Apple and Microsoft entered into a secret agreement.
This agreement granted Microsoft a license to use the windows and icons
in the development of version 1.0.
In exchange, Microsoft agreed to develop software for the Macintosh platform.
[Richmond Law Journal, 10 April 1995].
1985: Aldus introduces PageMaker for the Macintosh and starts
the desktop publishing era.
1986, January: Apple Macintosh 'Plus' introduced. Price at
Introduction: $2,599.00. Standard Memory: 1Mb. The follow up machine
to the original Macintosh (with 128k of memory) and the so called "Fat
Mac" (with 512k memory). The 'Plus' was the first of the Macintosh
line to allow memory expansion through the use of SIMM memory. Prior
to this all memory was soldered to the main logic board. The 'SE' is
usually found with from 1mb to 4Mb of memory.
1986, September: Apple IIgs ('Woz' Signature Edition) introduced.
Price at Introduction: $999.00 .
1986, September: Apple IIgs (Standard Edition) introduced.
Price at Introduction: $999.00.
1987: Apple Macintosh 'II'. The Mac gets big, and gets slots. The
Macintosh II arrives on the scene in a 'PC' size desktop case and has
the then new "NuBus" expantion slots for add-on cards. Based on the
Motorola 68020 microprocessor, and bringing support for color
displays, the Mac II sets the new standard for the Macintosh
line for a time... .
1987: Apple introduces HyperCard sofware.
1987, March: Apple Macintosh 'SE