' introduced. Price at Introduction:
$2,898.00 (dual floppy version). The first of the Macintosh line to
'officially' support an internal hard drive. Prior to this all hard
drives were either external to the system unit, or were third party
internal units somewhat grudgingly accepted by Apple.
1987: Microsoft releases Windows 2.0 with substantially better performance
and an improved interface.
Competition from IBM and PC-clone makers diminishes Apple's dominance.
1987: Apple spins off its application software business as a separate
company and names it Claris.
1988: Apple sues Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard for replicating more of
the look-and-feel of the Apple interface in their Windows OS 2.03 system.
1988: Next unveils its innovative workstation computer which is
the first computer using erasable optical disks as the primary
mass storage device. The operating system
is based on the CMU Mach version of UNIX, but has pleasant graphical interface.
Quality output is produced by using postscript as the presentation format.
1988: IBM licenses Next's graphics user interface.
1988, September: Apple IIc Plus introduced. Price at Introduction:
$1,099.00. A 3.5 inch built-in diskette drive, integral power supply,
improved sound capabilities, and more... A significant improvement
over the IIc interms of function and convenience.
1989: Apple introduces its long awaited portable Macintosh: the
Powerbook. Standard sized keyboard, built in trackball
for a mouse, and LCD screen
1990: Apple introduces its low-end Macintoshes: The Classic, LC
1990: March: Apple Macintosh 'IIfx' introduced. The first real
'orphan' of the Macintosh line. Based on a 40mHz version of the 68030
microprocessor, Apple selected a rather odd 64 pin SIMM memory module
for this unit that was never used again in any other Apple
computer. This caused the unit to be unusually expensive to upgrade as
the rest of the Macintosh II series of computers returned to more
common configurations of memory.
1986: Steve Jobs buys the Pixar Animation studios from George Lucas.
19yy: Works with Jeff Raskin.
1991: Apple releases the System 7.0 operating system for Macintosh.
1991: Major changes among PC dealers as ComputerLand acquires
Nynex's computer stores, CompuCom acquires Computer Factory, ValCom
and Inacomp merge, JWP buys Businessland and Intelligent Electronics
1991: Apple and IBM sign a historic deal--including two joint
ventures: Kaleida will develop multimedia products, Taligent will
develop object-oriented operating software.
1991: Apple rolls out its PowerBook notebook and Quadra Macintosh
1992: The core of Apple's lawsuit versus Microsoft Windows is
1993: The NeXT system is too costly for the educational
market. Most units were in fact purchased by DoD and ARPA contractors.
Next sells its hardware business to Canon and will concentrate
its effort on the Nextstep software business.
1993: Apple ships the
Newton MessagePad --its first
Personal Digital Assistant, a pet project of John Sculley.
A NEWTON is on display in the PDA section on the basement level.
Unfortunately, the unit suffered from being somewhat under-powered
(CPU wise), limited in expansion capability, and very expensive! But
most of all, it suffered from far too much advance marketing hype! The
handwriting recognition capabilities (the most hyped thing in the
advance marketing) were much more limited than had been implied, and
somewhat temperamental to boot! Later versions began to address these
shortcomings, but by then the damage was done. At one point the
'Newton' division was spun off from Apple Computer into a stand-alone
business in an attempt to make inroads into the market, only to later
be re-absorbed by Apple and then disbanded.
1994: John Sculley leaves Apple after 10 years at the helm. Joins and
leaves Spectrun after 6 months.
1993: Sun Microsystems licenses NextStep and makes a $10M investment
1994, February: The LC 575, a 68040-driven all-in-one computer introduced.
1994: Apple enters the on-line service market by announcing eWorld.
1994: Macintoshes using the PowerPC start shipping.
1994? : 