With the Macintosh celebrating its 30th birthday today, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the notable Macs we’ve seen over the past thirty years.
For each year, we’ve picked one notable machine. For some years, it was very hard to choose just one! Where prices are shown, the ‘equivalent’ price in brackets is the approximate cost of the machine in today’s money. For example, although the Macintosh 128K cost $2,495, that was the equivalent then of spending $5,600 today.
If you have fond memories of any of these machines, or any other Macs along the way, please share them in the comments …
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel
2008: Macbook Air, no it doesn’t come with 80mb of storage. You’re welcome.
The original MBA 2008 had an 80GB PATA (4200 RPM) hard drive. You are likely thinking of the later model, which had a 128GB SSD.
MB != GB :)
Ah, didn’t spot that :-)
No wonder the original MacBook Air didn’t sell like hot cakes with only a “80MB hard drive” :/
Heh, my first (external) Mac hard drive was 20MB!
That’s the wrong type of 17″ Macbook Pro in the 2009 slot – it should have black keys, not silver.
It was indeed, thanks
The photo is still showing a non-unibody machine though.
This is the correct machine: http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/pY2ODX3BpFvQDWiN.medium
Thanks, Jack – would you believe I owned that one? :-)
Appple should release a special Anniversary Edition of the original Macintosh! :)
Someone put the iPad in the casing, and it’s pretty much a perfect fit!
Clearly from 1991 through 2002 Apple had seriously ugly design problems, no wonder they weren’t shifting any units. They broke the mould in the beginning, yes, but it is only in the last 10 years or so that they have got their design act together.
The iMac, iPod, etc. may be Jony Ive’s claim(s) to fame, but he also designed the MessagePad 110. ;-)
The eMate 300 had an awesome design – both beautiful and futuristic (it presaged many of Apple’s other designs.)
Have you ever seen a Lime, Ruby or Indigo iMac? They were beautiful.
I still have my Power Mac G4, and it’s also a thing of beauty, as was the oft-maligned G4 Cube.
The 2001 PowerBook G4 Titanium … and iPod, for that matter… were all beautiful.
p.s. The white iBook G3 also came out in 2001 – a landmark design that lasted until the last MacBook model was discontinued in 2011.
Why didn’t you use an Apple style font set for the infographic?
The font is Garamond, a customised version of which was Apple’s corporate font for 18 years. Apple Garamond was the font used for the introduction of the Macintosh.
A bit dated then! Not as stylish as their more recent choices!
Yeah, you need Apple Garamond! (Basically a condensed version of Garamond.)
What happened to the IIgs … I had that one.
We had to choose one model per year, so there are many other models not featured.
Uh… it’s not a Mac – it was the last true Apple II series computer introduced by Apple (though they later introduced a IIe card for the LC), and possibly the last Apple that Woz helped to develop!!
Nice machine though, and amazing that Apple was able to add Mac-like features to it!!
The iBook in 1999 did not have WiFi as a standard it was an option for $149.
I sold enough of those WiFi Cards to go from the East Coast to the West coast…
Also, the CD Drive in the 1998 iMac was Read ONLY… Burners did not arrive until the slot load models in 1999 .. By the way I have sold Macs since 1985 !
The point is that the iBook introduced AirPort/WiFi to the world – at the last Macworld Boston in 1999.
Although it was not difficult to install, the AirPort card was internal to the iBook and I am pretty sure Apple shipped configurations that included it pre-installed.
It’s true that the original iMac had a CD-ROM drive; it was pioneering for ditching an internal floppy for an internal CD-ROM and external USB peripherals (I think I still have a USB floppy drive…somewhere…)
Do not forget the super slim iMac launched last year (end of 2012 actually)! For me it’s WOW effect every time I see one. :)
Celebrating the 30th birthday of the Mac(intosh): a 30-year infographic
First Mac was Performa5210. It was named “Macintosh” at the time. And continue to use “Peforma6410” “iBook SE”, “PowerBook G4” and “MacBook 13-inch Late 2007” was later replacement “MacBook Pro 15-inch, Late 2013” at the end of last year.
Latest model very well, we had a comfortable “Mac Life”, but “Mac” and “Macintosh”‘ve been using until now, it is just what none memorable. Thanks to “Apple” who spun off these machines. “Thank you”
Thanks for the memories. But you forgot the PowerBook 520/540 series. I still have a 520c.
Bob Kolquist
Not forgotten – it was quite hard to pick just one machine some years :-)