![M2 Macbook Air Midnight model - 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/M2_Macbook_Air_Midnight_model_-_1.jpg)
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of
personal computer
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...
s designed and marketed by
Apple Inc
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software engineers. The current lineup includes the
MacBook Air and
MacBook Pro laptops, as well as the
iMac,
Mac Mini
Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini) is a small form factor (desktop and motherboard), small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. , it is positioned between the consumer all-in-one iMac (Intel-based), iMac and the profes ...
,
Mac Studio and
Mac Pro
Mac Pro is a series of workstations and servers for professionals that are designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2006. The Mac Pro, by some performance benchmarks, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is one of f ...
desktops. Macs run the
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
operating system.
The
first Mac was released in 1984, and was advertised with the highly-acclaimed
"1984" ad. After a period of initial success, the Mac languished in the 1990s, until co-founder
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
returned to Apple in 1997. Jobs oversaw the release of many successful products, unveiled the modern
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
, completed the
2005-06 Intel transition, and brought features from the iPhone back to the Mac. During Tim Cook's tenure as CEO, the Mac underwent a period of neglect, but was later reinvigorated with the introduction of popular high-end Macs and the ongoing
Apple silicon transition, which brought the Mac to the same
ARM architecture as iOS devices.
History
1979–1996: "Macintosh" era
In the late 1970s, the
Apple II
The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
was one of the most popular computers on the market, especially in education. After IBM introduced the
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
in 1981, its sales quickly surpassed the Apple II; in response, Apple introduced the
Apple Lisa
Lisa is a desktop computer developed by Apple, released on January 19, 1983. It is one of the first personal computers to present a graphical user interface (GUI) in a machine aimed at individual business users. Its development began in 1978. ...
in 1983. Though the Lisa's
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
was partially inspired by the work of
Xerox PARC
PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xero ...
, it also went far beyond PARC's prototypes, and introduced original innovations: the ability to drag-and-drop files, menu bars, and double-clicking. This was to no avail: the Lisa was hampered by its high $9,995 price and lack of available software, and failed in the market.
Parallel to the Lisa's development, a skunkworks team at Apple was working on another project. Conceived in 1979 by
Jef Raskin
Jef Raskin (born Jeff Raskin; March 9, 1943 – February 26, 2005) was an American human–computer interface expert best known for conceiving and starting the Macintosh project at Apple in the late 1970s.
Early life and education
Jef Raskin ...
, the Macintosh was envisioned as an affordable, easy-to-use computer for the masses, with the Lisa's graphical interface. Raskin named the computer after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh. The initial team consisted of Raskin, hardware engineer
Burrell Smith
Burrell Carver Smith (born December 16, 1955) is an American engineer who, while working at Apple Computer, designed the motherboard (digital circuit board) for the original Macintosh. He was Apple employee #282, and was hired in February 1979, i ...
, and Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve Jobs, he c ...
;
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
joined it in 1981 after being removed from the Lisa team, and was able to gradually take control of the project due to Wozniak's temporary absence from the company following an airplane crash earlier that year.
Upon its 1984 release, the
first Macintosh was described as a "revolution" by the New York Times. Sales initially met projections, but then sputtered as customers were polarized by its groundbreaking interface, and disappointed by the machine's poor performance and initial lack of applications. Most members of the original Macintosh team left Apple, and Jobs became publicly embroiled with CEO
John Sculley; Jobs left to found
NeXT
Next may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare
* ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage
* '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film
Lit ...
. The first Macintosh nevertheless generated cult enthusiasm from buyers and some developers, who rushed to develop entirely new programs for the platform, including
PageMaker, PowerPoint, and Excel. The Macintosh is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface. It also reflected Jobs' obsession with
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...
, and came bundled with a variety of fonts. It was the first
WYSIWYG
In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...
computer, and due in large part to PageMaker and Apple's
LaserWriter printer, it ignited the
desktop publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online c ...
revolution, turning the Macintosh from an early let-down into a notable success.
In late 1985, Bill Atkinson, one of the few remaining members of the Macintosh team, embarked on a journey to create a
Dynabook
The KiddiComp concept, envisioned by Alan Kay in 1968 while a PhD candidate, and later developed and described as the Dynabook in his 1972 proposal "A personal computer for children of all ages", outlines the requirements for a conceptual portabl ...
, Alan Kay's concept for a tablet computer that stores and organizes knowledge. Sculley rebuffed him, so he adapted the idea into a Mac program,
HyperCard, whose "cards" could store any information — text, image, audio, video — with the
memex-like ability to
semantically link cards to each other. HyperCard was released in 1987 and bundled with every Macintosh.
In the late 1980s,
Jean-Louis Gassée
Jean-Louis Gassée (born March 1944 in Paris, France) is a business executive. He is best known as a former executive at Apple Computer, where he worked from 1981 to 1990. He also founded Be Inc., creators of the BeOS computer operating system. A ...
, a Sculley ''protégé'' who had succeeded Jobs as head of the Macintosh division, made the Mac more open and expandable to appeal to tech enthusiasts and make inroads in the enterprise market. This approach led to the successful 1989 release of the
Macintosh II
The Macintosh II is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from March 1987 to January 1990. Based on the Motorola 68020 32-bit CPU, it is the first Macintosh supporting color graphics. When introduced, a basic sys ...
, which appealed to power users and gave the lineup momentum. However, this unwillingness to compromise on features foiled Apple's first
laptop
A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
, the
Macintosh Portable, which was almost as heavy as the original Macintosh and cost twice as much. The Mac Portable doomed Gassée, who was fired soon after its release.
Since the Mac's debut, Sculley had opposed lowering the company's profit margins, and Macintoshes were priced far above entry-level
DOS computers, He also resisted licensing the Mac OS to competing hardware vendors, who could have undercut Apple on pricing and jeopardized its hardware sales, as
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. ...
s had done to IBM. These early strategic missteps caused the Macintosh to forever lose its chance at becoming the dominant personal computer platform. Though senior management demanded high-margin products, a few employees disobeyed and set out to create a computer that would live up to the original Macintosh's slogan:
computer for the rest of us", which the market clamored for. In a pattern typical of Apple's early era, this once-renegade project was endorsed by senior management following market pressures, and in 1990, the effort birthed the
Macintosh LC and the affordable
Macintosh Classic, the first model under $1,000. Between 1984 and 1989, Apple had sold one million Macs. It sold 10 million over the following five years.
![Powerbook 100 pose](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Powerbook_100_pose.jpg)
In 1991, the Macintosh Portable was replaced with the smaller and lighter
PowerBook 100, the first laptop to place a palm rest and
trackball
A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball to position the on-s ...
in front of the keyboard. The PowerBook brought a billion dollars of revenue within a year, and became a status symbol. By this point, the Macintosh represented 10% to 15% of the personal computer market. Fearing a decline in market share, Sculley decided to enter in an
alliance with IBM and Motorola to create a new standardized computing platform, which led to the creation of the
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
processor architecture, and the failed
Taligent operating system. After 1992, Apple pursued a more aggressive business strategy and flooded the market with Mac models targeting every niche.
Michael Spindler continued this approach when he succeeded Sculley as CEO in 1993. He oversaw the Mac's transition from
Motorola 68K
The Motorola 68000 series (also known as 680x0, m68000, m68k, or 68k) is a family of 32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and workstations and w ...
to PowerPC and the release of Apple's first PowerPC machine, the well-received
Power Macintosh.
Many new Macintoshes suffered from inventory and
quality control
Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements".
This approach places ...
problems. The 1995
PowerBook 5300
The PowerBook 5300 is the first generation of PowerBook laptops manufactured by Apple Computer to use the PowerPC processor. Released in August 1995, these PowerBooks were notable for being the first to feature hot-swappable expansion module ...
was plagued with quality problems; some units even caught fire, and the laptop was the subject of several recalls. Pessimistic about Apple's future, Spindler repeatedly attempted to sell Apple to other companies, including IBM, Kodak, AT&T, Sun, and Philips. In a last-ditch attempt to fend off Windows, Apple yielded and started a
Macintosh clone program, which allowed other manufacturers to make computers that ran
System 7; however, it only cannibalized the sales of Apple's higher-margin machines.
Meanwhile, the far-superior
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...
was an instant hit with customers. Apple was struggling financially; its attempts to come up with a successor to the obsolete and unstable Mac OS — Taligent,
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
and
Copland — had all failed, and its hardware was stagnant. The Mac was no longer competitive in the market place, and its sales entered a tailspin. Corporations abandoned the Mac in droves, replacing it with cheaper and more sophisticated
Windows NT
Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems sc ...
machines for which far more applications and peripherals existed; even Apple loyalists saw no future for the Macintosh. Once the world's second largest computer vendor after IBM, Apple's market share declined precipitously from 9.4% in 1993 to 3.1% in 1997.
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
was ready to abandon
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
for Mac, which would have slashed any remaining business appeal the Mac had; Amelio tried to negotiate a deal with Gates, to no avail.
In 1996, Spindler was succeeded by
Gil Amelio
Gilbert Frank Amelio (born March 1, 1943) is an American technology executive. Amelio worked at Bell Labs, Fairchild Semiconductor, and the semiconductor division of Rockwell International, and was also the CEO of National Semiconductor and Ap ...
, who searched for an established operating system to acquire or license, which would form the foundation of a new Apple operating system. He considered
BeOS
BeOS is an operating system for personal computers first developed by Be Inc. in 1990. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware.
BeOS was positioned as a multimedia platform that could be used by a substantial population of desktop users a ...
, Solaris, Windows NT, and NeXT's
NeXTSTEP
NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprieta ...
, eventually choosing the latter. Apple acquired NeXT on December 20, 1996, and with it came its founder, Steve Jobs.
1997–2011: Steve Jobs era
NeXT had developed the mature
NeXTSTEP
NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprieta ...
operating system, whose strengths lied in its multimedia and internet capabilities. NextSTEP was also popular among programmers, financial firms and academia for its
object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of pr ...
tools which allowed applications to be written far more rapidly.
In an eagerly-anticipated speech at the January 1997
Macworld
''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macint ...
trade show, Steve Jobs previewed
Rhapsody
Rhapsody may refer to:
* A work of epic poetry, or part of one, that is suitable for recitation at one time
** Rhapsode, a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry
Computer software
* Rhapsody (online music service), an online m ...
, a merger of NeXTSTEP and Mac OS which would be the foundation of Apple's new operating system strategy. At the time, Jobs only served in an advisory role, but became Apple's ''de-facto'' CEO after Amelio was fired in July 1997. He was formally appointed interim CEO in September, and permanent CEO in January 2000 To turn the company around, Jobs streamlined Apple's operations and began layoffs. He negotiated a deal with
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
: Microsoft committed to releasing new versions of Office for Mac for five years, investing $150 million in Apple, and settling an ongoing lawsuit in which Apple alleged that Windows had copied the Mac's interface. In exchange, Apple made
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...
the default Mac browser. The deal was closed hours before Jobs announced it at the August 1997 Macworld.
Jobs brought focus back to Apple. The Mac lineup had been incomprehensible, with dozens of hard-to-distinguish models; he streamlined it into four quadrants, a laptop and a desktop each for consumers and professionals. Apple also discontinued several Mac accessories, including the
StyleWriter
The StyleWriter brand is a line of inkjet serial printers by Apple, targeted mainly towards consumers. They produced print quality that was better than the dot matrix ImageWriters, and were cheaper than the LaserWriters. All but a few models conta ...
printer and the
Newton
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* Newton ( ...
PDA. These changes were meant to refocus Apple's engineering, marketing and manufacturing efforts so that more care could be dedicated to each product. Jobs also stopped licensing Mac OS to clone manufacturers, which had cost Apple ten times more in lost sales than what they paid in licensing fees. Jobs made a deal with the largest computer reseller,
CompUSA, to carry a "store within a store" that would better showcase Macs and their software and peripherals; according to Apple, the Mac's share of computer sales in those stores went from 3% to 14%. In November, the online Apple Store launched, which offered built-to-order Mac configurations without a middleman. When
Tim Cook was hired as chief operations officer in March 1998, he shuttered Apple's inefficient factories and outsourced Mac production to Taiwan. Within months, he rolled out a new
ERP system and implemented
just-in-time manufacturing principles; this practically eliminated Apple's costly unsold inventory, and within a year, Apple had the most efficient inventory turnover in the industry.
Jobs' top priority was "to ship a great new product". The first was the
iMac G3, an all-in-one computer which was meant to make the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
intuitive and easy to access. While PCs came in functional beige boxes,
Jony Ive
Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a British industrial and product designer, as well as businessman. Ive was the chief design officer (CDO) of Apple Inc. from 1997 until 2019 (known as senior vice principal of industrial desig ...
gave the iMac a radical and futuristic design, meant to make the product less intimidating: it was shaped like an egg, and its case was made of translucent plastic in "
Bondi blue
Blue-green is the color that is between green and blue. It belongs to the cyan family of colors.
Variations Cyan (aqua)
Cyan, also called aqua, is the blue-green color that is between blue and green on a modern RGB color wheel.
The ...
" color. Ive also added a handle on the back to make the computer more approachable. Meanwhile, Jobs decided the iMac would be "legacy-free", replacing the
ADB and
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...
ports with an infrared port and the cutting-edge
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad v ...
. He also controversially removed the
floppy disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
drive and replaced it with a
CD drive. The iMac was unveiled in May 1998, and released in August. It was an immediate commercial success, and became the fastest-selling computer in Apple's history, with 800,000 units sold before the year ended. Vindicating Jobs on the Internet's appeal to consumers, 32% of buyers had never used a computer before, and 12% were switching from PCs. The iMac reestablished the Mac's reputation as a trend-setter: for the next few years, translucent plastic became the dominant design trend in numerous consumer products.
Apple knew had it lost its chance to compete in the Windows-dominated enterprise market, so it prioritized design and ease of use to make the Mac more appealing to average consumers, and even teens. Apple also instituted a more collaborative product development process for the Mac, the "Apple New Product Process", which implemented
concurrent engineering
Concurrent engineering (CE) or concurrent design and manufacturing is a work methodology emphasizing the parallelization of tasks (i.e. performing tasks concurrently), which is sometimes called simultaneous engineering or integrated product develo ...
principles. From that point, the Mac would no longer be primarily crafted by engineers, with design as an afterthought. Instead, Ive and Jobs would first define a new product's "soul", before it was jointly developed by the marketing, engineering and operations teams. The engineering team was led by the product design group, and Ive's design studio was the dominant voice throughout the development process.
![WallstreetII](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/WallstreetII.jpg)
The next product quadrant was the
Power Mac G3
The Power Macintosh G3 (also sold with additional software as the Macintosh Server G3) is a series of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from November 1997 to August 1999. It represented Apple's first step towa ...
(nicknamed "Blue and White") which was well-received by creatives and scientists. It was followed by the
iBook, which imitated the iMac's design, with colorful translucent plastic and a handle. The iBook introduced several innovations: it lacked a mechanical latch, instead relying on a strengthened hinge to keep it closed, its ports were located on the sides rather than on the back, and it was the first laptop with built-in
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
. It was best selling laptop in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 1999. Finally came the professional-oriented
Titanium PowerBook G4, the lightest and thinnest in its class, and the first laptop with a wide-screen display; it also debuted a magnetic latch that made the lid pop elegantly.
The design language of consumer Macs shifted again from colored plastics to white polycarbonate with the introduction of the 2001
Dual USB "Ice" iBook. In order to increase the iBook's durability, it did away with doors and handles, and gained a more minimalistic exterior. Ive attempted to go beyond the quadrant with
Power Mac G4 Cube
The Power Mac G4 Cube is a Macintosh personal computer sold by Apple Computer, Inc. between July 2000 and 2001. Designed by Jonathan Ive, the Cube was conceived by Apple chief executive officer (CEO) Steve Jobs, who held an interest in a power ...
, an attempt to innovate beyond the
computer tower
In personal computing, a tower is a form of desktop computer whose case height is much greater than its width, thus having the appearance of an upstanding tower block, as opposed to a traditional desktop or "pizza box" computer whose width is g ...
and make a professional desktop that was far smaller than the Power Mac. The Cube failed in the market, and was withdrawn from sale after a year; however, Ive considered it beneficial, since it helped Apple gain experience in complex
machining
Machining is a process in which a material (often metal) is cut to a desired final shape and size by a controlled material-removal process. The processes that have this common theme are collectively called subtractive manufacturing, which utilizes ...
and miniaturization.
The development of a successor to the old Mac OS was well-underway. Rhapsody had been previewed at
WWDC 1997, featuring a
Mach
Mach may refer to Mach number, the speed of sound in local conditions. It may also refer to:
Computing
* Mach (kernel), an operating systems kernel technology
* ATI Mach, a 2D GPU chip by ATI
* GNU Mach, the microkernel upon which GNU Hurd is bas ...
kernel and
BSD
The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...
foundations, a virtualization layer for old Mac OS apps (codenamed Blue Box), and an implementation of NeXTSTEP
API
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...
s called
OpenStep
OpenStep is a defunct object-oriented application programming interface (API) specification for a legacy object-oriented operating system, with the basic goal of offering a NeXTSTEP-like environment on non-NeXTSTEP operating systems. OpenStep was ...
(codenamed Yellow Box). Apple open-sourced the core of Rhapsody as the
Darwin operating system. After several developer previews, Apple also introduced the
Carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
API, which provided a way for developers to more easily make their apps native to Mac OS X without rewriting them in Yellow Box. Mac OS X was publicly unveiled in January 2000, with the modern
Aqua
Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to:
Arts
* Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color
Business
* Aqua (skyscraper), an 82-story residential skysc ...
interface, and a far more stable
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...
foundation, with
memory protection and
preemptive multitasking. Blue Box became the
Classic environment, and Yellow Box was renamed
Cocoa
Cocoa may refer to:
Chocolate
* Chocolate
* ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree
* Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao''
* Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...
. Following a
public beta
A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...
, the first version of Mac OS X, version
10.0 Cheetah, was released in March 2001.
Since 1999, Steve Jobs had a new strategy in mind: the Mac would become a "digital hub", the centerpiece of people's "digital livestyle". In 2001, the
iMac DV
The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of Macintosh personal computers sold by Apple Computer from 1998 to 2003. The iMac was the first major new product release for Apple under Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO and cofound ...
gained
FireWire
IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony an ...
, allowing it to connect to camcorders; users could easily create movies with the bundled
iMovie
iMovie (known at times as iMovie HD) is a preinstalled video editing application developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS devices.
It was originally released in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-enabled ...
. Apple later gave the iMac the ability to burn CDs, and released
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
, which allowed users to rip CDs, make their own playlists, and burn them to a blank disc. Later still, users could organize their photos with
iPhoto, and create songs with
GarageBand
GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife software s ...
. More crucially, Jobs' digital hub strategy culminated in Apple's entrance into other markets, with the
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
,
iPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...
,
iPhone, and
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
, and Apple's transformation from a Mac-focused company, ''Apple Computer Inc'', into ''Apple Inc'', the world's most valuable company. By January 2007, the iPod came to represent half of Apple's revenues.
Apple continued to release new Mac models, such as the white
"Sunflower" iMac G4; Ive designed a display that could swivel around and be moved with one) finger, so that it "appear
dto defy gravity. In 2003, Apple released the aluminum 12-inch and 17-inch
PowerBook G4, proclaiming the "Year of the Notebook". With the Microsoft deal expiring, Apple also replaced Internet Explorer with its new browser,
Safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
. The first
Mac Mini
Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini) is a small form factor (desktop and motherboard), small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. , it is positioned between the consumer all-in-one iMac (Intel-based), iMac and the profes ...
was intended to be made in the U.S., but domestic manufacturers were slow and had insufficient quality processes, so Apple chose Tiawanese
Foxconn instead. The cheaper, "headless" Mac Mini was introduced at Macworld 2005, alongside the
iWork office suite.
Intel transition and "back to the Mac"
With PowerPC chips falling behind in performance, price, and efficiency, Steve Jobs announced that all Macs
would transition from PowerPC to Intel processors, revealing that Mac OS X had been adapted to run on both architectures since 2000. Users could keep running PowerPC apps using
Rosetta
Rosetta or Rashid (; ar, رشيد ' ; french: Rosette ; cop, ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ ''ti-Rashit'', Ancient Greek: Βολβιτίνη ''Bolbitinē'') is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Ro ...
,
and even run Windows natively using
Boot Camp. This led to a few years of growth in Mac sales.
![Steve Jobs with MacBook Air 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Steve_Jobs_with_MacBook_Air_2.jpg)
After the
iPhone's 2007 release, Apple began a multi-year effort to bring many iPhone innovations "back to the Mac", including
multi-touch
In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one somatosensory system, point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CER ...
gesture support, instant wake from sleep, and fast
flash storage. At Macworld 2008, Jobs introduced the
first MacBook Air by taking it out of a manila envelope, touting it as the "world's thinnest notebook".
The MacBook Air favored wireless technologies over physical ports, and lacked
FireWire
IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony an ...
, an
optical drive, or a replaceable battery. Users could access discs inserted into other computers on their
local network
A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger ...
through a feature called Remote Disc. A decade after its launch, journalist Tom Warren wrote that the MacBook Air had "immediately changed the future of laptops", starting the
ultrabook trend.
OS X Lion
OS X Lion, also known as Mac OS X Lion, (version 10.7) is the eighth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers.
A preview of OS X 10.7 Lion was publicly shown at the "Back to the Mac" Apple Speci ...
gained new features from the iPad, like
FaceTime
FaceTime is a Proprietary software, proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS devic ...
, full-screen apps, document autosaving and versioning, and a bundled Mac App Store to replace software install discs with online downloads. Apple devices gained deeper integration, with AirDrop allowing them to send and receive files wirelessly.
iPhone-like multi-touch technology was progressively added to all MacBook trackpads, and to desktop Macs through the
Magic Mouse
The Magic Mouse is a multi-touch wireless mouse that is manufactured and sold by Apple. The first-generation Magic Mouse was released on October 20, 2009, and introduced multi-touch functionality to a computer mouse. Taking after the iPhone, ...
, and
Magic Trackpad
Apple Inc. has designed and manufactured several models of mice, trackpads and other pointing devices, primarily for use with Macintosh computers. Over the years, Apple has maintained a distinct form and function with its mice that reflect the ...
. The second-generation MacBook Air, released in 2010, added an iPad-inspired standby mode, "instant-on" wake from sleep, and
flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...
for storage.
The MacBook Air also began an increased focus on the environment for the Mac; it was free of toxic chemicals like
mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
,
bromide and
PVC, and came in a smaller packaging.
The
iMac and
unibody MacBook Pro gained enclosure redesigns using more recyclable materials like aluminum and glass.
On February 24, 2011, the MacBook Pro became the first computer to support Intel's new
Thunderbolt connector, which had two-way transfer speeds of 10Gbit/s, and was backward-compatible with
Mini DisplayPort.
2012–present: Tim Cook era
![New Mac Pro (12093123884)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/New_Mac_Pro_%2812093123884%29.jpg)
Following a period of deteriorating health, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO on August 24, 2011, and
Tim Cook was named as his successor. At WWDC 2012, the
MacBook Pro with Retina display was unveiled, featuring a thinner body, faster processor and graphics, a high-resolution
Retina display similar to the
iPhone 4, the
MagSafe 2 charging port, and quieter impeller fans on the 15-inch model. It received largely positive reviews, with Nilay Patel of The Verge calling it "one of the best displays to ever ship on a laptop". In November 2012, the
iMac was redesigned with thinner edges, faster processor, and the removal of the SuperDrive.
At WWDC 2013, the
new Mac Pro was introduced, with Phil Schiller exclaiming "Can't innovate anymore, my ass!" in response to critics who said that Apple could no longer innovate without Jobs. This new model featured a miniaturized design with a glossy dark gray cylindrical body and internal components organized around a central cooling system. Tech reviewers praised the 2013 Mac Pro for its power and futuristic design; however, it was poorly received by professional users, who criticized its lack of upgradability and the removal of expansion slots.
The iMac was
refreshed with a
5K Retina display in 2014, making it the highest-resolution all-in-one desktop computer at the time of its release. The MacBook was
reintroduced
Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the organism is capable of survival. The goal of species reintroduction is to establish a healthy, genetically diverse, self-sustainin ...
in 2015, with a completely redesigned aluminum unibody chassis, a 12-inch Retina display, a fanless low-power
Intel Core M
Intel Core M is a family of ultra low-voltage microprocessors belonging to the Intel Core series and designed specifically for ultra-thin notebooks, 2-in-1 detachables, and other mobile devices. The thermal design power (TDP) of all Core M microp ...
processor, a much smaller logic board, a new Butterfly keyboard, a single
USB-C
USB-C (properly known as USB Type-C) is a 24-pin USB connector system with a rotationally symmetrical connector. The designation C refers only to the connector's physical configuration or form factor and should not be confused with the conne ...
port, and a solid-state
Force Touch trackpad with pressure sensitivity. It was praised for its portability, but criticized for its lack of performance, the need to use adapters to use most USB peripherals, and a high starting price of US$1,299. In 2015, Apple started a service program to address a widespread GPU defect in the
15-inch 2011 MacBook Pro, which could cause graphical artifacts or prevent the machine from functioning entirely.
Early neglect of professional users
![MacBook Pro Retina 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/MacBook_Pro_Retina_001.jpg)
The
Touch Bar MacBook Pro was released in October 2016. It was the thinnest MacBook Pro ever made, replaced all ports with four
Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, gained a thinner "Butterfly" keyboard, and replaced
function keys with the
Touch Bar. The Touch Bar was criticized for making it harder to use the function keys by feel, as it offered no tactile feedback. Many users were frustrated by the need to buy
dongle
A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality.
In computing, the term was initially synonym ...
s, particularly professional users who relied on traditional USB-A devices,
SD cards, and HDMI for video output.
A few months after its release, users reported a problem with stuck keys and letters being skipped or repeated.
iFixit attributed this to the ingress of dust or food crumbs under the keys, jamming them. Since the Butterfly keyboard was riveted into the laptop's case, it could only be serviced at an
Apple Store or
authorized service center.
Apple settled a $50m class-action lawsuit over these keyboards in 2022. These same models were afflicted by "flexgate": when users closed and opened the machine, they would risk progressively damaging the cable responsible for the display
backlight, which was too short. The $6 cable was soldered to the screen, requiring a $700 repair.
Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive continued to guide product designs towards simplicity and minimalism. Critics argued that he had begun to prioritize form over function, and was excessively focused on product thinness. His role in the decisions to switch to fragile Butterfly keyboards, to make the Mac Pro non-expandable, and to remove USB-A, HDMI and the SD card slot from the MacBook Pro were criticized.
The long-standing keyboard issue on MacBook Pros, Apple's abandonment of the
Aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An opt ...
professional photography app, and the lack of Mac Pro upgrades led to declining sales and a widespread belief that Apple was no longer committed to professional users. After several years without any significant updates to the Mac Pro, Apple executives admitted in 2017 that the 2013 Mac Pro had not met expectations, and that the company had designed themselves into a "thermal corner", preventing them from releasing a planned dual-GPU successor. Apple also unveiled their future product roadmap for professional products, including plans for an
iMac Pro
The iMac Pro is a discontinued all-in-one personal computer and workstation designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Inc. It was released on December 14, 2017. While it was sold, it was one of four desktop computers in the Macintosh lineup, si ...
as a stopgap and a next-generation Mac Pro that would be expandable. The
iMac Pro
The iMac Pro is a discontinued all-in-one personal computer and workstation designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Inc. It was released on December 14, 2017. While it was sold, it was one of four desktop computers in the Macintosh lineup, si ...
was revealed at WWDC 2017, featuring updated
Intel Xeon W processors and
Radeon Pro
Radeon Pro is AMD's brand of professional oriented GPUs. It replaced AMD's FirePro brand in 2016. Compared to the Radeon brand for mainstream consumer/gamer products, the Radeon Pro brand is intended for use in workstations and the running of ...
Vega graphics.
In 2018, Apple released a redesigned MacBook Air with a Retina display, Butterfly keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, and Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports. The Butterfly keyboard went through three revisions, incorporating silicone gaskets in the key mechanism to prevent keys from being jammed by dust or other particles. However, many users continued to experience reliability issues with these keyboards, leading Apple to launch a program to repair affected keyboards free of charge. Higher-end models of the 15-inch 2018 MacBook Pro faced another issue where the Core i9 processor reached unusually high temperatures, resulting in reduced CPU performance from thermal throttling. Apple issued a patch to address this issue via a macOS supplemental update, blaming a "missing digital key" in the thermal management firmware.
The 2019 MacBook Air and 2020 MacBook Pro replaced the unreliable Butterfly keyboard with a redesigned scissor-switch Magic Keyboard. On the MacBook Pros, the Touch Bar and Touch ID were made standard, and the Esc key was detached from the Touch Bar and returned to being a physical key. At WWDC 2019, Apple unveiled a
new Mac Pro with a larger case design that allows for hardware expandability, as well as introducing a new expansion module system (MPX), for modules such as an optional Afterburner card for faster video encoding. Almost every part of the new Mac Pro is user-replaceable, with iFixit praising its high user-repairability. It received positive reviews, with reviewers praising its power, modularity, quiet cooling, and Apple's inceased focus on professional workflows.
Apple silicon transition
In April 2018,
Bloomberg reported that Apple was planning to replace Intel chips with
ARM processors similar to those used in its phones, causing Intel's shares to drop by 9.2%.
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...
, commenting on the rumors, stated that such a decision made sense, as Intel was failing to make significant improvements to its processors, and could not compete with ARM chips on battery life.
![M1 iMac blue model (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/M1_iMac_blue_model_%28cropped%29.jpg)
At WWDC 2020, Tim Cook announced that the Mac would be
transitioning to Apple silicon chips, built upon an
ARM architecture, over a two-year timeline.
The
Rosetta 2
Rosetta is a dynamic binary translator developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, an application compatibility layer between different instruction set architectures. It enables a transition to newer hardware, by automatically translating software. The ...
translation layer was also introduced, enabling Apple silicon Macs to run Intel apps. On November 10, 2020, Apple announced their first system-on-a-chip designed for the Mac, the
Apple M1, and a series of Macs that would ship with the M1: the
MacBook Air,
Mac Mini
Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini) is a small form factor (desktop and motherboard), small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. , it is positioned between the consumer all-in-one iMac (Intel-based), iMac and the profes ...
, and the 13-inch
MacBook Pro. These new Macs received highly positive reviews, with reviewers highlighting significant improvements in battery life, performance, and heat management compared to previous generations.
The iMac Pro was quietly discontinued on March 6, 2021. On April 20, 2021, a new
24-inch iMac was revealed, featuring the M1 chip, seven new colors, thinner white bezels, and an enclosure made entirely from recycled aluminum. On October 18, 2021, Apple announced new
14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros featuring a bezel-less
mini-LED 120 Hz ProMotion display, and the return of a MagSafe,
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
port, and
SD card slot.
On March 8, 2022, the
Mac Studio was unveiled, featuring more powerful M1 Max and M1 Ultra chips in a similar form factor to the Mac Mini. It drew highly positive reviews for its flexibility and wide range of available ports. Its performance was deemed "impressive", beating the highest-end Mac Pro with a 28-core Intel Xeon chip, while being significantly more power efficient and compact. It was introduced alongside the
Studio Display, and was meant to replace the 27-inch iMac, which was discontinued on the same day. At
WWDC 2022
The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in th ...
, Apple announced an
updated MacBook Air based on a new
M2 chip. It incorporates several changes from the 14-inch MacBook Pro, such as a flat, slab-shaped design, full-sized function keys,
MagSafe
MagSafe is a series of proprietary magnetically attached power connectors developed by Apple Inc. for Mac laptops. MagSafe was introduced on January 10, 2006, in conjunction with the MacBook Pro, the first Intel-based Mac laptop, at the Ma ...
charging, and a
Liquid Retina display, with rounded corners and a notch incorporating a 1080p webcam.
Current lineup
Marketing
The original Macintosh was marketed at
Super Bowl XVIII with the highly-acclaimed
"1984" ad, directed by
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...
. The ad alluded to
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...
's novel ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four,'' and symbolized Apple's desire to "rescue" humanity from the conformity of computer industry giant
IBM. The ad is now considered a "watershed event" and a "masterpiece." Before the Macintosh, high-tech marketing catered to industry insiders rather than consumers, and as a result, journalists covered technology like the "steel or automobiles" industries, with articles written for a highly technical audience. The Macintosh launch event pioneered event marketing techniques that have since become "widely emulated" in
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
, by creating a mystique about the product and giving an inside look into its creation. Apple also took a new "multiple exclusives" approach regarding the press, giving "over one hundred interviews to journalists that lasted over six hours apiece", and introduced a new "Test Drive a Macintosh" campaign.
Apple's brand, which established a "heartfelt connection with consumers", is cited as one of the keys to the Mac's success. After Steve Jobs's return to the company, he unveiled the
Think different ad campaign, positioning the Mac as the best computer for "creative people who believe that one person can change the world". The campaign featured black-and-white photographs of luminaries like
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
,
Gandhi, and
Martin Luther King Jr., with Jobs saying: "if they ever used a computer, it would have been a Mac." The ad campaign was critically acclaimed and won several awards, including the a
Primetime Emmy
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime E ...
. In the 2000s, Apple continued to use successful marketing campaigns to promote its Mac line, including the
Switch and
Get a Mac campaigns.
Apple's focus on design and build quality has helped establish the Mac as a high-end, premium brand. The company's emphasis on creating iconic and visually appealing designs for its computers has given them a "human face" and made them stand out in a crowded market. Apple has long made use of
product placement
Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
s in high-profile movies and television shows to showcase Mac computers, like ''
Mission: Impossible,
Legally Blonde, and
Sex and the City.'' Apple is known for not allowing producers to show villains using Apple products. Its own shows produced for the
Apple TV+
Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...
streaming service often feature prominent use of MacBooks.
The Mac is known for having a highly
loyal customer base. In 2022, the American Customer Satisfaction Index gave the Mac the highest customer satisfaction score of any personal computer, at 82 out of 100. At of that same year, Apple is the fourth largest vendor of personal computers, with a market share of 8.9%.
Hardware
![Mac Pro 2019 on wheels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Mac_Pro_2019_on_wheels.jpg)
Apple outsources the production of its hardware to Asian
manufacturers
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...
like
Foxconn and
Pegatron
Pegatron Corporation () is a Taiwanese electronics manufacturing company that mainly develops computing, communications and consumer electronics for branded vendors. It also develops, designs and manufactures computer peripherals and components. ...
, maintaining a high degree of control over the end-product. As a highly vertically integrated company, Apple produces its own operating system and designs its own chips, allowing for tight control over all aspects of its products and deeper integration between hardware and software.
All current Macs use
ARM-based
Apple silicon processors, except the Mac Pro. Apple silicon Macs have been praised for their performance and power efficiency. They can run Intel apps through the
Rosetta 2
Rosetta is a dynamic binary translator developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, an application compatibility layer between different instruction set architectures. It enables a transition to newer hardware, by automatically translating software. The ...
translation layer, as well as
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
and
iPadOS apps distributed via the
App Store. All current Mac models come equipped with high-speed
Thunderbolt 4
Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface for the connection of external peripherals to a computer. It has been developed by Intel, in collaboration with Apple. It was initially marketed under the name Light Peak, and first sold as ...
or
USB 4
USB4 (aka: USB 4.0) is a specification by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), which was released in version 1.0 on 29 August 2019. The USB4 protocol is based on the Thunderbolt 3 protocol; the Thunderbolt 3 specification was donated to the USB- ...
connectivity, with speeds up to 40Gbit/s. Current Apple silicon Macs have custom
integrated graphics rather than graphics cards. MacBooks are recharged with either USB-C or
MagSafe
MagSafe is a series of proprietary magnetically attached power connectors developed by Apple Inc. for Mac laptops. MagSafe was introduced on January 10, 2006, in conjunction with the MacBook Pro, the first Intel-based Mac laptop, at the Ma ...
connectors, depending on the model.
Apple offers a range of accessories for the Mac, including the
Studio Display and
Pro Display XDR
The Pro Display XDR is a 32-inch flat panel computer monitor created by Apple, based on an LG supplied display, and released on December 10, 2019. It was announced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 3, 2019 along with the thir ...
external monitors, the
AirPods
AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds designed by Apple Inc. They were first announced on September 7, 2016, alongside the iPhone 7. Within two years, they became Apple's most popular accessory. The most recent model, AirPods (3rd generation ...
line of wireless headphones, and
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
and
mice
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
such as the
Magic Keyboard,
Magic Trackpad
Apple Inc. has designed and manufactured several models of mice, trackpads and other pointing devices, primarily for use with Macintosh computers. Over the years, Apple has maintained a distinct form and function with its mice that reflect the ...
and
Magic Mouse
The Magic Mouse is a multi-touch wireless mouse that is manufactured and sold by Apple. The first-generation Magic Mouse was released on October 20, 2009, and introduced multi-touch functionality to a computer mouse. Taking after the iPhone, ...
.
Software
Macs run the macOS operating system, which is the
second most widely used desktop OS, after
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
and ahead of
ChromeOS.
macOS is the successor of the
classic Mac OS
Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The ...
, which saw nine releases between 1984 and 1999. The latest version of Classic Mac OS,
Mac OS 9
Mac OS 9 is the ninth major release of Apple Inc., Apple's classic Mac OS operating system which was succeeded by macOS, Mac OS X (renamed to OS X in 2011 and macOS in 2016) in 2001. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "T ...
, was introduced in 1999, and still evokes nostalgia for some users, part of a trend known as
retrocomputing
Retrocomputing is the use of older computer hardware and software in modern times. Retrocomputing is usually classed as a hobby and recreation rather than a practical application of technology; enthusiasts often collect rare and valuable hardw ...
. Mac OS 9 was succeeded by
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
in 2001. Over the years, Mac OS X was rebranded to OS X, and is now known as macOS.
macOS is a derivative of NextSTEP and
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...
. It uses the
XNU
XNU is the computer operating system (OS) kernel developed at Apple Inc. since December 1996 for use in the Mac OS X (now macOS) operating system and released as free and open-source software as part of the Darwin OS, which in addition to macOS ...
kernel, and the core of macOS has been open-sourced as the
Darwin operating system. macOS features the
Aqua
Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to:
Arts
* Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color
Business
* Aqua (skyscraper), an 82-story residential skysc ...
user interface, the
Cocoa
Cocoa may refer to:
Chocolate
* Chocolate
* ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree
* Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao''
* Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...
set of frameworks, and the
Objective-C and
Swift programming languages. Macs are deeply integrated with other Apple devices, including the iPhone and iPad, through
Continuity features like
Handoff,
Sidecar,
Universal Control, and
Universal Clipboard.
The first version of Mac OS X, version
Mac OS X Cheetah
Mac OS X 10.0 (code named Cheetah) is the first major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It was released on March 24, 2001 for a price of $129 after a public beta.
Mac OS X was Apple's long-awaited successor to ...
, was released in March 2001.
Major releases include
Mac OS X Tiger, which added
Spotlight search,
Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which brought refinements, stability, and full
64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit Integer (computer science), integers, memory addresses, or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing unit, CPUs and arithmetic logic unit, ALUs are those ...
support,
OS X Lion
OS X Lion, also known as Mac OS X Lion, (version 10.7) is the eighth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers.
A preview of OS X 10.7 Lion was publicly shown at the "Back to the Mac" Apple Speci ...
, which took many features from the iPad,
OS X Yosemite, which removed
skeuomorph
A skeuomorph (also spelled skiamorph, ) is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in the original. Skeuomorphs are typically used to make something new feel familiar in an effort t ...
ic interface elements,
macOS Sierra
macOS Sierra (version 10.12) is the thirteenth major release of macOS (formerly known as and ), Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. The name "macOS" stems from the intention to uniform the operating syste ...
, which added
Apple File System
Apple File System (APFS) is a Proprietary software, proprietary file system developed and deployed by Apple Inc. for macOS macOS Sierra, Sierra (10.12.4) and later, iOS iOS 10 , 10.3 and later, tvOS 10.2 and later, watchOS 3.2 and later, and ...
(APFS) support,
macOS Mojave, which added a dark mode for applications, and
macOS Big Sur, which introduced an iOS-inspired redesign of the user interface.
The Mac has a
wide variety of apps available, including cross-platform apps like
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...
,
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
,
Adobe Creative Cloud,
Mathematica
Wolfram Mathematica is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allow machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network analysis, time series analysis, NLP, optimizat ...
,
Visual Studio Code,
Ableton Live, and
Cinema 4D
Cinema 4D is a 3D software suite developed by the German company Maxon.
Overview
As of R21, only one version of Cinema 4D is available. It replaces all previous variants, including BodyPaint 3D, and includes all features of the past 'Studio' ...
. Apple has also developed several apps for the Mac, including
Final Cut Pro,
Logic Pro,
iWork,
GarageBand
GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife software s ...
, and
iMovie
iMovie (known at times as iMovie HD) is a preinstalled video editing application developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS devices.
It was originally released in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-enabled ...
. A large amount of
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
applications run natively on macOS, like
LibreOffice,
GIMP
GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized task ...
, and
VLC, as well as command-line programs, which can be installed through
Homebrew
Homebrewing mainly refers to small-scale, non-commercial manufacture of a drink, typically beer.
Homebrew or home brew may also refer to:
Computing
* Homebrew Computer Club
* Homebrew (package manager), for macOS and Linux
* Homebrew (video game ...
. Many applications written for
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
or
BSD
The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...
also run on macOS, often using
X11. Apple's official integrated development environment (
IDE) is
Xcode
Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 14.2, released on December 13, ...
, allowing developers to create apps for the Mac and other Apple platforms.
The current release of macOS is
macOS Ventura, which launched on October 24, 2022.
Timeline
Notes
References
Books
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Print
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Further reading
* This is an interview about the introduction of the Macintosh.
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External links
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{{Authority control
Macintosh computer
Computer-related introductions in 1984
Apple computers
Steve Jobs