Happy 41st Birthday to Apple’s Original Macintosh
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It was 41 years ago today when Apple announced the original Macintosh, one of the first successful personal computers to sport a graphical user interface.
The Macintosh was one of the first personal computers to use a mouse to control an on-screen pointer, which could be used to perform tasks using a point-and-click interface. Users were unfamiliar with the Macintosh’s mouse-driven interface, as most computers of the time relied on a text-based command-line interface that used the keyboard to initiate and complete tasks.
From Macintosh’s original press release in 1984:
Apple Computer today unveiled its much-anticipated Macintosh computer, a sophisticated, affordably priced personal computer designed for business people, professionals and students in a broad range of fields. Macintosh is available in all dealerships now. Based on the advanced, 32-bit architecture developed for Apple’s Lisa computer, Macintosh combines extraordinary computing power with exceptional ease of use–in a unit that is smaller and lighter than most transportable computers. The suggested retail price for Macintosh is $2,495, which during the introductory period also includes a word-processing program and graphics package.
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Users tell Macintosh what to do simply by moving a “mouse” — a small pointing device — to select among functions listed in menus and represented by pictorial symbols on the screen. Users are no longer forced to memorize the numerous and confusing keyboard commands of conventional computers. The result is radical ease of use and a significant reduction in learning time. In effect, the Macintosh is a desk-top appliance offering users increased utility and creativity with simplicity.
Apple said the Macintosh required “only a few hours to learn.” It introduced several now-familiar features, including its desktop interface with icons, copy-and-paste, multitasking, drop-down menus, and more.
The Macintosh was priced starting at $2,495, which would be equivalent to more than $7,000 in today’s US currency. The computer was powered by an 8 MHz Motorola 68000 processor, a whopping 128 KB of RAM (upgradeable to 512 KB), and a 400 KB 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. All work was performed on a 9-inch black-and-white CRT display boasting a resolution of 512 x 342 pixels. Two serial ports offered the ability to connect to and use peripherals, including the Apple ImageWriter printer.
Released alongside the OG Macintosh were the first two “killer applications” for the Macintosh, MacPaint and MacWrite. MacPaint allowed users to create high-resolution, detailed black-and-white graphics that offered features such as brushes and pattern fills. Both features were revolutionary for the time. MacWrite was a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processing application that offered drag-and-drop, real-time editing, proportional fonts, and other features that were nothing like what was available on other computers of that era.
The Macintosh launch also included a Super Bowl advertisement, “1984.” The commercial, directed by Ridley Scott, promoted the Macintosh as a revolutionary device that would challenge “Big Brother” — the computing industry dominated by IBM and compatible PCs — and change computing forever.
Now, 41 years later, the Mac is more popular than ever. While still offering some of the same software features as the original Macintosh, the Mac lineup has expanded to include desktop and laptop models, and it continues to be an essential part of the Apple ecosystem.
