The following is a list of operating systems released by Apple Inc. As of 2023, there are six supported software platforms: iOS , iPadOS , watchOS , tvOS , macOS and visionOS .
149-706: Prior to the introduction of the Macintosh in early 1984, Apple had several operating systems for the Apple II series, Apple SOS for the Apple III series, and Lisa OS and MacWorks XL for the Apple Lisa series; those were introduced between 1977 and 1983. The original operating system for the Macintosh was the classic Mac OS , which was introduced in early 1984 as System Software. In 1997, System Software
298-636: A Mach kernel and BSD foundations, a virtualization layer for old Mac OS apps (codenamed Blue Box), and an implementation of NeXTSTEP APIs called OpenStep (codenamed Yellow Box). Apple open-sourced the core of Rhapsody as the Darwin operating system. After several developer previews, Apple also introduced the Carbon 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
447-517: A Primetime Emmy . In the 2000s, Apple continued to use successful marketing campaigns to promote the 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
596-520: 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 with built-to-order Mac configurations without a middleman. When Tim Cook was hired as chief operations officer in March 1998, he closed Apple's inefficient factories and outsourced Mac production to Taiwan. Within months, he rolled out
745-465: A "masterpiece." Before the Macintosh, high-tech marketing catered to industry insiders rather than consumers, so 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 , by creating a mystique about
894-535: A 32-bit operating system released during the 2000s can still operate many of the simpler programs written for the OS of the early 1980s without needing an emulator , though an emulator like DOSBox now has near-native functionality at full speed (and is necessary for certain games which may run too fast on modern processors). Additionally, many modern PCs can still run DOS directly, although special options such as USB legacy mode and SATA-to-PATA emulation may need to be set in
1043-460: A Mac program, HyperCard , whose cards store any information—text, image, audio, video—with the memex -like ability to semantically link cards together. HyperCard was released in 1987 and bundled with every Macintosh. In the late 1980s, Jean-Louis Gassée , a Sculley protégé who had succeeded Jobs as head of the Macintosh division, made the Mac more expandable and powerful to appeal to tech enthusiasts and enterprise customers. This strategy led to
1192-401: A class of computers that are technically compatible with the 1981 IBM PC and subsequent XT and AT models from computer giant IBM . Like the original IBM PC, they use an Intel x86 central processing unit and are capable of using interchangeable commodity hardware , such as expansion cards . Initially such computers were referred to as PC clones , IBM clones or IBM PC clones , but
1341-759: A commercial venture. Experience had shown that even if an operating system was technically superior to Windows, it would be a failure in the market ( BeOS and OS/2 for example). In 1989, Steve Jobs said of his new NeXT system, "It will either be the last new hardware platform to succeed, or the first to fail." Four years later in 1993, NeXT announced it was ending production of the NeXTcube and porting NeXTSTEP to Intel processors. Very early on in PC history, some companies introduced their own XT-compatible chipsets . For example, Chips and Technologies introduced their 82C100 XT Controller which integrated and replaced six of
1490-491: A computer capable of running programs that are managed by MS-DOS". The main reason why an IBM standard is not worrying is that it can help competition to flourish. IBM will soon be as much a prisoner of its standards as its competitors are. Once enough IBM machines have been bought, IBM cannot make sudden changes in their basic design; what might be useful for shedding competitors would shake off even more customers. In February 1984 Byte wrote that "IBM's burgeoning influence in
1639-558: A consumer PC manufacturer during April 2005, when it sold its laptop and desktop PC divisions ( ThinkPad / ThinkCentre ) to Lenovo for US$ 1.75 billion . As of October 2007, Hewlett-Packard and Dell had the largest shares of the PC market in North America. They were also successful overseas, with Acer , Lenovo , and Toshiba also notable. Worldwide, a huge number of PCs are " white box " systems assembled by myriad local systems builders. Despite advances of computer technology,
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#17327979271031788-558: A crowded market. Apple has long made product placements 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+ streaming service feature prominent use of MacBooks. The Mac is known for its highly loyal customer base. In 2022,
1937-569: A display cutout incorporating a 1080p webcam. The Mac Studio with M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips and the Mac Pro with M2 Ultra chip was unveiled at WWDC 2023, and the Intel-based Mac Pro was discontinued on the same day, completing the Mac transition to Apple silicon chips. The Mac Studio was received positively as a modest upgrade over the previous generation, albeit similarly priced PCs could be equipped with faster GPUs. However,
2086-425: A few percentage points of market share was Apple Inc. 's Macintosh . The Mac started out billed as "the computer for the rest of us", but high prices and closed architecture drove the Macintosh into an education and desktop publishing niche, from which it only emerged in the mid-2000s. By the mid-1990s the Mac's market share had dwindled to around 5% and introducing a new rival operating system had become too risky
2235-454: A last-ditch attempt to fend off Windows, Apple yielded and started a Macintosh clone program, which allowed other manufacturers to make System 7 computers. However, this only cannibalized the sales of Apple's higher-margin machines. Meanwhile, Windows 95 was an instant hit with customers. Apple was struggling financially as its attempts to produce a System 7 successor had all failed with Taligent, Star Trek , and Copland , and its hardware
2384-402: A magnetic latch that secures the lid 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 . To increase the iBook's durability, it eliminated doors and handles, and gained a more minimalistic exterior. Ive attempted to go beyond the quadrant with Power Mac G4 Cube , an innovation beyond
2533-813: A merger of NeXTSTEP and Mac OS as the foundation of Apple's new operating system strategy. At the time, Jobs only served as advisor, and Amelio was released in July 1997. Jobs was formally appointed interim CEO in September, and permanent CEO in January 2000. To continue turning the company around, Jobs streamlined Apple's operations and began layoffs. He negotiated a deal with Bill Gates in which 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
2682-415: 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
2831-505: A minor player with its own technology". The Economist predicted in 1983 that "IBM will soon be as much a prisoner of its standards as its competitors are", because "Once enough IBM machines have been bought, IBM cannot make sudden changes in their basic design; what might be useful for shedding competitors would shake off even more customers". After the Compaq Deskpro 386 became the first 80386-based PC, PC wrote that owners of
2980-508: A new ERP system and implemented just-in-time manufacturing principles. This practically eliminated Apple's costly unsold inventory, and within one year, Apple had the industry's most efficient inventory turnover. Jobs's top priority was "to ship a great new product". The first is the iMac G3 , an all-in-one computer that was meant to make the Internet intuitive and easy to access. While PCs came in functional beige boxes, Jony Ive gave
3129-745: A new standardized computing platform, which led to the creation of the PowerPC processor architecture, and the Taligent operating system. In 1992, Apple introduced the Macintosh Performa line, which "grew like ivy" into a disorienting number of barely differentiated models in an attempt to gain market share. This backfired by confusing customers, but the same strategy soon afflicted the PowerBook line. Michael Spindler continued this approach when he succeeded Sculley as CEO in 1993. He oversaw
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#17327979271033278-622: A personal computer. Beginning in 1994 with the Power Macintosh , the Mac transitioned from Motorola 68000 series processors to PowerPC . Macintosh clones by other manufacturers were also briefly sold afterwards. The line was refreshed in 1998 with the launch of iMac G3 , reinvigorating the line's competitiveness against commodity IBM PC compatibles . Macs transitioned to Intel x86 processors by 2006 along with new sub-product lines MacBook and Mac Pro. Since 2020, Macs have transitioned to Apple silicon chips based on ARM64 . In
3427-511: 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
3576-509: 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 16-inch MacBook Pro and 2020 MacBook Air replaced
3725-524: A proprietary operating system : "Who cares? If IBM does it, they will most likely just isolate themselves from the largest marketplace, in which they really can't compete anymore anyway". He predicted that in 1987 the market "will complete its transition from an IBM standard to an Intel/MS-DOS/expansion bus standard ... Folks aren't so much concerned about IBM compatibility as they are about Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility". By 1992, Macworld stated that because of clones, "IBM lost control of its own market and became
3874-421: A range of machines from different vendors that had widely varying hardware. Those customers who needed other applications than the starter programs could reasonably expect publishers to offer their products for a variety of computers, on suitable media for each. Microsoft's competing OS was intended initially to operate on a similar varied spectrum of hardware, although all based on the 8086 processor. Thus, MS-DOS
4023-484: A strengthened hinge instead of a mechanical latch to keep it closed, ports on the sides rather than on the back, and the first laptop with built-in Wi-Fi . It became the best selling laptop in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 1999. The professional-oriented Titanium PowerBook G4 was released in 2001, becoming the lightest and thinnest laptop in its class, and the first laptop with a wide-screen display; it also debuted
4172-480: 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 also frustrated by the need to buy dongles , 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
4321-637: Is a legacy of that period; other non-clone machines, while subject to a limit, could exceed 640 KB. Rumors of "lookalike," compatible computers, created without IBM's approval, began almost immediately after the IBM PC's release. InfoWorld wrote on the first anniversary of the IBM PC that The dark side of an open system is its imitators. If the specs are clear enough for you to design peripherals, they are clear enough for you to design imitations. Apple ... has patents on two important components of its systems ... IBM, which reportedly has no special patents on
4470-466: Is becoming a misnomer, as Intel has lost absolute control over the direction of x86 hardware development with AMD 's AMD64 . Additionally, non-Windows operating systems like macOS and Linux have established a presence on the x86 architecture. Although the IBM PC was designed for expandability, the designers could not anticipate the hardware developments of the 1980s, nor the size of the industry they would engender. To make things worse, IBM's choice of
4619-578: Is free of toxic chemicals like mercury , bromide , and PVC , and with smaller packaging. The enclosures of the iMac and unibody MacBook Pro were redesigned with the more recyclable aluminum and glass. On February 24, 2011, the MacBook Pro became the first computer to support Intel's new Thunderbolt connector, with two-way transfer speeds of 10 Gbit/s, and backward compatibility with Mini DisplayPort . Due to deteriorating health, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO on August 24, 2011, and Tim Cook
List of Apple operating systems - Misplaced Pages Continue
4768-477: Is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to a type of apple called McIntosh . The current product lineup includes the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, and the iMac , Mac Mini , Mac Studio , and Mac Pro desktops. Macs are sold with the macOS operating system, which is not licensed to other manufacturers and exclusively bundled with Mac computers. Jef Raskin conceived
4917-531: The Amiga , have been relegated to niche, enthusiast markets. In the past, the most successful exception was Apple 's Macintosh platform, which used non-Intel processors from its inception. Although Macintosh was initially based on the Motorola 68000 series , then transitioned to the PowerPC architecture, Macintosh computers transitioned to Intel processors beginning in 2006. Until 2020 Macintosh computers shared
5066-626: The IBM PS/2 computer that overcame many of the technical limits of the XT/AT bus, but this was rarely used as the basis for IBM-compatible computers since it required license payments to IBM both for the PS/2 bus and any prior AT-bus designs produced by the company seeking a license. This was unpopular with hardware manufacturers and several competing bus standards were developed by consortiums, with more agreeable license terms. Various attempts to standardize
5215-533: The Intel 8088 for the CPU introduced several limitations for developing software for the PC compatible platform. For example, the 8088 processor only had a 20-bit memory addressing space . To expand PC s beyond one megabyte, Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft jointly created expanded memory (EMS), a bank-switching scheme to allow more memory provided by add-in hardware, and accessed by a set of four 16- kilobyte "windows" inside
5364-472: The Mac transition to Intel processors , because the operating system had been developed for both architectures since the beginning. PowerPC apps run using transparent Rosetta emulation, and Windows boots natively using Boot Camp . This transition helped contribute to a few years of growth in Mac sales. After the iPhone 's 2007 release, Apple began a multi-year effort to bring many iPhone innovations "back to
5513-575: The Macintosh computers offered by Apple Inc. and used mainly for desktop publishing at the time, the aging 8-bit Commodore 64 which was selling for $ 150 by this time and became the world's bestselling computer, the 32-bit Commodore Amiga line used for television and video production and the 32-bit Atari ST used by the music industry. However, IBM itself lost the main role in the market for IBM PC compatibles by 1990. A few events in retrospect are important: Despite popularity of its ThinkPad set of laptop PC's, IBM finally relinquished its role as
5662-406: The Macintosh 512K with improved performance and an external floppy drive. The Macintosh is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface, Jobs's fascination with typography gave it an unprecedented variety of fonts and type styles like italics, bold, shadow, and outline. It is the first WYSIWYG computer, and due in large part to PageMaker and Apple's LaserWriter printer, it ignited
5811-607: The Multimedia PC (MPC) standard was set during 1990. A PC that met the minimum MPC standard could be marketed with the MPC logo, giving consumers an easy-to-understand specification to look for. Software that could operate on the most minimally MPC-compliant PC would be guaranteed to operate on any MPC. The MPC level 2 and MPC level 3 standards were set later, but the term "MPC compliant" never became popular. After MPC level 3 during 1996, no further MPC standards were established. By
5960-506: The PC-98 ). The IBM PC was sold in high enough volumes to justify writing software specifically for it, and this encouraged other manufacturers to produce machines that could use the same programs, expansion cards , and peripherals as the PC. The x86 computer marketplace rapidly excluded all machines which were not hardware-compatible or software-compatible with the PC. The 640 KB barrier on "conventional" system memory available to MS-DOS
6109-533: The Rosetta 2 translation layer, and iOS and iPadOS apps distributed via the App Store . These Mac models come equipped with high-speed Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4 connectivity, with speeds up to 40 Gbit/s. Apple silicon Macs have custom integrated graphics rather than graphics cards. MacBooks are recharged with either USB-C or MagSafe connectors, depending on the model. Apple sells accessories for
List of Apple operating systems - Misplaced Pages Continue
6258-643: The SD card slot. On March 8, 2022, the Mac Studio was unveiled, also featuring the M1 Max chip and the new M1 Ultra chip 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
6407-533: The StyleWriter printer and the 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 it received in licensing fees. Jobs made a deal with the largest computer reseller, CompUSA , to carry
6556-551: The VESA Local Bus (VLB), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), and the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP). Descendants of the x86 IBM PC compatibles, namely 64-bit computers based on " x86-64 /AMD64" chips comprise the majority of desktop computers on the market as of 2021, with the dominant operating system being Microsoft Windows . Interoperability with the bus structure and peripherals of
6705-457: The computer tower in a professional desktop far smaller than the Power Mac. The Cube failed in the market and was withdrawn from sale after one year. However, Ive considered it beneficial, because it helped Apple gain experience in complex machining and miniaturization. The development of a successor to the old Mac OS was well underway. Rhapsody had been previewed at WWDC 1997, featuring
6854-418: The desktop publishing market, turning the Macintosh from an early let-down into a notable success. Levy called desktop publishing the Mac's "Trojan horse" in the enterprise market, as colleagues and executives tried these Macs and were seduced into requesting one for themselves. PageMaker creator Paul Brainerd said: "You would see the pattern. A large corporation would buy PageMaker and a couple of Macs to do
7003-463: The iPhone 4 . iPhone-like multi-touch technology was progressively added to all MacBook trackpads, and to desktop Macs through the Magic Mouse , and Magic Trackpad . The 2010 MacBook Air added an iPad-inspired standby mode, "instant-on" wake from sleep, and flash memory storage. After criticism by Greenpeace, Apple improved the ecological performance of its products. The 2008 MacBook Air
7152-431: The iPod Touch ( 1st , 2nd , and 3rd generations ) and the original iPad . At its June 2019 Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple introduced iPadOS, a version of iOS, for iPad tablets, promised for fall 2019 release. There was no Apple TV Software 8; version 8 was skipped when moving to tvOS . Macintosh Mac is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple since 1984. The name
7301-405: The iTunes Store , iPod , iPhone , iPad , and the 2007 renaming from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. By January 2007, the iPod was half of Apple's revenues. New Macs include the white "Sunflower" iMac G4 . Ive designed a display to swivel with one finger, so that it "appear[ed] to defy gravity". In 2003, Apple released the aluminum 12-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4 , proclaiming the "Year of
7450-595: The iWork office suite. Serlet and Tevanian were both initiating the secret project asked by Steve Jobs to propose to Sony executives, in 2001, to sell Mac OS X on Vaio laptops. They showed them a demonstration at a golf party in Hawaii , with the most expensive Vaio laptop they could have acquired. But due to bad timing, Sony refused, arguing their Vaio sales just started to grow after years of difficulties. With PowerPC chips falling behind in performance, price, and efficiency, Steve Jobs announced in 2005
7599-528: The 20-bit addressing. Later, Intel CPUs had larger address spaces and could directly address 16 MB (80286) or more, causing Microsoft to develop extended memory (XMS) which did not require additional hardware. "Expanded" and "extended" memory have incompatible interfaces, so anyone writing software that used more than one megabyte had to provide for both systems for the greatest compatibility until MS-DOS began including EMM386, which simulated EMS memory using XMS memory. A protected mode OS can also be written for
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#17327979271037748-432: The 80286, but DOS application compatibility was more difficult than expected, not only because most DOS applications accessed the hardware directly, bypassing BIOS routines intended to ensure compatibility, but also that most BIOS requests were made by the first 32 interrupt vectors, which were marked as "reserved" for protected mode processor exceptions by Intel. Video cards suffered from their own incompatibilities. There
7897-561: The 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 increased focus on professional workflows. In April 2018, Bloomberg reported Apple's plan to replace Intel chips with ARM processors similar to those in its phones, causing Intel's shares to drop by 9.2%. The Verge commented on
8046-805: The American Customer Satisfaction Index gave the Mac the highest customer satisfaction score of any personal computer, at 82 out of 100. In that year, Apple was the fourth largest vendor of personal computers, with a market share of 8.9%. Apple outsources the production of its hardware to Asian manufacturers like Foxconn and Pegatron . As a highly vertically integrated company developing its own operating system and chips, it has tight control over all aspects of its products and deep integration between hardware and software. All Macs in production use ARM -based Apple silicon processors and have been praised for their performance and power efficiency. They can run Intel apps through
8195-400: The Apple silicon-based Mac Pro was criticized for several regressions, including memory capacity and a complete lack of CPU or GPU expansion options. A 15-inch MacBook Air was also introduced, and is the largest display included on a consumer-level Apple laptop. The MacBook Pro was updated on October 30, 2023, with updated M3 Pro and M3 Max chips using a 3 nm process node, as well as
8344-583: The BIOS setup utility. Computers using the UEFI might need to be set at legacy BIOS mode to be able to boot DOS. However, the BIOS/UEFI options in most mass-produced consumer-grade computers are very limited and cannot be configured to truly handle OSes such as the original variants of DOS. The spread of the x86-64 architecture has further distanced current computers' and operating systems' internal similarity with
8493-488: The Handwell Corporation were threatened with legal action by IBM, who settled with them. Soon after in 1982, Compaq released the very successful Compaq Portable , also with a clean-room reverse-engineered BIOS, and also not challenged legally by IBM. Early IBM PC compatibles used the same computer buses as their IBM counterparts, switching from the 8-bit IBM PC and XT bus to the 16-bit IBM AT bus with
8642-631: The IBM BIOS and then write its own BIOS using clean room design . Note this was over a year after Compaq released the Portable. The money and research put into reverse-engineering the BIOS was a calculated risk. At the same time, many manufacturers such as Tandy / RadioShack , Xerox , Hewlett-Packard , Digital Equipment Corporation , Sanyo , Texas Instruments , Tulip , Wang and Olivetti introduced personal computers that supported MS-DOS, but were not completely software- or hardware-compatible with
8791-454: The IBM PC compatibles remained very much compatible with the original IBM PC computers, although most of the components implement the compatibility in special backward compatibility modes used only during a system boot . It was often more practical to run old software on a modern system using an emulator rather than relying on these features. In 2014 Lenovo acquired IBM's x86-based server ( System x ) business for US$ 2.1 billion . One of
8940-651: The IBM PC compatibles: try the package you want to use before you buy the computer." Companies modified their computers' BIOS to work with newly discovered incompatible applications, and reviewers and users developed stress tests to measure compatibility; by 1984 the ability to operate Lotus 1-2-3 and Flight Simulator became the standard, with compatibles specifically designed to run them. IBM believed that some companies such as Eagle, Corona, and Handwell infringed on its copyright, and after Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. successfully forced
9089-467: The IBM PC. Tandy described the Tandy 2000 , for example, as having a "'next generation' true 16-bit CPU", and with "More speed. More disk storage. More expansion" than the IBM PC or "other MS-DOS computers". While admitting in 1984 that many PC DOS programs did not work on the computer, the company stated that "the most popular, sophisticated software on the market" was available, either immediately or "over
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#17327979271039238-1213: The IBM PC. At first, few clones other than Compaq's offered truly full compatibility. Jerry Pournelle purchased an IBM PC in mid-1983, " rotten keyboard and all", because he had "four cubic feet of unevaluated software, much of which won't run on anything but an IBM PC. Although a lot of machines claim to be 100 percent IBM PC compatible, I've yet to have one arrive ... Alas, a lot of stuff doesn't run with Eagle, Z-100, Compupro , or anything else we have around here". Columbia Data Products's November 1983 sales brochure stated that during tests with retail-purchased computers in October 1983, its own and Compaq's products were compatible with all tested PC software, while Corona and Eagle's were less compatible. Columbia University reported in January 1984 that Kermit ran without modification on Compaq and Columbia Data Products clones, but not on those from Eagle or Seequa. Other MS-DOS computers also required custom code. By December 1983 Future Computing stated that companies like Compaq, Columbia Data Products, and Corona that emphasized IBM PC compatibility had been successful, while non-compatible computers had hurt
9387-432: The IBM PC. Many companies were reluctant to have their products' PC compatibility tested. When PC Magazine requested samples from computer manufacturers that claimed to produce compatibles for an April 1984 review, 14 of 31 declined. Corona specified that "Our systems run all software that conforms to IBM PC programming standards. And the most popular software does." When a BYTE journalist asked to test Peachtext at
9536-557: The Internet's appeal to consumers, 32% of iMac buyers had never used a computer before, and 12% were switching from PCs. The iMac reestablished the Mac's reputation as a trendsetter: for the next few years, translucent plastic became the dominant design trend in numerous consumer products. Apple knew it had lost its chance to compete in the Windows-dominated enterprise market, so it prioritized design and ease of use to make
9685-418: The Mac Pro, Apple executives admitted in 2017 that the 2013 Mac Pro had not met expectations, and said 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 as a stopgap and an expandable Mac Pro to be released later. The iMac Pro
9834-519: The Mac became a "digital hub" and centerpiece with several new applications. In October 1999, the iMac DV gained FireWire ports, allowing users to connect camcorders and easily create movies with iMovie ; the iMac gained a CD burner and iTunes , allowing users to rip CDs, make playlists, and burn them to blank discs. Other applications include iPhoto for organizing and editing photos, and GarageBand for creating and mixing music and other audio. The digital lifestyle strategy entered other markets, with
9983-420: The Mac more appealing to average consumers, and even teens. The "Apple New Product Process" was launched as a more collaborative product development process for the Mac, with concurrent engineering principles. From then, product development was no longer driven primarily by engineering and with design as an afterthought. Instead, Ive and Jobs first defined a new product's "soul", before it was jointly developed by
10132-512: The Mac", including multi-touch 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 favors wireless technologies over physical ports, and lacks FireWire , an optical drive , or a replaceable battery. The Remote Disc feature accesses discs in other networked computers. A decade after its launch, journalist Tom Warren wrote that
10281-499: The Mac's interface. In exchange, Apple made Internet Explorer the default Mac browser. The deal was closed hours before Jobs announced it at the August 1997 Macworld. Jobs returned focus 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
10430-492: The Mac's transition from Motorola 68000 series 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 problems. The 1995 PowerBook 5300 was plagued with quality problems, with several recalls as some units even caught fire. Pessimistic about Apple's future, Spindler repeatedly attempted to sell Apple to other companies, including IBM, Kodak, AT&T, Sun, and Philips. In
10579-707: The Mac, including the Studio Display and Pro Display XDR external monitors, the AirPods line of wireless headphones, and keyboards and mice such as the Magic Keyboard , Magic Trackpad , and Magic Mouse . Macs run the macOS operating system, which is the second most widely used desktop OS according to StatCounter . Macs can also run Windows , Linux , or other operating systems through virtualization , emulation, or multi-booting . IBM PC compatible " IBM PC–compatible " refers to
10728-519: The Mac, the Apple M1 , and a series of Macs that would ship with the M1: the MacBook Air , Mac Mini , 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 discontinued on March 6, 2021. On April 20, 2021, a new 24-inch iMac
10877-472: The MacBook Air had "immediately changed the future of laptops", starting the ultrabook trend. OS X Lion added new software features first introduced with the iPad , such as FaceTime , full-screen apps, document autosaving and versioning, and a bundled Mac App Store to replace software install discs with online downloads. It gained support for Retina displays , which had been introduced earlier with
11026-477: The Macintosh project in 1979, which was usurped and redefined by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1981. The original Macintosh was launched in January 1984, after Apple's "1984" advertisement during Super Bowl XVIII . A series of incrementally improved models followed, sharing the same integrated case design. In 1987, the Macintosh II brought color graphics, but priced as a professional workstation and not
11175-509: The Macintosh project. Conceived in 1979 by Jef Raskin , Macintosh was envisioned as an affordable, easy-to-use computer for the masses. Raskin named the computer after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh . The initial team consisted of Raskin, hardware engineer Burrell Smith , and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak . In 1981, Steve Jobs was removed from the Lisa team and joined Macintosh, and
11324-483: The Macintosh to 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, "[a] computer for the rest of us", which the market clamored for. In a pattern typical of Apple's early era, of skunkworks projects like Macintosh and Macintosh II lacking adoption by upper management who were late to realize
11473-526: The Notebook". With the Microsoft deal expiring, Apple also replaced Internet Explorer with its new browser, Safari . The first Mac Mini was intended to be assembled in the U.S., but domestic manufacturers were slow and had insufficient quality processes, leading Apple to Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn . The affordably priced Mac Mini desktop was introduced at Macworld 2005, alongside the introduction of
11622-592: The OEM versions of MS-DOS were virtually identical, except perhaps for the provision of a few utility programs. MS-DOS provided adequate functionality for character-oriented applications such as those that could have been implemented on a text-only terminal . Had the bulk of commercially important software been of this nature, low-level hardware compatibility might not have mattered. However, in order to provide maximum performance and leverage hardware features (or work around hardware bugs), PC applications quickly developed beyond
11771-455: The PC community is stifling innovation because so many other companies are mimicking Big Blue", but The Economist stated in November 1983, "The main reason why an IBM standard is not worrying is that it can help competition to flourish". By 1983, IBM had about 25% of sales of personal computers between $ 1,000 and $ 10,000 , and computers with some PC compatibility were another 25%. As
11920-463: The PC, is even more vulnerable. Numerous PC-compatible machines—the grapevine says 60 or more—have begun to appear in the marketplace. By June 1983 PC Magazine defined "PC 'clone ' " as "a computer [that can] accommodate the user who takes a disk home from an IBM PC, walks across the room, and plugs it into the 'foreign' machine". Because of a shortage of IBM PCs that year, many customers purchased clones instead. Columbia Data Products produced
12069-548: The Spring 1983 COMDEX , Corona representatives "hemmed and hawed a bit, but they finally led me ... off in the corner where no one would see it should it fail". The magazine reported that "Their hesitancy was unnecessary. The disk booted up without a problem". Zenith Data Systems was bolder, bragging that its Z-150 ran all applications people brought to test with at the 1984 West Coast Computer Faire . Creative Computing in 1985 stated, "we reiterate our standard line regarding
12218-400: The ability to drag and drop files, double-click to launch applications, and move or resize windows by clicking and dragging instead of going through a menu. However, hampered by its high price of $ 9,995 (equivalent to $ 33,000 in 2023) and lack of available software, the Lisa was commercially unsuccessful. Parallel to the Lisa's development, a skunkworks team at Apple was working on
12367-472: The clone makers to stop using the BIOS. The Phoenix BIOS in 1984, however, and similar products such as AMI BIOS , permitted computer makers to legally build essentially 100%-compatible clones without having to reverse-engineer the PC BIOS themselves. A September 1985 InfoWorld chart listed seven compatibles with 256 KB RAM, two disk drives, and monochrome monitors for $ 1,495 to $ 2,320 , while
12516-410: The company newsletter. The next year you'd come back and there would be thirty Macintoshes. The year after that, three hundred." In late 1985, Bill Atkinson, one of the few remaining employees to have been on the original Macintosh team, proposed that Apple create a Dynabook , Alan Kay's concept for a tablet computer that stores and organizes knowledge. Sculley rebuffed him, so he adapted the idea into
12665-526: The company's profit margins, and Macintoshes were priced far above entry-level MS-DOS compatible computers. Steven Levy said that though Macintoshes were superior, the cheapest Mac cost almost twice as much as the cheapest IBM PC compatible. Sculley 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 compatibles had done to IBM. These early strategic steps caused
12814-569: The company, he launched 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 , 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
12963-423: The computer marketplace of the time. Until then Microsoft's business was based primarily on computer languages such as BASIC . The established small system operating software was CP/M from Digital Research which was in use both at the hobbyist level and by the more professional of those using microcomputers. To achieve such widespread use, and thus make the product viable economically, the OS had to operate across
13112-457: The computer's hardware directly and to instead make standard calls to BIOS functions that carried out hardware-dependent operations. This software would run on any machine using MS-DOS or PC DOS. Software that directly addressed the hardware instead of making standard calls was faster, however; this was particularly relevant to games. Software addressing IBM PC hardware in this way would not run on MS-DOS machines with different hardware (for example,
13261-599: 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 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
13410-549: The dominant market player only to be virtually wiped out by Intel a year later. Intel has been the uncontested leader ever since. As the "Wintel" platform gained dominance Intel gradually abandoned the practice of licensing its technologies to other chipset makers; in 2010 Intel was involved in litigation related to their refusal to license their processor bus and related technologies to other companies like Nvidia . Companies such as AMD and Cyrix developed alternative x86 CPUs that were functionally compatible with Intel's. Towards
13559-584: The end of the 1990s, AMD was taking an increasing share of the CPU market for PCs. AMD even ended up playing a significant role in directing the development of the x86 platform when its Athlon line of processors continued to develop the classic x86 architecture as Intel deviated with its NetBurst architecture for the Pentium 4 CPUs and the IA-64 architecture for the Itanium set of server CPUs. AMD developed AMD64,
13708-472: The equivalent IBM PC cost $ 2,820 . The inexpensive Leading Edge Model D is even compatible with IBM proprietary diagnostic software, unlike the Compaq Portable. By 1986 Compute! stated that "clones are generally reliable and about 99 percent compatible", and a 1987 survey in the magazine of the clone industry did not mention software compatibility, stating that "PC by now has come to stand for
13857-620: The exception rather than the rule. Instead of placing importance on compatibility with the IBM PC, vendors began to emphasize compatibility with Windows . In 1993, a version of Windows NT was released that could operate on processors other than the x86 set. While it required that applications be recompiled, which most developers did not do, its hardware independence was used for Silicon Graphics (SGI) x86 workstations–thanks to NT's Hardware abstraction layer (HAL), they could operate NT (and its vast application library) . No mass-market personal computer hardware vendor dared to be incompatible with
14006-515: The first IBM PC went on sale. There were three operating systems (OS) available for it. The least expensive and most popular was PC DOS made by Microsoft . In a crucial concession, IBM's agreement allowed Microsoft to sell its own version, MS-DOS , for non-IBM computers. The only component of the original PC architecture exclusive to IBM was the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). IBM at first asked developers to avoid writing software that addressed
14155-568: The first computer more or less compatible with the IBM PC standard during June 1982, soon followed by Eagle Computer . Compaq announced its first product, an IBM PC compatible in November 1982, the Compaq Portable . The Compaq was the first sewing machine-sized portable computer that was essentially 100% PC-compatible. The court decision in Apple v. Franklin , was that BIOS code was protected by copyright law, but it could reverse-engineer
14304-424: The first major extension not created by Intel, which Intel later adopted as x86-64 . During 2006 Intel began abandoning NetBurst with the release of their set of "Core" processors that represented a development of the earlier Pentium III. A major alternative to Wintel domination is the rise of alternative operating systems since the early 2000s, which marked as the start of the post-PC era . This would include both
14453-462: The hardware, for a variety of reasons: The first thing to think about when considering an IBM-compatible computer is, "How compatible is it?" In May 1983, Future Computing defined four levels of compatibility: During development, Compaq engineers found that Microsoft Flight Simulator would not run because of what subLOGIC 's Bruce Artwick described as "a bug in one of Intel's chips", forcing them to make their new computer bug compatible with
14602-444: The highest-resolution all-in-one desktop computer. The MacBook was reintroduced in 2015, with a completely redesigned aluminum unibody chassis, a 12-inch Retina display, a fanless low-power Intel Core M processor, a much smaller logic board, a new Butterfly keyboard, a single USB-C port, and a solid-state Force Touch trackpad with pressure sensitivity. It was praised for its portability, but criticized for its lack of performance,
14751-467: The iMac a radical and futuristic design, meant to make the product less intimidating. Its oblong case is made of translucent plastic in Bondi blue , later revised with many colors. Ive added a handle on the back to make the computer more approachable. Jobs declared the iMac would be "legacy-free", succeeding ADB and SCSI with an infrared port and cutting-edge USB ports. Though USB had industry backing, it
14900-496: The interfaces were made, but in practice, many of these attempts were either flawed or ignored. Even so, there were many expansion options, and despite the confusion of its users, the PC compatible design advanced much faster than other competing designs of the time, even if only because of its market dominance. During the 1990s, IBM's influence on PC architecture started to decline. "IBM PC compatible" becomes "Standard PC" in 1990s, and later " ACPI PC" in 2000s. An IBM-brand PC became
15049-469: The last. Apple acquired NeXT on December 20, 1996, returning its co-founder, Steve Jobs. NeXT had developed the mature NeXTSTEP operating system with strong multimedia and Internet capabilities. NeXTSTEP was also popular among programmers, financial firms, and academia for its object-oriented programming tools for rapid application development . In an eagerly anticipated speech at the January 1997 Macworld trade show, Steve Jobs previewed Rhapsody ,
15198-674: The late 1970s, the Apple II became one of the most popular computers, especially in education. After IBM introduced the IBM PC in 1981, its sales surpassed the Apple II. In response, Apple introduced the Lisa in 1983. The Lisa's graphical user interface was inspired by strategically licensed demonstrations of the Xerox Star . Lisa surpassed the Star with intuitive direct manipulation , like
15347-471: The late 1990s, the success of Microsoft Windows had driven rival commercial operating systems into near-extinction, and had ensured that the "IBM PC compatible" computer was the dominant computing platform . This meant that if a developer made their software only for the Wintel platform, they would still be able to reach the vast majority of computer users. The only major competitor to Windows with more than
15496-428: The latest version of Windows, and Microsoft's annual WinHEC conferences provided a setting in which Microsoft could lobby for—and in some cases dictate—the pace and direction of the hardware of the PC industry. Microsoft and Intel had become so important to the ongoing development of PC hardware that industry writers began using the word Wintel to refer to the combined hardware-software system. This terminology itself
15645-487: The latter becoming the most popular. Because of the great number of third-party adapters and no standard for them, programming the PC could be difficult. Professional developers would operate a large test-suite of various known-to-be-popular hardware combinations. Meanwhile, consumers were overwhelmed by the competing, incompatible standards and many different combinations of hardware on offer. To give them some idea of what sort of PC they would need to operate their software,
15794-413: The machine's low performance, single floppy disk drive requiring frequent disk swapping, and initial lack of applications. Author Douglas Adams said: "But what I (and I think everybody else who bought the machine in the early days) fell in love with was not the machine itself, which was ridiculously slow and underpowered, but a romantic idea of the machine. And that romantic idea had to sustain me through
15943-444: 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
16092-525: The market and competition grew IBM's influence diminished. In November 1985 PC Magazine stated "Now that it has created the [PC] market, the market doesn't necessarily need IBM for the machines. It may depend on IBM to set standards and to develop higher-performance machines, but IBM had better conform to existing standards so as to not hurt users". In January 1987, Bruce Webster wrote in Byte of rumors that IBM would introduce proprietary personal computers with
16241-515: 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. The next two Mac products in 1999, the Power Mac G3 (nicknamed "Blue and White") and the iBook , introduced industrial designs influenced by the iMac, incorporating colorful translucent plastic and carrying handles. The iBook introduced several innovations:
16390-498: The need to use adapters to use most USB peripherals, and a high starting price of $ 1,299 (equivalent to $ 1,700 in 2023). 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. 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
16539-522: The new computer did not need to fear that future IBM products would be incompatible with the Compaq, because such changes would also affect millions of real IBM PCs: "In sticking it to the competition, IBM would be doing the same to its own people". After IBM announced the OS/2 -oriented PS/2 line in early 1987, sales of existing DOS-compatible PC compatibles rose, in part because the proprietary operating system
16688-586: The next six months". Like IBM, Microsoft's apparent intention was that application writers would write to the application programming interfaces in MS-DOS or the firmware BIOS, and that this would form what would now be termed a hardware abstraction layer . Each computer would have its own Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) version of MS-DOS, customized to its hardware. Any software written for MS-DOS would operate on any MS-DOS computer, despite variations in hardware design. This expectation seemed reasonable in
16837-522: The number of software platforms rose again by one, from five to six, as visionOS was introduced. macOS was initially called Mac OS X and later OS X. macOS Server was initially called Mac OS X Server and later OS X Server. Starting with Lion, there is no separate Mac OS X Server operating system. Instead the server components are a separate download from the Mac App Store . iOS was previously known as iPhone OS , despite also being available on
16986-462: The number of software platforms rose by one, from two to three, as watchOS was introduced. In late 2015, tvOS was introduced, increasing the number of software platforms again by one, from three to four. In 2016, OS X was renamed macOS. In 2019, iPadOS was introduced as the derived version of iOS for iPad, increasing the number of software platforms again by one, from four to five. In 2020, macOS received an increment in its version, from 10 to 11. In 2023,
17135-531: The old BIOS-based firmware interface, or have their CSMs disabled, cannot natively run MS-DOS since MS-DOS depends on a BIOS interface to boot. Only the Macintosh had kept significant market share without having compatibility with the IBM PC, although that changed during the Intel Macs era running Mac OS X , often dual-booting Windows with Boot Camp . IBM decided in 1980 to market a low-cost single-user computer as quickly as possible. On August 12, 1981,
17284-419: The original PC architecture may be limited or non-existent. Many modern computers are unable to use old software or hardware that depends on portions of the IBM PC compatible architecture which are missing or do not have equivalents in modern computers. For example, computers which boot using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface -based firmware that lack a Compatibility Support Module, or CSM, required to emulate
17433-521: The original XT circuits: one 8237 DMA controller, one 8253 interrupt timer, one 8255 parallel interface controller, one 8259 interrupt controller, one 8284 clock generator, and one 8288 bus controller. Similar non-Intel chipsets appeared for the AT-compatibles, for example OPTi's 82C206 or 82C495XLC which were found in many 486 and early Pentium systems. The x86 chipset market was very volatile though. In 1993, VLSI Technology had become
17582-427: The product and giving an inside look into its creation. Apple 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
17731-536: The projects' merit, this once-renegade project was actually endorsed by senior management following market pressures. In 1990 came the Macintosh LC and the more affordable Macintosh Classic , the first model under $ 1,000 (equivalent to $ 2,300 in 2023). Between 1984 and 1989, Apple had sold one million Macs, and another 10 million over the following five years. In 1991, the Macintosh Portable
17880-509: The rapid growth of the smartphones (using Android or iOS) as an alternative to the personal computer; and the increasing prevalence of Linux and Unix-like operating systems in the server farms of large corporations such as Google or Amazon. The term "IBM PC compatible" is not commonly used presently because many current mainstream desktop and laptop computers are based on the PC architecture, and IBM no longer makes PCs. The competing hardware architectures have either been discontinued or, like
18029-402: The realities of actually working on the 128K Mac." Most of the original Macintosh team left Apple, and some followed Jobs to found NeXT after he was forced out by CEO John Sculley . The first Macintosh nevertheless generated enthusiasm among buyers and some developers, who rushed to develop entirely new programs for the platform, including PageMaker , MORE , and Excel . Apple soon released
18178-686: The release of the AT. IBM's introduction of the proprietary Micro Channel architecture (MCA) in its PS/2 series resulted in the establishment of the Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus open standard by a consortium of IBM PC compatible vendors, redefining the 16-bit IBM AT bus as the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus. Additional bus standards were subsequently adopted to improve compatibility between IBM PC compatibles, including
18327-542: The reputations of others like TI and DEC despite superior technology. At a San Francisco meeting it warned 200 attendees, from many American and foreign computer companies as well as IBM itself, to "Jump on the IBM PC-compatible bandwagon—quickly, and as compatibly as possible". Future Computing said in February 1984 that some computers were "press-release compatible", exaggerating their actual compatibility with
18476-514: The rumors, 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. 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 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
18625-539: The same effect, but this did not easily extend to the greater color depths and higher resolutions offered by SVGA adapters. An attempt at creating a standard named VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE) was made, but not all manufacturers used it. When the 386 was introduced, again a protected mode OS could be written for it. This time, DOS compatibility was much easier because of virtual 8086 mode . Unfortunately programs could not switch directly between them, so eventually, some new memory-model APIs were developed, VCPI and DPMI ,
18774-438: The same software that a contemporary IBM or Lenovo PC could. The term was initially in contrast to the variety of home computer systems available in the early 1980s, such as the Apple II , TRS-80 , and Commodore 64 . Later, the term was primarily used in contrast to Commodore 's Amiga and Apple 's Macintosh computers. These "clones" duplicated almost all the significant features of the original IBM PC architectures. This
18923-481: The same system architecture as their Wintel counterparts and could boot Microsoft Windows without a DOS Compatibility Card . However, with the transition to the internally developed ARM -based Apple silicon , they are again the exception to IBM compatibility. The processor speed and memory capacity of modern PCs are many orders of magnitude greater than they were for the original IBM PC and yet backwards compatibility has been largely maintained –
19072-431: The simple terminal applications that MS-DOS supported directly. Spreadsheets , WYSIWYG word processors , presentation software and remote communication software established new markets that exploited the PC's strengths, but required capabilities beyond what MS-DOS provided. Thus, from very early in the development of the MS-DOS software environment, many significant commercial software products were written directly to
19221-552: The standard M3 chip in a refreshed iMac and a new base model MacBook Pro. Reviewers lamented the base memory configuration of 8 GB on the standard M3 MacBook Pro. In March 2024, the MacBook Air was also updated to include the M3 chip. In October 2024, several Macs were announced with the M4 series of chips, including the iMac, a redesigned Mac Mini, and the MacBook Pro; all of which included 16 GB of memory as standard. The MacBook Air
19370-569: The strengths of the PC-compatible design is its modular hardware design. End-users could readily upgrade peripherals and, to some degree, processor and memory without modifying the computer's motherboard or replacing the whole computer, as was the case with many of the microcomputers of the time. However, as processor speed and memory width increased, the limits of the original XT/AT bus design were soon reached, particularly when driving graphics video cards. IBM did introduce an upgraded bus in
19519-490: The successful 1989 release of the Macintosh II , which appealed to power users and gave the lineup momentum. However, Gassée's "no-compromise" approach foiled Apple's first laptop , the Macintosh Portable , which has many uncommon power user features, but is almost as heavy as the original Macintosh at twice its price. Soon after its launch, Gassée was fired. Since the Mac's debut, Sculley had opposed lowering
19668-496: The term "IBM PC compatible" is now a historical description only, as the vast majority of microcomputers produced since the 1990s are IBM compatible. IBM itself no longer sells personal computers, having sold its division to Lenovo in 2005. " Wintel " is a similar description that is more commonly used for modern computers. The designation "PC", as used in much of personal computer history , has not meant "personal computer" generally, but rather an x86 computer capable of running
19817-586: 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, and introduced a new expansion module system (MPX) for modules such as
19966-413: Was able to gradually take control of the project due to Wozniak's temporary absence after an airplane crash . Under Jobs, the Mac grew to resemble the Lisa, with a mouse and a more intuitive graphical interface, at a quarter of the Lisa's price. Upon its January 1984 launch, the first Macintosh was described as "revolutionary" by The New York Times . Sales initially met projections, but dropped due to
20115-406: Was also upgraded with 16 GB for the same price. The original Macintosh was marketed at Super Bowl XVIII with the highly acclaimed "1984" ad, directed by Ridley Scott . The ad alluded to George Orwell '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
20264-481: Was facilitated by IBM's choice of commodity hardware components , which were cheap, and by various manufacturers' ability to reverse-engineer the BIOS firmware using a " clean room design " technique. Columbia Data Products built the first clone of the IBM personal computer , the MPC 1600 by a clean-room reverse-engineered implementation of its BIOS. Other rival companies, Corona Data Systems , Eagle Computer , and
20413-438: Was for several years sold only as an OEM product. There was no Microsoft-branded MS-DOS: MS-DOS could not be purchased directly from Microsoft, and each OEM release was packaged with the trade dress of the given PC vendor. Malfunctions were to be reported to the OEM, not to Microsoft. However, as machines that were compatible with IBM hardware—thus supporting direct calls to the hardware—became widespread, it soon became clear that
20562-415: 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 , 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 charging, and a Liquid Retina display, with rounded corners and
20711-583: Was named as his successor. Cook's first keynote address launched iCloud , moving the digital hub from the Mac to the cloud. In 2012, the MacBook Pro was refreshed with a Retina display, and the iMac was slimmed and lost its SuperDrive . During Cook's first few years as CEO, Apple fought media criticisms that it could no longer innovate without Jobs. In 2013, Apple introduced a new cylindrical Mac Pro , with marketing chief Phil Schiller exclaiming "Can't innovate anymore, my ass!". The new model had
20860-477: Was no standard interface for using higher-resolution SVGA graphics modes supported by later video cards. Each manufacturer developed their own methods of accessing the screen memory, including different mode numberings and different bank switching arrangements. The latter were used to address large images within a single 64 KB segment of memory. Previously, the VGA standard had used planar video memory arrangements to
21009-465: Was not available. In 1988, Gartner Group estimated that the public purchased 1.5 clones for every IBM PC. By 1989 Compaq was so influential that industry executives spoke of "Compaq compatible", with observers stating that customers saw the company as IBM's equal or superior. After 1987, IBM PC compatibles dominated both the home and business markets of commodity computers, with other notable alternative architectures being used in niche markets, like
21158-507: Was publicly unveiled in January 2000, introducing the modern Aqua graphical user interface, and a far more stable Unix foundation, with memory protection and preemptive multitasking . Blue Box became the Classic environment , and Yellow Box was renamed Cocoa . Following a public beta , the first version of Mac OS X, version 10.0 Cheetah , was released in March 2001. In 1999, Apple launched its new "digital lifestyle" strategy of which
21307-450: Was ready to abandon Microsoft Office for Mac, which would have slashed any remaining business appeal the Mac had. Gil Amelio , Spindler's successor, failed to negotiate a deal with Gates. In 1996, Spindler was succeeded by Amelio, who searched for an established operating system to acquire or license for the foundation of a new Macintosh operating system. He considered BeOS , Solaris, Windows NT, and NeXT's NeXTSTEP , eventually choosing
21456-431: Was renamed Mac OS. In 1999, Mac OS X Server 1.0 was released, followed by Mac OS X 10.0 , the first consumer release of the Mac OS X. From the release of Mac OS X 10.0 until early 2007, Mac OS X was the only software platform. In early 2007, iPhone OS was introduced, increasing the number of software platforms by one, from one to two. In 2010, iPhone OS was renamed iOS. In 2011, Mac OS X was renamed OS X. In early 2015,
21605-459: Was replaced with the smaller and lighter PowerBook 100 , the first laptop with a palm rest and trackball in front of the keyboard. The PowerBook brought $ 1 billion of revenue within one year, and became a status symbol. By then, the Macintosh represented 10% to 15% of the personal computer market. Fearing a decline in market share, Sculley co-founded the AIM alliance with IBM and Motorola to create
21754-529: Was revealed at WWDC 2017, featuring updated Intel Xeon W processors and Radeon Pro 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
21903-452: Was revealed, featuring the M1 chip, seven new colors, thinner white bezels, a higher-resolution 1080p webcam, and an enclosure made entirely from recycled aluminum. On October 18, 2021, Apple announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros , featuring the more powerful M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, a bezel-less mini-LED 120 Hz ProMotion display, and the return of MagSafe and HDMI ports, and
22052-479: Was stagnant. The Mac was no longer competitive, and its sales entered a tailspin. Corporations abandoned Macintosh in droves, replacing it with cheaper and more technically sophisticated Windows NT machines for which far more applications and peripherals existed. Even some 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
22201-466: Was still absent from most PCs and USB 1.1 was only standardized one month after the iMac's release. He also controversially removed the floppy disk 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
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