24 January 1984: Introducing Macintosh The revolutionary 128K, 8MHz Macintosh sets the agenda for Apple’s next two decades
[Read our History of Apple]
1 March 1985: LaserWriter breaks barriers Apple’s early mass-market laser printer becomes a key component in desktop publishing’s emergence
15 July 1985: The PageMaker revolution In combination with the Mac and the LaserWriter, Aldus PageMaker 1.0 launches the desktop publishing revolution.
13 September 1985: Apple loses its core After losing a boardroom battle for control of the company, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs resigns to found Next.
16 January 1986: One Megabyte The Macintosh Plus features 1MB of RAM, an 800K floppy drive, and the Mac’s first SCSI interface
2 March 1987: Apple Desktop Bus Apple’s ADB port used for keyboards and other connections shows up on the Macintosh SE.
2 March 1987: Macintosh sees colours With six NuBus slots and the ability to produce colour graphics, the Macintosh II represents a drastic shift in Apple’s strategy.
October 1987: Taking Mac OS to task Apple releases its first official multitasking operating system, System 4.2, which provides co-operative multitasking via MultiFinder
[Read our history of Apple, starting with how Apple was founded]
17 March 1988: Copy cats Apple sues Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard for copyright violations over Windows 2.0.3’s icons
Image via GuideBook Gallery
19 September 1988: Super early SuperDrive The Macintosh IIx becomes the first model to include a 1.44MB SuperDrive floppy disk drive
20 September 1989: The portable Macintosh Although it’s far from perfect (it’s even far from portable by today’s standards), the Macintosh Portable finally made the Mac mobile
19 February 1990: Opening up shop Adobe’s famous image editor premieres exclusively on the Mac. Photoshop later makes its way to Windows (in 1992)
October 1990: Extension cord The Apple Extended Keyboard sets the standard for sound, feel, and durability in a keyboard
21 October 1991: PowerBooks turn heads (and Trackballs) Apple’s PowerBook 100, 140, and 170 revitalise notebook computing with their clever, compact and stylish designs
2 December 1991: Think quick Apple’s QuickTime multimedia software starts the Mac’s love affair with music and video
March 1992: Jonathan Ive joins the team Ive’s design influence will extend to the iMac, the iPod, and beyond
19 October 1992: Dynamic duo The PowerBook Duo 210 (plus Duo Dock) is Apple’s first attempt at a laptop/desktop hybrid. Recent patents show that Apple still considers this a valid idea, even if it has no similar product in production at the moment.
10 February 1993: Portable palette The PowerBook 165c – Apple’s first colour laptop – makes its debut
3 August 1993: Apple launches the modern PDA The Newton MessagePad provides an early glimpse of touch-screen design
14 March 1994: The PowerPC transition The Power Macintosh 6100 is the first PowerPC Mac, and it sports a 60MHz PowerPC 601 CPU
16 May 1994: A touch of novelty The first integrated notebook trackpad appears on the PowerBook 500 series
27 March 1995: Attack of the Clones The Radius System 100, the first authorized Mac clone of the 1990s, debuts. The StarMax 3000/160MT Macintosh clone was manufactured by Motorola
February 1996: Serve it up The short-lived Apple Network Server ships with IBM’s Unix-based AIX operating system
7 August 1997:Bill Gates looms large Gates’s giant talking head and Steve Jobs announce a landmark Microsoft-Apple software and investment deal at Macworld Conference & Expo in Boston
14 August 1997: Think different The award-winning TBWA/CHIAT/Day ad campaign is born and still resonates with Mac users to this day.
2 September 1997: No more clones Realising that clones cost the company more money than they earn, Apple axes the Mac clone programme
16 September 1997: The second coming Steve Jobs returns to Apple and becomes interim CEO, drawing a yearly salary of $1
15 August 1998: iMac rewrites the Book of Mac Featuring USB ports, no floppy drive, a G3 Processor and an innovative all-in-one design, the first iMac causes tidal waves in the PC industry
15 October 1998: 8 isn’t enough Mac OS 8.5 becomes the first Apple OS version to run only on PowerPC-equipped Macs
21 July 1999: iBook cuts the wires With AirPort (on the colourful clamshell iBook), Apple starts the wireless networking revolution
5 October 1999: Apple goes to the movies iMovie 1.0 represents a breakthrough of easy-to-use video editing software for the masses.
19 July 2000: All hail the cube The stylish but impractical Power Macintosh G4 Cube makes its debut to critical excitement and consumer ambivalence. Apple axes it within a year
9 January 2001: Beautiful music iTunes 1.0 seems ho-hum at first, but it cleverly sets the stage for the iPod and the iTunes Store empire
Image via: DustinMacDonald.com
19 February 2001: The SuperDrive strikes back Apple releases the industry’s first combo CD and DVD burning optical drive, in the 733MHz Power Mac G4
24 March 2001: X marks the spot Apple begins its shift to the Unix-based Mac OS X complete with its flashy new interface, dock and pre-emptive multitasking technology.
23 October 2001: iPod rocks the music world One of the iPod pundits asks: “Who would want such a thing?” The answer: “Everybody”
7 January 2002 The iMac G4 blooms The iMac G4 turns heads with an integrated flat-panel display on a stylish, flexible arm
14 May 2002: Mac on a rack Apple ships the Xserve, a rack-mount Mac for server, educational and scientific markets
23 June 2003: Surfing Safari With Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for the Mac gone AWOL, Apple releases a lean, fast web browser: Safari
23 June 2003: G5 arrives Touted by Apple as the world’s fastest PC, the Power Mac G5 introduces the world to blazing speed and blazing cooling fans
28 June 2004: 30 inches or bust Apple calls its 30in Cinema Display “the largest high resolution display ever created”
11 January 2005: Not the Cube, we swear A new, low-end, consumer headless Mac, the Mac mini fares much better than its cubic predecessor
29 April 2005: Easy there, Tiger Apple sends Panther back to the jungle and releases the Tiger with OS X 10.4.
2 August 2005: Pushing buttons Twenty years of one-button history comes to an end as Apple introduces the Mighty Mouse
10 January 2006: Hell freezes over: Apple goes Intel Apple abandons the Motorola and IBM processors of its past and announces the first Macs powered by Intel chips
5 April 2006: Basic training Apple unveils Boot Camp, technology that lets Intel-based Macs run Windows natively
15 January 2008: Lighter than Air (and much more expensive) At 1.36kg and 1.94cm high, the MacBook Air becomes the lightest, thinnest Mac ever
14 October 2008: A solid case for success Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro goes through a radical redesign that involves carving each machine from a single block of aluminium. The process is referred to as ‘Unibody’ by Apple. The new MacBook is controversial and expensive, but environmentally friendly, technically powerful and exceptionally well made.
7 January 2007: A new computer The iPhone might look out of place in a round up of the most important events in the history of the Mac, but with this little device Apple placed a computer in our pockets.
3 April 2010: Post-PC Steve Jobs once said we are in a Post-PC era. While nobody has completely replaced their Mac or PC with an iPad yet, there is no doubt that, for consumers at least, there is a move in that direction.
20 October 2010: Shopping When the Mac App Store launched it simplified the means by which consumers could access software for their Macs, irradiating any argument that there was limited software for the Mac.
11 June 2012: eyeing the screen You could argue that any number of recent Macs have had a huge impact, but we’re picking the Retina display as we are sure it points to a future when Apple’s whole range of Macs will have these high-res displays.
30 November 2012: Skinny Macs We love the way that the iMac has evolved every few years, the most recent update made the desktop Mac even slimmer. There is no more beautiful computer.
18 December 2013: Mega Mac 30 years of Apple innovation has bought us the new Mac Pro. A workstation that fits in a small aluminum cylinder and is as beautiful on the outside as it is on the inside. Expect this Mac to make waves.
9 September 2014: Apple launches the iPhone 6 Plus, it’s biggest ever iPhone, as well as unveilling the Apple Watch – a computer you strap to your wrist! Read our Apple Watch review
Thanks to Wikipedia for some of the pictures. Used under Creative Commons license.