Macintosh Computer

The idea for the Apple Macintosh computer evolved in 1979, when Jeff Raskin, an engineer at Apple, developed the concept of a low-cost personal computer. The Macintosh followed on heels of another Apple computer system, called Lisa, which debuted in the early 1980s. Apple borrowed Xerox's concept of the "graphical user interface" and incorporated GUIs into the early Macintosh designs. Whereas the Lisa cost almost $10,000 and flopped with consumers, the Macintosh line proved amazingly successful.

The original 128 K Macintosh featured innovations never before seen in the PC world, including the click-and-drag pointing option, advanced white space, aesthetic design, and built-in networking. Later Macintosh versions introduced even more innovations. In 1985, Macintosh computers introduced the PostScript laser printer and launched a revolution in PC desktop publishing.

In 1986, Macintosh helped popularize the SCSI interface. In the early '90s, Macintosh launched a new advertising campaign and came up with a host of innovative laptop features, including the built-in pointing device and trackball mouse. In 1992, the Macintosh delivered a "CD ROM drive" as one of its major standard features.

Most modern computers are produced with flat screen monitors. Macintosh introduced this idea of standard flat-panel displays in 1997 with its 20th Anniversary launch. The following year, Macintosh abandoned the floppy disk concept, which it had helped popularize in the 1980s. In 1998, Macintosh introduced colorized hardware, paving the way for companies like Alienwear to take coloration to the next artistic level.