Apple

Computers
That Changed
Everything

Five decades of machines out of Cupertino, and the handful that moved the whole industry. Choose an era.

1976

Apple I

Hand-built by Steve Wozniak and sold as a bare board for $666.66. Buyers supplied their own case, keyboard and power supply. Around two hundred were made.

1977

Apple II

Colour graphics in a moulded plastic case. Paired with VisiCalc in 1979, it turned the personal computer into a business tool, and sold for sixteen years.

1983

Lisa

The first Apple with windows, icons and a mouse. Brilliant, and priced at $9,995. It sold badly but proved the ideas the Macintosh would inherit.

1984

Macintosh

Launched with a single Super Bowl advert. A nine-inch screen, a mouse and icons in one beige box — the machine that took the graphical interface mainstream.

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1984 compact all-in-one desktop computer

1987

Macintosh II

The first modular Mac: a flat case with six expansion slots and, at last, colour. It moved the Mac from sealed appliance to serious desktop.

1991

PowerBook 100

Apple’s first true laptop, and the machine that fixed the shape of every laptop since: palm rests either side, keyboard pushed back.

1993

Newton

A handheld that read your handwriting, years before that could work. It flopped, but its ideas about pocket computing returned a decade later.

1998

iMac G3

Translucent Bondi blue, all-in-one, no floppy drive, handle on top. Jony Ive’s design returned Apple to profit and made beige look finished.

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1999

iBook

A clamshell laptop with a handle and, crucially, built-in wireless — proved on stage by carrying one through a hoop with no cables attached.

2003

Power Mac G5

A perforated aluminium tower built around a 64-bit processor. Its case set the industrial language Apple’s desktops followed for a decade.

2008

MacBook Air

Revealed by sliding it out of a manila envelope. Carved from one block of aluminium, it traded ports for a machine that was mostly screen.

2020

Apple Silicon

The M1 ended fifteen years of Intel, putting processor, graphics and memory on a single chip — and battery life measured in a full working day.

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1976

1977

1983

1984

1987

1991

1993

1998

1999

2003

2008

2020

Apple

ComputersThat ChangedEverything

1976

1

Apple I

1977

2

Apple II

1983

3

Lisa

1984

4

Macintosh

Computers
That Changed
Everything