The Macintosh Clones

There were two eras of Macintosh clones (or Maclones): the unauthorized period, when clones were reverse engineered or built around ROMs, or logic boards removed from existing Macs and the authorized period, when Apple approved vendors and authorized hardware designs.

Apple squeezes Mac clones out of the market, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 2007.08.30. Apple started to license the Mac in 1994, the first clones arrived in 1995, and they quickly into Apple's profitable high-end market.

The Early Maclones

Unitron Mac512, circa 1985
McMobile, 1986-89
Outbound Laptop, Outbound Notebook, 1989-91
Atari ST
Colby WalkMac, circa 1989
Dynamac, 1988-89
68000 Dash 30fx, circa 1990

The Later Maclones

DayStar, 1995-97
Motorola StarMax, 1996-97
Power Computing, 1996-97
Radius
- System 100
- System 81/110
Umax SuperMac, 1996-98
- C500
- C600
- J700
- J710
- S900
- S910

Double Clones

These companies used OEM motherboards usually supplied by Motorola or StarMax.

MaxxBoxx, 1997-98
Pioneer
- MPC-GX1, apparently uses Power Mac 6100/66 (PDM) motherboard, more info on EveryMac.com
- MPC-GX1 (Limited), apparently uses accelerated Power Mac 6100 motherboard, more info on EveryMac.com
- MPC-LX200, based on Alchemy motherboard, more info on EveryMac.com

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.