Macintosh History: 1999

What a ride!

iMac 266

After releasing the industries most radical and most popular computer in 1998, what do you do for an encore?

In Apple's case, you improve it with a faster processor and a choice of colors.

The colorful iMac 266 was a runaway success.

Apple sailed right past 300 MHz, replacing the iMac 266 with a 333 MHz model on April 14. Same looks, just faster.

Blue Power Macs

The new Power Mac G3 (I called it the G3 Pro, others call it the blue-and-white G3 or blue G3) was almost as radical a stylistic departure as the iMac. It marks the first time Apple had not offered a Power Mac in a standard desktop configuration.

The design is brilliant, even if it is less expandable than some would like. Instead of removing part of the case to add memory or a PCI card, the 4-slot motherboard is on a hinged door, sometimes called a drawbridge. And you can even open the case while the computer is running, since that hard drives are mounted in the base of the case.

And the case design clearly marks the 300-450 MHz powerhouse as "not your father's PC."

In June, the 300 MHz model was discontinued and a 450 MHz one added.

PowerBook G3/Lombard

In May, Apple replaced the older PowerBook G3 Series with a newer one, code named Lombard. The Lombard G3 was slimmer and about two pounds lighter than the old PowerBook G3 Series. One way to distinguish Lombard from its ancestor is the translucent brown keyboard.

The new PowerBook retained the title of the world's fastest laptops, offering speeds of 333 and 400 MHz.

Power Mac G4, A Personal Supercomputer

A lot of Apple watchers were surprised to see Apple introduce the Power Mac G4 at the Seybold show on August 31. We were even more surprised to hear Apple was already taking orders for the 400 MHz version.

The new machine took the styling of the G3, but recast it in a more professional graphite gray and white with silver and clear accents.

But differences are more than skin deep. The G4 processor has a high performance math accelerator called the Velocity Engine or AltiVec. It smokes any Pentium III computer on the market.

In fact, the US government classifies the G4 as a supercomputer, because it can do over one gigaflops (GFLOPS, billion floating point operations per second).

The original 400 MHz G4 and a later 350 MHz model, known as 'Yikes', were based on a modified Yosemite motherboard, the same design used in the Blue & White G3. Best of all, the G4/400 was introduced at the same price point the G3/350 had occupied.

The G4/450 and subsequent versions of the G4/400 and G4/350, were based on the new 'Sawtooth' motherboard, which has a faster memory system, a faster slot for the video card (2x AGP instead of a 66 MHz PCI slot), and an internal FireWire port. A 500 MHz model was announced but didn't ship until 2000.

All the Sawtooth G4s accept the AirPort WiFi card, allowing them to network without wires.

The iBook

Announced in August, the iBook began to ship in late September. It was the best selling portable computer in both October and November.

Promoted as "an iMac to go", the iBook is rugged, has a six-hour battery rating, and accepts an AirPort card for high speed wireless networking.

The 'Kihei' iMacs

Apple replaced the iMac 333 with three new models in October. The base model, available only in blueberry, ran at a comfortable 350 MHz. The new design included a smaller case, a slot loading CD-ROM drive, convection cooling (no fan!), and easy access to the memory socket.

A step up from the US$999 iMac was the iMac DV, which came in all five flavors, replaced the CD-ROM player with a DVD drive, and added both video out and FireWire ports. Along with the iMac DV Special Edition, available in G4-matching graphite, these were the first computers designed from the ground up to handle digital video.

In fiscal 1999 (October 1998 through September 1999), iMac sales made up 52% of Apple's unit sales.

Where Next

There were persistent rumors of an iMac with a 17" screen before the end of the year, but it never happened. There were also rumors of 'Pismo', a new PowerBook model, that didn't show up until 2000.

The Competition

As mentioned above, there's Pentium III, the serialized chip that's given privacy advocates something new to worry about. It'll wow the Wintel world, but Photoshop and other graphics demonstrations show the G4 easily surpassing it in real world tests.

AMD one-upped Intel with their Athlon processor, which reached 700 MHz and provided power users with a real alternative to the Pentium III.

The Compaq Alpha chip may well run out of steam this year, blown away by the PowerPC on one side and Compaq's Wintel roots on the other.

Windows 2000 (nee Windows NT 5) may actually ship by the end of the year. Old DOS and Windows machines that aren't Y2K compliant will fill thrift stores, driving a lot of users into the market for new computers. Will they buy Macs or follow the Wintel siren call?

Personal Perspective

I'm very excited to have a couple of the new G4 machines at work. Bang for the buck, these $1,600 "supercomputers" are amazing - and their not even the Sawtooth models.

I've been blown away by the PowerBook G3 in both WallStreet and Lombard incarnations, but especially the lighter weight of the Lombard design. I can hardly wait for the encore. The PowerBook G3 is already enough computer to displace most desktop setups.