The original Apple Macintosh had a 9inch screen, 128K of memory, internal floppy drive and single button mouse. Its relatively low price tag of $2,495 (£1,840) made it affordable and was very popular. The major selling point was the graphical user interface (GUI).
Microsoft launched its operating system in 1981 but it was not until 1985 that they introduced their own GUI, Microsoft Windows. However it was not until the 1990s with the advent of the Windows 3.x that Microsoft’s GUI became popular.
Editor in chief of MacWorld UK told the
BBC:
“It took desktop computing away from IBM and back to Apple for a good number of years. It brought the notion of desktop graphical interface to the mass market.”
The Macintosh name was taken from the name of its makers favourite apple – the McIntosh. Apple retained the Macintosh name for many of its products then in 1998 the name was shortened with the launch of the iMac.
It is now difficult to find a working 25 year old Macintosh, however, the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park in the UK told the BBC they have many working Apple machines even older than the first Mac.
