A Look at the Mac
The Mac or Macintosh computers is a series of personal computers that are designed, developed and marketed by the Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced to the market on January 1984 and is the first commercially successful personal computer that featured a mouse and a graphical user interface that replaced a command-line interface. After a market shift towards IBM Pc machines in the later half of the 1980s, it was time for the Macintosh computers to be re-branded and in 1998, the iMac, which was a consumer level desktop model, was consolidated and was a sales success. Current Macintosh computers are mainly targeted at home, education and professional markets and have had sales successes in all of these areas.
The production of Macintosh computers is based on the vertical integration model that facilitates the many aspects of the creation of the hardware and the operating system that comes pre-installed on all Macs. This is in contrast to their rivals, the IBM PC compatibles where multiple sellers create the hardware that run software from another company. Apples exclusive production of Mac hardware enables it to choose its internal systems, designs and dictate its prices. Current Macintosh computers however use Intels x86 architecture with previous models using PowerPC from AIM Alliance and the Motorola 68k. Currently the Apple Macs run on Mac OS X version 10.6 known as Snow Leopard. The modern Mac is also capable of running alternative operating systems like Microsoft Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. However, Mac does not license the use of Mac OS X for non-Apple products.
The market share that Apple dominated in the early 90s was rapidly lowered by the release of Windows 95 operating system and the Pentium processors running the operating system. Before this, the Mac graphical user interface had better graphic handling capabilities. With Steve Jobs as the CEO, the company introduced a series of Macintosh computers and computer products with the iMac being a hallmark success of the 90s. It was followed by the release of the iBook, eMac, PowerBook G4 and G5 laptops. The lease expensive Mac to date is the Mac Mini priced at $499. The release of Intel-based Macintosh computers and the potential to run natively, the Windows operating system on Apple hardware without an emulation software has boosted the sales of Macs. The success of the iPod has also had a halo effect and has recaptured the brand awareness of the Mac line. What a rich history of Macintosh computers.
