Portal:1980s/Selected article/40
The Macintosh 128K, originally released as the Apple Macintosh, is the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. Its beige case consisted of a 9 in (23 cm) CRT monitor and came with a keyboard and mouse. A handle built into the top of the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried. It had an initial selling price of $2,495 (equivalent to $7,317 in 2023). The Macintosh was introduced by the now-famous $370,000 (equivalent to $1,085,112 in 2023) television commercial by Ridley Scott, "1984," that most notably aired on CBS during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. Sales of the Macintosh were strong from its initial release on January 24, 1984, and reached 70,000 units on May 3, 198 Upon the release of its successor, the Macintosh 512K, it was rebranded as the Macintosh 128K.
The Macintosh was designed to achieve adequate graphics performance, which had previously required hardware costing over US $100,000, a price inaccessible to the middle class. This narrow goal resulted in an efficient design which traded off expandability but met or exceeded the baseline performance of its competitors. (Full article...)