If folks are interested, I did a good walk through one of the laptops from the transition time for Apple when they shifted from OS9 to OSX. Powerbook G3 266: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Sv-c0zTCg On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 11:09 AM John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Totally agree - early/mid 1990s is when I noticed a lot of people who normally I didn't think were techies started having home PCs.
I was just thinking of this chart:
https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/archive/articles/culture/tota...
You can clearly see Mac market share peaking in 1993 or so then holding decent until 1998 when it starts dropping a lot. However, I hadn't considered that the whole market grew by leaps and bounds so that could still mean they're selling more Macs than before.
P.S. Christian - I also miss that time for the same reason. I used to build and sell PCs as a teenager in the early 1990s - it was a lot of fun. Even towards the end of the decade, you could still do interesting and fun desktop support at a company and not do it 'by checklist' like is common today.
On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 10:01 AM Benjamin Krein via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I would say that machines around that time became substantially easier to use & more affordable too. It’s when they really started becoming commodities rather than exclusively luxuries or toys.
Benjamin Krein Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 19, 2025, at 7:44 AM, Christian Liendo <cliendo@gmail.com> wrote:
I think you are correct in that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_of_personal_computer_vendors
People wanted to get on "the world wide web" and were willing to buy machines that they weren't willing to buy before.
I made a lot of money in the early to 90s servicing these machines, I kind of miss that time.
On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 7:25 AM Benjamin Krein via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I think 1994-1995 was a tipping point for personal computing in
general. I
don't have empirical evidence for this, just an educated guess. But with the advent of the World Wide Web & stable, useful GUI environments (yes, even Windows 95) personal computer usage started to become much more mainstream. It doesn't surprise me at all that computers built/sold during this period would far out-pace/out-sell prior models.
On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 6:52 AM John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Definitely helpful! Looks like Powerbooks would put the numbers way over the top for PPC. Not quite what I expected given (in my head) Apple's challenges in the late 1990s.
I suspect the dollar value might be a bit closer (68K Macs were often expensive, partially thanks to Motorola starting with the 68020); but that's analysis for another day.
Thanks very much Andrew!
On Tue, Mar 18, 2025 at 10:26 Andrew Diller <dillera@gmail.com> wrote:
Total Sales Volume • Motorola 68000 Era (1983-1994): • Approximately 10-12 million units total across all models • Took until March 1987 (over 3 years) to sell 1 million Macintosh units • Slower initial adoption due to high prices and limited software
• PowerPC Era (1994-2006): • Significantly higher sales volumes • iMac G3 alone sold 6 million units • iMac G4 sold 3.1 million units (with eMac) • Power Mac G5 sold over 500,000 units in less than a year • Quarterly sales of PowerPC models regularly exceeded 200,000-300,000 units
That should help.
Most Popular Models • Motorola Era: Macintosh Plus (longest production run), Macintosh SE, Macintosh Classic • PowerPC Era: iMac G3 (highest total sales), iMac G4, Power Mac G4/G5
Based on the available sales data, Apple computers using PowerPC CPUs were significantly more popular with consumers than those using Motorola 68000-series CPUs. The PowerPC era saw much higher sales volumes, faster growth, and broader market penetration.
-andy
> On Mar 16, 2025, at 8:47 AM, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > Just curious were there more Motorola 68000 series macs made then PPC? > > I know mac sales started slow. But Mac sales also slowed in the mid to > late 1990s when the PPCs were shipping. > > 68K macs and PPC macs also sold for nearly the same number of years. > There were also clones of 68K (maybe PPC?).
-- - Benjamin Krein
-- Dave Shevett shevett@pobox.com