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What Were The 10 Most Significant Macs Of Apple’s First 25 Years?

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

by Charles W. Moore

Computerworld’s Michael DeAgonia has posted his picks for the top 10 standout Macs of the past 25 years. The nominees are:

The original Macintosh 128k (1984)
The PowerBook 100 series (1991)
The Power Mac G3 (1997)
The iMac (1998)
The PowerBook G3 “Wallstreet” (1998)
The iBook (1999)
The Power Mac G4 Cube (2000)
The Intel-based iMac (2006)
The MacBook Air (2008)
The iPhone/iPod Touch (2007)

You will note that five of DeAgonia’s ten are laptops, and the iPhone/iPod touch are ultra-portables, which I think is significant, as is the fact that the only full-sized desktop workstation Mac that made the cut is the original Power Mac G3.

I’ve been advocating for more than a decade here on the Mac Web that first the PowerBook, and later on the iBook and MacBook families, are “the logical Macs” for most users, noting in a column way back in June, 1998 that: “When you park a PowerBook beside one of today’s behemoth desktop Macs, it gives you pause to wonder how all the real estate that the latter occupy can be justified. Of course if you need a lot of expansion slots or multiple hard/CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/Zip drives, or multi-megabytes of VRAM power, or multi-processing, and the like, you need a desktop tower unit, but percentage-wise, how many Mac-users need that kind of expandability?”

The point is still valid in 2009, indeed more valid today with the kind of power and large, high-resolution displays you can get in a laptop than it was nearly 11 years ago.

Top ten lists are subjective value judgement calls at best, but I only have a couple of quarrels with DeAgonia’s other than that I don’t think the iPhone/iPod belong on a list of standout Macs, since they are not Macs. If the categorization was Top 10 Standout Apple Products, then no argument; they would definitely belong. I also think the 2006 Intel model is not the best choice for a second iMac. However, other than those niggles, I think his choices are pretty astute.

The original compact Mac had to be there; being the machine that started it all. My first Mac was a compact Mac Plus, and it was a vastly better computer than the 128k, but the 128k was the first, so deserves the accolade.

The PowerBook 100 was revolutionary, and very much set the paradigm for virtually every laptop computer since, not just Apple notebooks. It was ahead of its time and very much the ancestor of the MacBook Air as well, with its external floppy drive. Sadly, Target Disk Mode -- a superb feature introduced with the PowerBook 100, has been dumped from the MacBook Air and new Unibody MacBook.

The Power Mac G3 marked the revolutionary transition from Apple’s Motorola 68k beginnings to the Power PC era, and is an appropriately representative choice of a “professional” desktop Mac on this list.

The original teardrop iMac, with which Apple returned to its AIO desktop roots and without which the company might not have been able to extricate itself from the shoals upon which it was foundering in the late ‘90s, of course belongs.

I concur with choosing the mighty PowerBook G3 Wallstreet of 1998 as well. I wrote in that same 1998 column that it had “essentially removed any logical rationale for owning a desktop computer for the majority of Mac users. With more speed than any but the very fastest desktop models - Mac or PC - and an inventory of features that would have been considered the pinnacle of high end only a couple of years ago, a PowerBook can finally be ‘the computer to have when you’re only having one’ with no excuses necessary.”

I used one as my main workhorse for 3 1/2 years, and never revised that evaluation. The Wallstreet also marked the high water mark for Apple notebook connectivity and expandability with its two hot-swappable removable device expansion/battery bays, two PC Cardbus slots, its array of I/O ports, IrDA support, and its processor mounted on a removable daughtercard which facilitated easy and convenient processor upgrades. It also had what I consider the best keyboard that ever shipped in an Apple laptop.

I agree with Michael DeAgonia that the PowerBook G3 2000 FireWire (Pismo) that came along 20 months later was overall a better computer (I still have two Pismos in regular production service), but as with the Macintosh 128 and Mac Plus, the WallStreet came first and has primacy of place as the landmark model.

The iBook from an engineering perspective had much in common with the original iMac and Wallstreet PowerBook, but it was another milestone Mac that belongs on this list. Aside from its main Achilles’ heel — a too-low resolution 800 x 600 display, I would rate the clamshell iBook superior to the amazingly prolific dual-USB iBook that succeeded it. The clamshell was definitely a more robust and rugged unit -- one of the toughest laptops Apple ever marketed, it’s looks are still impressive and fresh 10 years on, and it established the consumer/professional market placement dichotomy that prevailed over the subsequent decade of Apple notebooks, although that has become a bit fuzzified with the MacBook Air and “semi-pro” unibody MacBook.

The Power Mac G4 Cube? Absolutely! An iconic Mac that has been recognized as a work of art. The Cube was also a pretty decent computer. I had one for a short time and liked it was well as I’ve liked any desktop, although I’m a consummate laptop guy.

I’m sorry Apple didn’t stick with the Cube longer, perhaps offering a lower-spec G3 version at a lower price, but I suppose that would have diluted its cachet as a premium model. In a sense, the Cube concept was revivified with the Mac mini, which I hope Apple won’t orphan as well.

Aside from the iPhone/iPod touch, the inclusion on the list I’m most lukewarm about is the Intel-based iMac. The stated rationale for the pick is that it was the first Apple desktop to feature the Intel chipset — a legitimate point, but other than that it was essentially the foregoing G5 iMac -- a model I always found underwhelming -- with an Intel Core Duo logic board grafted in.

My own choice for a second iMac in this grouping would’ve been the G4 iMac with its truly innovative design and articulated “gooseneck desklamp” display mount.

I’m not a big MacBook Air fan. I love its svelte looks and the novelty of its razor-thin form factor, but it’s just too compromised in too many ways and too expensive for what you get for me to consider it a good value or serious work tool computer. However I completely agree with including it on this list. It’s a mold-breaker and trendsetter, and hopefully its practical shortcomings will be addressed in the fullness of time.

I’ve already stated my objection to the The iPhone/iPod touch as standout “Macs”. OK; they do run a stripped-down version of OS X, and if there was some sort of real keyboard and provision to drive a decent-sized external monitor, I would be more receptive.

So what would I substitute to fill the tenth spot? My friend Dan Kinght at Low End Mac might pick the Mac II, which would be an arguable candidate of merit. However, I think the fact that there is no MacBook model other than the Air on this list is by any measure an unfortunate omission, The Air is a niche machine, and Apple sales for the past five years or so, well back into the PowerBook / iBook era, have been anchored by standard-sized laptop sales. The original polycarbonate-bodied consumer MacBook is the best-selling Apple laptop in history, so it deserves at least honorable mention, but I think I would go in this instance with the new unibody aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro, which hold promise as potentially the best Apple notebooks yet.

CM