The Macintosh Clones

There were two eras of Macintosh clones: the unauthorized period, when clones were reverse engineered or built around ROMs, or logic boards removed from existing Macs and the authorized period, when Apple approved vendors and authorized hardware designs.

Apple started to license the Mac in 1994, the first clones arrived in 1995, and they quickly into Apple's profitable high-end market. For an overview of this authorized clone period, see Apple Squeezes Mac Clones Out of the Market.

The Early Mac Clones

Unitron Mac 512, circa 1985
McMobile, 1986-89
Outbound Laptop, Outbound Notebook, 1989-91
Atari ST
Colby WalkMac, circa 1989
Dynamac, 1988-89
68000 Dash 30fx, circa 1990

The Later Mac Clones

DayStar, 1995-97
Motorola StarMax, 1996-97
Power Computing, 1996-97
Radius
- System 100
- System 81/110
Umax SuperMac, 1996-98
- C500
- C600
- J700
- J710
- S900
- S910

Double Clones

These companies used OEM motherboards usually supplied by Motorola or StarMax.

MaxxBoxx, 1997-98
Pioneer
- MPC-GX1, apparently uses Power Mac 6100/66 (PDM) motherboard, more info on EveryMac.com
- MPC-GX1 (Limited), apparently uses accelerated Power Mac 6100 motherboard, more info on EveryMac.com
- MPC-LX200, based on Alchemy motherboard, more info on EveryMac.com

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