Mac and iPod History: 2003

January 2003 market the end of the Classic Mac OS era. With the introduction of a new version of the 'Mirror Drive Door' Power Mac G4 with FireWire 800, the 12" PowerBook G4 at 867 MHz, and 17" PowerBook G4 at 1 GHz at the Macworld Expo, Apple had the first Macs that couldn't boot into any version of the old operating system, although Mac OS 9.x was supported in Classic Mode.

The new PowerBooks were the first to feature an aluminum enclosure, and the 12" PowerBook was closely modelled on the successful 12" iBook.

iMac Updated

Apple simplified the iMac line in February, offering a single 15" G4 iMac with an 800 MHz CPU and a Combo drive alongside a 1 GHz 17" iMac G4 with a SuperDrive. The 17" iMac was a big step forward, as it was the first iMac with a 133 MHz system bus, 64 MB of video memory, support for Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme, a 7200 rpm hard drive, and a 4x SuperDrive.

As with the January Macs, these iMacs can only boot into Mac OS X.

Apple further improved the iMacs in September. The 1 GHz 15" iMac G4 and 1.25 GHz 17" iMac G4 were the first with USB 2.0 support. These were joined by a 20" iMac G4 in November, the last G4-based iMac and the first 20" iMac.

The 900 MHz iBook G3

The last G3 iBooks were introduced in April. Both the 12" iBook and 14" iBook were available at 900 MHz. (There was also an entry-level 800 MHz 12" model.) These were the last iBooks capable of booting into Mac OS 9.x; all future models would require Mac OS X.

eMac Improved

The 2003 eMac saw many improvements: support for AirPort Extreme, a 133 MHz system bus, Radeon 7500 graphics, a 1 GHz top speed, and a 4x SuperDrive in the top-end eMac. (The 800 MHz eMac could boot into Mac OS 9.2.2, but the 1 GHz model requires Mac OS X.)

The Retro Power Mac

Apple had a bit of a problem: Some crucial Mac apps still hadn't been ported to Mac OS X and didn't run or didn't run well in Classic Mode. There were also installations that had standardized on Mac OS 9.x and weren't ready to migrate to a whole new operating system - this was especially true for schools.

To meet the needs of this market, Apple dusted off the Mirror Drive Door Power Mac model from 2003 and reintroduced it as a 1.25 GHz model (single or dual processors) in late June. This was the last Mac that could boot into the classic Mac OS.

The 3G iPod and the iTunes Music Store

The next step in iPod evolution was the third-generation iPod, announced on April 28, 2003. The new iPods sported a dock connector on the bottom rather than a FireWire port on the top. This would pave the way for USB support.

Apple also moved the control buttons, which had surrounded the scroll wheel, with four separate buttons located between the display and the scroll wheel. Capacities were 10 GB, 15 GB, and 30 GB.

Also announced that day was the iTunes Music Store, an online music service that was fully integrated with the latest version of iTunes. At this point, iTMS was exclusively available for Mac users; no Windows version of iTunes yet existed.

Apple sold one million songs the first week.

On June 19, Apple began shipping USB cables for the iPod's dock connector, creating a much broader market, since USB was available on a lot more Windows PCs than FireWire. And on June 23, Apple announced that they had sold one million iPods.

In September, Apple increased storage capacity with 20 GB and 40 GB iPods, also announcing 10 million songs sold.

Then, on October 16, Apple released iTunes for Windows and made iTMS available to Windows users.

Newer PowerBooks

The 15" PowerBook moved from titanium to aluminum in September, gaining a top speed of 1.25 GHz. New features include a FireWire 800 port and USB 2.0, as well as the Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme support that were already in its 12" and 17" siblings.

At the same time, Apple bumped the 12" PowerBook