Macintosh History: 2005

Dan Knight

Macworld Expo, Jan. 2005

Apple began 2005 with a big bang for a little computer - the Mac mini. For the first time since 1997, when Apple introduced the Power Mac 6500 and Power Mac G3, they had a desktop Mac that was intended for consumers that didn't have a built-in display. At US$500, it was also the least expensive Macintosh Apple had ever offered.

The Mac mini is an unusual desktop computer. It's tiny, as the name implies, measuring just 6.5" square and 2" tall. Inside is an optical drive (Combo or SuperDrive), 2.5" hard drive, room for AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth, and one slot for memory. There are no PCI expansion slots, and there's no internal power supply - no room.

The Mac mini also marked one more first for Apple. Every previous desktop Mac had shipped with a mouse, and all USB ones had included a keyboard. Neither came with the mini.

Much of the Mac Web was abuzz about the new computer, something we had been suggesting Apple build for years.

On the iPod side of things, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod shuffle, the first iPod to use flash memory instead of a hard drive. And the first iPod with no display. "Life is random."

Because of its size, the iPod shuffle didn't have room for a dock connector. Instead, Apple build a USB 2.0 plug right into the shuffle. It was the first iPod that didn't support FireWire.

January 12

Apple announced its best quarter ever. The holiday 2004 quarter had generated US$295 million in profits. That included over 1 million Macs (up 25% from the previous year) and 4.5 million iPods.

January 31

The 12" PowerBook G4 hit 1.5 GHz at the end of January, while the 15" PowerBook G4 and its 17" sibling topped that at 1.67 GHz. Bluetooth 2.0 became a standard feature, and Apple also added a scrolling trackpad and sudden motion sensor to the mix.

February 23

The popular 4 GB iPod mini was replaced with two new models that had new circuitry inside. This boosted play time from 8 hours on a full charge to 18 hours. The new 4 GB iPod mini sold for US$199, and the 6 GB model was US$249.

The only other change in the iPod mini line was discontinuing gold, the least popular color.

April 13

Apple saw almost as much in profits during the first calendar quarter of 2005 as they did during the holiday quarter of 2004 - US$290 million. Once again, Mac sales topped the 1 million mark, and iPod sales had increased to 5 million units.

April 27

Two weeks later, Apple unveiled improved Power Mac G5s. Each model had dual processors, and speeds ranged from 2.0 GHz to 2.7 GHz, the highest clock speed of any Mac built to date.

SuperDrive speed increased to 16x, video RAM was doubled, and Tiger came preinstalled.

April 29

Speaking of Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4 was officially released two days later. The hot new technologies were Dashboard, Spotlight, and Automator.

May 3

The thin iMac G5 received a 200 MHz speed boost to 1.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz. For the first time, an iMac included gigabit ethernet. The updated SuperDrive models also ran at 8x and had dual-layer support.

June 6: Intel Inside

Steve Jobs shocked the Mac faithful on June 6 by announcing that Apple would be migrating to Intel CPUs, although the first "Macintel" models might not be available for a year.

Many of us on the Mac Web had pooh-poohed the idea because Intel-based Macs would have to be incompatible with a huge installed base of Mac software. Apple addressed that with Rosetta, a PowerPC emulator that will allow most OS X software to run on Intel-based Macs.

The only hole in backward compatibility seems to be classic mode, which will not be available on Macintel models. Those of us who love Claris Home Page, Claris Emailer, older versions of Photoshop, vintage Mac games, etc. will want to stick with PowerPC models until we find suitable replacement software or someone creates a working Classic environment for Macintel hardware.

Macworld Boston: July 11-14

Macworld made an enemy of Apple when they announced they would move the July Macworld Expo from New York the Boston, and Apple refused to exhibit at the 2004 and 2005 Boston shows.

Due to lackluster attendance and Apple's boycott, IDG World Expo announced in Sept. that they were canceling the East Coast Expo.

July 26

Apple speed bumped the iBooks , moving the 12" model to 1.33 GHz and the 14" model to 1.42 GHz. Standard memory was increased to 512 MB, and Bluetooth 2.0 became a standard feature.

To simplify the iBook line, there was no 14" model with a Combo drive.

At the same time, Apple also moved the Mac mini to a 512 MB base memory configuration and made AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 standard on the 1.42 GHz mini.

August 2

Starting with Apple's Lisa in 1983, Apple had never shipped a mouse with more than a single button. In fact, the company had even invented a "no button" mouse in which the entire mouse was the button.

A lot of Mac users wanted more than one button, and companies such as Logitech, Microsoft, Contour, and countless others offered USB mice with two or more buttons.

Apple's Mighty Mouse gave Mac owners the opportunity to buy an Apple-branded mouse with extra capabilities. You could use one side as a right-click, the other as a left-click. You could squeeze it - and use software to define what your Mac did when the mouse was squeezed.

The Mighty Mouse had three innovations, one in software and two in hardware. The first was that it would behave exactly like a single-button mouse unless you changed that behavior in System Preferences. The second was that there were no separate right and left buttons. Instead, Mighty Mouse detected which side you were pressing.

Finally, Apple skipped right past the scroll wheel and scroll wheel with horizontal tilt of the rest of the industry and introduced a pea-sized trackball on top of the mouse. This could be used to scroll vertically, horizontally, or at an angle.

September 7

The iPod mini, Apple's most popular model ever, was discontinued on Sept. 7 and replaced with the iPod nano. Slim and tiny, the iPod nano had 2 GB or 4 GB of flash memory, a color screen, and shipped in white and black.

The iPod nano was the first iPod with a screen that didn't support FireWire, and also the first that didn't ship with an AC adapter for charging the unit.

On the down side, the iPod nano was extremely susceptible to scratching, leading to several class action suits against Apple and a burgeoning range of protective covers and cases.

September 24

There was much joy in Macville when Apple announced its best fiscal quarter ever with a net profit of US$430 million. Sales included over 1.2 million Macs (up almost 50% over 2004) and nearly 6.5 million iPods.

This also marked the end of Apple's best fiscal year ever.

Shhhh, Don't Say a Word

On or about Sept. 28, Apple began shipping an updated Mac mini without ever officially announcing it. The new models ran at 1.33 GHz and 1.5 GHz, slightly faster than the models they replaced.

The SuperDrive model now has an 8x drive, and the 1.5 GHz Mac mini has 64 MB of video memory - twice as much as the 1.42 GHz model. Also, 5400 rpm hard drives are now standard (vs. 4400 in earlier minis).

Without opening the box, there is no way to know whether you're receiving the improved model or not. Apple only maintains that you will get "at least" the specs advertised for the earlier models.

October 12

The iMac G5 was redesigned, and the model introduced on Oct. 12 was thinner, 100 MHz faster, and included a built-in iSight webcam. To our knowledge, this was the first time a desktop computer included a built-in webcam.

The new iMac G5 was the first Mac to use the PCI Express bus, and it also supported DDR2 memory. The 17" model ran at 1.9 GHz, the 20" at 2.1 GHz.

In another Apple first, these were the first iMacs without a built-in modem.

At the same time, the full-sized iPod was upgraded with a 320 x 240 2.5" display and the ability to play video. Apple also announced that some ABC television programs would be available through the iTunes Music Store at US$1.99 per episode.

As with the iPod nano, the AC charger no longer shipped with the new iPod and there was no support for FireWire. That was a real disappointment to longtime Mac users, since Apple has offered FireWire on Macs since 1999 but didn't include USB 2.0 until 2003, long after it had become standard on all Windows PCs.

October 19

The PowerBook line saw one more revision. The new 15" PowerBook G4 saw resolution increased from 1280 x 854 to 1440 x 900, and the new 17" PowerBook G4 received a 1680 x 1050 display instead of the 1440 x 900 of earlier 17" models.

Unfortunately, the new displays had some teething problems, and there was widespread reporting of horizontal bands on the new screens.

At the same time, the Power Mac line received what may (or may not) be it's last PowerPC incarnation. The new Power Mac G5 Dual included a dual-core 2.0 or 2.3 GHz G5 CPU and PCI Express architecture.

Need more power? The Power Mac G5 Quad was built around a pair of dual-core 2.5 GHz G5 CPUs.

The Year Ahead

We know we can expect a few things from Apple in 2006:

• The first Macintel models will ship before the end of June. Rumor has it that we may see them on display at Macworld Expo next week and that the first ones may ship during the first quarter.
• Leopard, a.k.a. Mac OS X 10.5. Although OS X for Intel has full parity with OS X for PowerPC at present, Leopard will be the first version of OS X specifically designed for Intel-based Macs. And with "dual binaries", it will also run just fine on PPC hardware.
• Increased Mac sales. Even before switching to Intel architecture, Apple is seeing 25-50% year-over-year sales growth. Expect that to continue or accelerate.
• Increased iPod sales. Okay, that's a no brainer.
• New 'Books, desktop Macs, and iPods. Again, a no brainer.
• Something unexpected - or at the very least outside Apple's current product line. Perhaps the long-rumored iPhone (showing Motorola just how wrong they got things with the ROKR) or a Mac mini-based digital hub for home entertainment.

Apple has come a long ways in the past decade (their best year prior to 2005 was 1995), nearly losing its way in 1995-97 until the company acquired NeXT, Steve Jobs took the helm, and the original iMac got everyone talking about Macs again.

After their most successful year ever, we expect things will only get better in 2006.