The Evolution Of Apple's Laptops, From The Powerbook To The Macbook Pro

Apple’s PowerBooks, iBooks, and MacBooks have come a long way in 25 years.

- Jason Snell

In a moment of somewhat unexpected nostalgia at its most recent media event, Apple pointed out that it was the 25th anniversary of the PowerBook. (It’s good to know that, 27 years later, Apple still would rather nobody remember the Mac Portable [go.macworld.com/mport].) I’ve been a Mac laptop user since the original PowerBook era. That ancient history is my history. Since 1991, Apple has gone through seven distinct eras when it comes to its laptop strategy and design.

THE CLASSICS: THE 680x0 ERA

The original PowerBooks (and, sure, the Mac Portable) used the Mac’s original processor, the Motorola 680x0 series. The first generation of PowerBooks took the world by storm, which is why it’s their anniversary that Apple noted. I distinctly remember a magazine story attentively describing entertainment-industry executive Barry Diller hobnobbing at an L.A. restaurant with his PowerBook on the table in front of him.

My first PowerBook was from this era, though it wasn’t in the original generation, but in the second wave, released in 1992. In the fall of 1992 I was a grad student, and my rationale for buying a PowerBook at The Scholars Workstation—UC Berkeley’s campus computer store—was that I could write stories anywhere, not just on my Mac SE back at my apartment. I got the message that my PowerBook 160 (go. macworld.com/pb160, capable of displaying 16 shades of gray!) had arrived for pickup the day after I went home sick for two weeks with mono. It would’ve been the perfect time to break in my PowerBook…but instead I wrote a bunch of short stories in longhand.