January 22nd

On this day - January 22nd 1984 - The release of the Macintosh

Building on some of the lessons learned from the Apple Lisa was the first Macintosh released on this day un 1984. The Macintosh popularised the use of computer mouse and the graphical user interface. The project was introduced by a commercial, produced by Ridley Scott, called "1984". The "1984" commercial is considered a huge success some even calling the commercial more successful than the Macintosh itself. The Macintosh 128 was a success it sold 70,000 units by May and almost 250,000 units by the end of the year. Until this day computers released by Apple are branded Macintosh computers or more popular just Macs.

The initial price was 1995$ but was raised to 2495$ after a commercial campaign where buyers had the options to return the computer within 24 hours. The retailers disliked this campaign because many of the returned units was so badly used they were virtually unsellable. The first Macintosh became popular, but its price compared to other systems such as the Commodore 64 made it so it did not dominate the marked. The success of the Macintosh made Apple the second largest computer manufacturer for the next decade.

The Macintosh Plus from the Design Museum in Gothenburg Sweden