History of computer design: Macintosh Plus

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Mac PlusThe first major update came with the Macintosh Plus, announced in January 1986. Manock and Oyama's physical design remained largely intact even for this machine, but within it was clearly more suited for a business market. It came with a full megabyte of memory which could be further increased to four. An industry-standard SCSI (small computer system interface) port was added to its back for high-speed hard drives, scanners, and other peripherals (see technical specifications). Frogdesign made a few small changes to the original design of the case, embedding port icons into the plastic and reducing the plastic barrier that Manock had added so as to allow more standard cables to be attached. Over the course of its production, its colour changed from the original Macintosh's brown to introduce a warm grey known as "platinum" which was favoured by frogdesign and would be the colour of every following desktop computer from Apple until the mid-1990s (Kunkel, 61). Frogdesign nonetheless regarded the changes made for the Macintosh Plus as insignificant, and they declined any credit for them (Kunkel, 47).

A more significant visual change appeared on the keyboard, which was altered for acceptance by the business market to include both a numerical keypad and cursor keys. Joanna Hoffman, one of the original Mac team, defended this abandonment of the "forcing device" that ensured that the mouse be used as Jobs' intended, saying, "When you're trying to spread a religion you have to be pretty strict at first. After you get them converted, you can relax" (Levy, 194-5).


To a Corporate focus (1986-89)

To the Apple IIgs

 
Home || Introduction || Historiography || 1-Cottage industry || 2-Emerging standards || 3-Macintosh
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frogdesign || 5-Corporate focus || Conclusion || Bibliography & links