Apple Computer Inc’s announcement of the two new servers, three new notebooks and the Classic II yesterday almost doubles the number of computers in its Macintosh product family – and the three PowerBook notebooks, at from $2,300 to $4,600, are tipped by analysts to garner first year sales of at least 300,000 machines, adding $700m to Apple’s volume. The 25MHz 68040-based Quadras, described yesterday (CI No 1,784) start with the Quadra 700 at $5,700 with 4Mb of memory and a floppy. With an 80Mb disk it’s $6,400, with 160Mb, $7,000 and with 400Mb, $7,700. The floor-standing Quadra 900 – Apple’s first machine not designed for the desktop – with 4Mb and floppy is $7,200, with 160Mb disk it’s $8,500, with 400Mb it’s $9,200. Apple claims that the 900 outperforms even 50MHz 80486 machines by up to 63% when tested against machines running Windows 3.0. They have what Apple calls true-colour graphics with a 24-bit per pixel graphics subsystem with its own video RAM – 512Kb on the 700 for 256 colours from a palette of 16.7m colours. The 900 has 1Mb or 2Mb of video RAM. They include built-in Ethernet as well as LocalTalk. AppleShare Server 3.0 supports up to 120 concurrent users. The new Macintosh PowerBooks are the Model 100, 140 and 170. The bottom end Model 100 is the one made for Apple by Sony Corp. It uses a 16MH 68000 and weighs 5 lbs 2 oz, and measures 8.5 by 11 by 1.8. It comes with 2Mb or 4Mb memory and 20Mb disk, and also an external 1.4Mb SuperDrive floppy, at $2,300 – UKP1,375 in the UK. It links to a desktop Mac via an SCSI port and includes LocalTalk. The lead acid battery does two to four hours between charges. The PowerBook 140 uses a 16MHz 68030 – same as the Mac IIcx. It weighs 6 lbs 12 oz and measures 9.3 by 11.25 by 2.25 and the 1.4Mb SuperDrive is internal; it has 2Mb or 4Mb memory and 20Mb or 40Mb disk. It is from $2,900, UKP1,800 in the UK. The PowerBook 170 has 25MHz 68030 and adds the 68882 maths chip to match the IIci and has backlit active matrix display. Same weight and size as the 140, it costs $4,600, UKP3,000 with 4Mb and 40Mb disk. The 16MHz 68030-based Classic II costs $1,900 UKP1,145 – with 2Mb and 40Mb disk, $2,400 with 80Mb. Upgrading from a Classic is $700. There are also two new LaserWriters, the IIg at $4,600 and the IIf at $3,600; the Apple OneScanner at $1,300 and AppleTalk Remote Access at $200.
