Exactly one year ago, Steve Jobs walked onto the stage at the Flint Auditorium in Cupertino and changed the direction of Apple Computer forever. While the iMac was the star of the show, another truly amazing product was released. The PowerBook G3 Series, not to be confused with its predecessor, the PowerBook G3, was arguably Apple's first 'desktop replacement' class PowerBook. Before that time, PowerBook models had a G3 processor that was shoehorned into a 3400's enclosure, while Apple's consumer offerings were pitiful Performas with neither performance nor class. A popular cliche says "What a difference a year makes." This is certainly appropriate to describe Apple's last year: 365 days and hundreds of thousands of iMacs and PowerBook G3 Series machines sold later, Apple is now officially out of the slump of the last few years. Evidence of this can been seen everywhere: the high flying stock price, rising market share, and a more positive public opinion.

With over 1.2 million iMacs and 200,000 PB G3's sold, these two products have been the backbone of the company's success this last year. iMac went through no less than three revisions while Wallstreet was followed by a "PDQ" version three months after its introduction. These incremental updates ensured that the products were always current, never lagging behind the competition in price or performance.

We now close the chapter on the "Wallstreet" version of the PowerBook G3 Series, but we've learned that "Lombard" will also have the moniker "PowerBook G3 Series," when it is released soon. Lombard will not be a radical change from Wallstreet, but will certainly refresh the portable line with a few surprises thrown in as we know Apple likes to do. The iMac line is still going strong, having been bumped to 333 MHz. Major updates to this line are not expected for two months at the extreme earliest.

The 1999 Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference is upon us, and CEO Jobs is again giving the keynote speech in San Jose. While the surprise of the iMac will almost certainly not be topped this millennium, if ever, Mr. Jobs always seems to have a few tricks up his sleeve to wow his audiences. We hope you'll tune in here for the latest coverage of his keynote as he opens another chapter in Apple's recent book of success.



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Written/Edited/Published by Doug B. Landry
Logo by Jon Iverson
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©1998 Doug B. Landry. All rights reserved. All or part may not be reproduced or distributed without prior consent.
Coded on a Apple Macintosh Powerbook G3 Series from Baton Rouge, LA