10 Glimpses From Macworld Expo History

San Francisco's Brooks Hall was the venue for the western edition of the 1985 Macworld Expo, where a smattering of attendees crowded into the tiny venue to hear about Apple's Macintosh computer, which Steve Jobs had unveiled the year before. What attendees didn't see was Steve Jobs giving a keynote speech.





According to David Bunnell, founder of Macworld Magazine and the Macworld Expo, Jobs was actually in San Francisco during Macworld, but didn't show up at the event. Macworld's East Coast event was held in Boston from 1985 to 1997, in New York from 1998 to 2003, and in Boston from 2004 to 2005, after which it was discontinued.

At the 1987 Macworld Expo, Apple showed off HyperCard, a database-like application program and programming environment similar to the hypertext functionality of the Internet. Other highlights included the introduction of the ImageWriter LQ printer (a bargain at $1,399) and the $699 AppleFax modem.

At the 1988 Macworld Expo, then-Apple CEO John Sculley focused on networking and connectivity, and the company unveiled AppleShare PC, which let IBM PC users share and print data residing on AppleShare File Servers. Apple also rolled out the LaserWriter II, the first laser printer for the Mac, which was priced starting at $4,599. Wow.

The 1993 Macworld Expo in Tokyo was the first at which Apple launched major products outside the U.S. and included the unveiling of the Macintosh Color Classic, LC III, Centris 610 and 650, Quadra 800 and PowerBook 165c. At Macworld 1993 in Boston, Apple launched the Newton PDA platform.

1997 will forever be remembered as the year that Steve Jobs returned to the Apple wheelhouse, but it was also the year that Jobs used the Macworld Boston podium to reveal a wide-ranging rapprochement with Microsoft. In addition to Microsoft investing $150 million in Apple, the two companies announced patent settlement and cross-licensing agreements under which Microsoft developed Office and Internet Explorer for the Mac.







"Apple lives in an ecosystem, and it needs help from other partners, it needs to help other partners. And relationships that are destructive don't help anybody in this industry as it is today," Jobs told Macworld attendees.

In 1998, Macworld moved from Boston to New York, and Apple made a big splash at the event by unveiling the PowerBook G3 and announcing that the iMac would ship in August of that year. Although less well attended than the Boston events, this was the year in which Apple's improving financial fortunes were readily apparent.

At the 2001 Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced the March ship date for OS X and also unveiled the new Titanium PowerBook G4 and clamshell-style iBooks. But news of greater importance for Apple's bottom line came later that year when Jobs announced the iPod, and in so doing, sparked a consumer feeding frenzy that has yet to subside eight years later.

Although the news was expected, Steve Jobs' unveiling of Intel Core Duo-powered desktop and notebook computers at Macworld 2006 in San Francisco had the entire IT industry buzzing with interest. Combined with Apple's subsequent release of Boot Camp, which allowed Mac users to run Windows, the Intel-Apple partnership easily ranks among the most important developments in the company's history.

At Macworld 2007 in San Francisco, Steve Jobs took the wraps off Apple's long-rumored iPhone and outlined plans to build on the multitouch interface in the future.





The iPhone will allow Apple to create desktop-class applications, as opposed to "the crippled stuff" found on most smartphones, Jobs told Macworld attendees.





"Today, we're going to show you a software breakthrough, software that's five years ahead of what's on any other phone," Jobs said. Two years later, the App Store's overwhelming success has shown that the limits of the iPhone and multitouch are being pressed as much by third-party developers as by Apple itself.

Let's face it: There was no way that Steve Jobs could have unveiled a product that outshone the iPhone announcement from a year earlier, and his introduction of "the world's thinnest notebook" didn't come close. The MacBook Air is a sleek product with a devoted fan base, but some power users have questioned its durability, while others have likened it to a sports car one keeps in the garage and takes out only occasionally.