1977 – 1993retired
Apple II
“It put color graphics and VisiCalc in a plastic case, and never stopped being useful.”
“Too good to replace, it stuck around until Apple finally found something cheaper.”
The Macintosh IIci, sold from September 1989 to February 1993, was a more powerful take on the Macintosh IIcx, sharing its compact case design. It packed three NuBus expansion slots, a Processor Direct Slot, and upgraded the IIcx's 16 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 68882 FPU to 25 MHz versions. It became the dependable workhorse of its era.
Apple introduced the Quadra 700 at the end of 1991 as its intended replacement, but at over $6,000 it couldn't match entry-level IIci systems resellers offered for $4,000 or less. So the IIci kept selling until early 1993, when the Centris 650 finally took its place. Few machines get to outlast their own successor.
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“It put color graphics and VisiCalc in a plastic case, and never stopped being useful.”
“Enhanced in name, eternal in our hearts — lowercase letters never looked so good.”
“News in the blanking interval: America typed its answer to Ceefax, then the sets stopped listening.”