Big Mac and Baby Mac
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 Concept art for the Baby Macintosh by Hartmut Esslinger | |
| Also known as | Big Mac: BigMac, Super Mac Baby Mac: BabyMac, Macintosh |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Apple Computer, Inc. |
| Product family | Compact Macintosh |
| Type | All-in-one |
| Release date | Intended to be released in 1986, but was cancelled because of Steve Jobs leaving Apple.[1] |
| Discontinued | 1986 |
| Operating system | Big Mac: UNIX[2] Baby Mac: Classic Mac OS |
| CPU | Big Mac: Motorola 68020[2] |
| Display | Big Mac: 15 in (38 cm)[2] Baby Mac: 9 in (23 cm) |
| Predecessor | Macintosh 128K Macintosh 512K |
| Successor | Macintosh II |
| Related | iMac G3 |
Big Mac, also known as Super Mac, was a cancelled workstation designed by Apple Computer. Its consumer equivalent was Baby Mac, also known as the second-generation Macintosh.[3] It was designed by Hartmut Esslinger, using the new Snow White design language.[4] Development on the Big Mac and Baby Mac began in 1984 and stopped after Steve Jobs left Apple Computer due to a clash of ideologies with John Sculley.[3][5][1] Esslinger described Baby Mac as his "best design never to be produced".
Hardware
[edit]Esslinger and the design team had worked with Toshiba to create a new CRT front to "avoid the cheap look of a CRT screen", as well as investigating flat-screen displays.[6] The Baby Mac was intended to be designed to be as small as possible, so Esslinger experimented with the first Apple wireless keyboard and mouse concepts using RF technology.[3][6] Big Mac and Baby Mac were zero-draft designs and included integrated carrying handles.[3][1]
Big Mac was conceived as a 3M computer, with at least 1 megabyte of memory, a 1 megapixel display, and 1 million instructions per second. Its 15-inch monochrome display had a vertical orientation for word processing.[3]
The design of the Baby Macintosh has been noted to have a superficial resemblance to the egg design of the iMac G3 from 1998.[by whom?]
Software
[edit]Big Mac was intended to have a UNIX-based operating system.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Apple Baby Mac". May 2017.
- ^ a b c d "Le prototype « Big Mac » d'Apple" [Apple's "Big Mac" prototype]. L'Aventure Apple (in French). Archived from the original on 4 March 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Esslinger, Hartmut (7 January 2014). Keep It Simple: The Early Design Years of Apple. Arnoldsche Art Publishers. pp. 246–257. ISBN 9783897904071.
- ^ "Hartmut esslinger's early apple computer and tablet designs". 18 December 2012.
- ^ "Apple's sexy concepts from the 1980s (Pictures)".
- ^ a b Esslinger, Hermut (16 February 2013). Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change. Arnoldsche Art Publishers. p. 148. ISBN 9783897903814.
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