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First introduced in 1997, the Twentieth Anniversary Mac was an all-in-one Mac before the first rounded iMac was ever introduced. Its MSRP at introduction was a mindblowing $7,499.
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The Twentieth Anniversary Mac (TAM) came with its own subwoofer and took up little space on your desk—at least compared to other PCs at the time.
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Apple designer Jony Ive appeared in a promotional Apple video discussing the TAM.
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This photo shows two TAM models side by side: the fatter one on the right has an Ethernet card installed in its CommSlot II port.
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A back shot of the (non-fat) TAM with its cover on. Unlike the modern iMac, users could easily remove the back cover to access the logic board.
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A bottom shot of the TAM's subwoofer.
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The two TAMs with their back covers removed. The one on the right (the fat TAM) has a purple Cresendo/L2 G3 accelerator card installed.
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The rear casing of the TAM popped off easily with two latches to expose the logic board.
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The front of the TAM offered a number of switches and settings, including a "TV/Mac" button. What's that for? Unlike other PCs at the time, the TAM came with a built-in TV tuner.
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A shot of the Twentieth Anniversary Mac's box before opening. Please contain your "ooh"s and "ahh"s.
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Inside the TAM box came the keyboard, a TV remove (for its TV tuner capabilities), and, unlike other Macs at the time, a trackpad instead of a mouse.
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A shot from inside the TAM's manual detailing how to set up the machine.
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The Twentieth Anniversary Mac reached the height of its celebrity by appearing in Seinfeld. It didn't stick around for the whole series, though; Jerry had a variety of Macs on his desk throughout the show, including a Mac classic and an iMac.
When the first iMac was introduced in 1998, it started a new era of computing for those who didn't need all the power (and expense) of a tower or expandable desktop. But while the Bondi blue all-in-one got a lot of attention, it wasn't Apple's first dalliance with unconventional design. Before the iMac was the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, first introduced in 1997 and discontinued 15 years ago this week, on March 14, 1998—five months before the iMac came out. (Editor's note: Actually 20 years ago as of March 2018!)
The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (or TAM) came with a PowerPC 603e CPU clocked at 250MHz and a 12.1-inch active matrix LCD display. It also came with a built-in TV and FM tuner so the user could easily flip between computer mode and television, along with a massive Bose subwoofer. Apple introduced the machine as a way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Apple's first computer, which occurred in April of 1996. At the time, most of Apple's offerings were boring beige boxes, so the TAM's design was especially unique due to its nearly flat, all-in-one nature and its metallic green-gold paint job.
During the TAM's short lifetime, it was only introduced in five countries (USA, Japan, France, Germany, UK), while a handful of machines were sent to Apple Australia. When Apple first unveiled the device at the Macworld Expo in January of 1997, the company predicted it might cost as much as $9,000, with concierge service included. When it was released in March of 1997, though, the price had been "reduced" to a mere $7,499—several thousand dollars more than the PowerMac 6500, which was priced at $2,999 with specs similar to the TAM.
If $7,499 has you reeling, just imagine seeing that price tag in 1997. It's no surprise the machine was killed after only a year—when Apple announced the TAM's discontinuation in 1998, it reduced the price to $1,995. But because the unique PC existed for such a short time, it has become a bit of a collector's item: it's easy to find people selling them on eBay for low, low prices ranging from $8,000 to $15,000 for new, untouched machines.
If you want to get an idea for how Apple marketed the Twentieth Anniversary Mac, there's a promotional video led by Apple designer Jony Ive available on YouTube. Check it out below for your vintage Apple fix:
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