Apple manufactured Monitor III with a “non-glare screen” to display “sharp, highly readable, 80-character by 24-line text and high-resolution graphics” via a single RCA video cable. It was compatible with the Apple II Plus but specifically designed to fit “neatly on top of the Apple III ... for exceptional reading comfort.”
A few years later, Apple followed Monitor III with Monitor II, named not so much for the timing of its release, but for its Apple II Plus-styled case design. Apple’s first consumer display had roughly the same specs as Monitor III, but the simple, classy, swiveling CRT still turned a head or two as the industry began to shift away from TV-reliant computing machines.
Right around the time Monitor II brought a universal design aesthetic to home computers, Apple unveiled another innovation for business users. Dubbed Lisa, it came with a bitmap display built right into the computer, allowing Apple complete control over the graphics engine and user interface. Building off what Xerox had started with its PARC project, Apple’s GUI--which introduced a menu bar and “floating” windows--demanded a high-resolution display capable of rendering pictures on the fly, and Lisa’s 12-inch, 720 x 364 screen--situated to the left of its twin Twiggy floppy drives--more than delivered the goods.
While Lisa didn’t sell well--due mainly to its $10,000 price tag--its design set the stage for a similar project aimed at lower-end users with a lot less disposable income. Under the tutelage of Steve Jobs--who was forced off the Lisa team midway through her development--a second all-in-one joined Apple’s family of computers with the auspicious goal of bringing a refined version of Lisa’s GUI to the masses. To accomplish this, the new computer had to have a display that rivaled Lisa’s, and after several prototypes (the first of which was a measly 256x256), the Macintosh, as it came to be called, shipped with a 9-inch, 512x342 display, more than capable of handling Apple’s new OS and apps.
Perhaps even more important to Apple’s display development, however, was the Apple IIc, released a few months after the Macintosh. It shipped with a detachable 9-inch monochrome CRT that matched the snow white plastic case, but an 11-inch, 560x192, widescreen flat-panel LCD turned the IIc into the first “portable” unit in Apple’s family. Priced at $600 for just 24 lines of text, the DB-15-swappable non-backlit LCD wasn’t exactly a big seller (especially since the IIc still had to be plugged into an outlet), but it set the ball rolling for the first round of truly mobile computers from Apple.
By 1985, consumers were clamoring for color, and Apple responded with its first non-monochrome display, the 12-inch, Double Hi-Res (560x192) Monitor 100. Built for various models of the Apple II (with the Apple Extended 80-Column Text/AppleColor Card), Monitor 100 was capable of displaying 16 or 8 colors (for Apple IIgs owners) or old-fashioned green-and-black via a switch hidden under a flip-out door.
After Monitor 100, color models came fast and furious, with the 13-inch ColorMonitor IIe and IIc (designed to slide neatly into the Snow White grooves of the Apple II models at the time), and 12-inch, 640x200 AppleColor RGB, which introduced the first of many proprietary Apple video cables, the DA-15 connector. Black-and-white was clearly on its way out the door, but color didn’t really take off until the second generation of Apple’s flagship computer hit shelves in 1987.
Apple opted for more expandability and versatility with Macintosh II, ditching the all-in-one design and rolling out its 13-inch AppleColor High-Resolution RGB Monitor to complement the Mac’s new design and vastly improved graphics engine. An “ideal companion” for the new Macintosh, the new monitor was the first to feature Sony’s .26 millimeter aperture grille pitch Trinitron CRT, allowing for crisper, brighter, flickerless images--even when spanning a second AppleColor Monitor.
Despite Apple’s great strides with color, however, the death knell for monochrome wasn’t sounded for several more years, and a few new models made their way into the lineup, including the Macintosh II-friendly 12-inch Apple Monochrome Monitor, which was cosmetically identical to the larger AppleColor model. Also released for the Macintosh in 1989 was the giant Two-Page Monochrome Display, a 21-inch, 1152 x 870 behemoth--requiring the Two-Page Monochrome Monitor Video Card--that let users comfortably fit documents side by side. And at the opposite end of the spectrum, Apple launched a 13w3-compatible Macintosh Portrait Display, a funny-looking, semi-practical 15-inch vertical monitor designed to fit nicely on top of the compact Macintosh IIcx.
Photo: www.images.com.my
Several years after the ill-fated Apple IIc LCD display, Apple broke new ground with the Macintosh Portable in 1989. More Mac than portable, Apple fitted its first battery-powered computer with an impressive (and battery draining) 9.8-inch monochrome active-matrix display (a backlit version would arrive a year later) that rivaled most of its desktop monitors at the time.
Despite its brilliant screen, the portable Mac was something of a “hobby” machine until late 1991, when a new breed of sub-notebook-style computers entered the lexicon. Dubbed the PowerBook, Apple cut costs considerably on its mobile Mac by utilizing a 9-inch passive matrix LCD screen for its bottom two models (the PowerBook 170 retained the Macintosh Portable’s active matrix screen).
But while the PowerBook’s portable LCD screen--which would gain an inch and 3 bits with the following year’s revision--turned heads, it didn’t make nearly as big a splash as its ultraportable cousin’s 6-inch, tap-sensitive 336x240 monochrome display that fit right in the palm of its user’s hand. The Newton might have had its flaws, but its pioneering, resistive touchscreen turned the industry on its head; in its short lifespan, Newton was never colorized, but gained a backlight and a resolution that rivaled earlier models of the iPhone. During the MessagePad’s short-lived reign, Apple also manufactured the eMate, a companion digital assistant with a 480x320, 16-shade grayscale backlit display.
While the Newton was dazzling and disappointing, Apple’s growing family of PowerBooks was quickly becoming an industry standard, and by late 1993, the first color model landed in the form of the 165c, with a 640x480 supertwist LCD screen.
As monochrome quickly continued on its path to extinction, a new wave of color CRTs took advantage of the Mac’s expanding audio and video capabilities. The first so-called multimedia monitor, the Apple AudioVision 14 Display--the first in a long line the pro AppleVision (ColorSync) displays--delivered a 640x480 Trinitron CRT along with built-in high-frequency stereo speakers and introduced another proprietary connector (HDI-45) for its new line of Power Macs. Apple manufactured its Trinitron (AppleVision) displays with an internal color calibration system that helped publishers and graphic artists get true depictions of their work. One of the early standouts in the line was the 17-inch AppleVision 1710AV, with built-in speakers and a stunning 1280x1024 monitor.
On the low end at the time--but still with built-in stereo speakers--were the Multiple Scan displays, fitted with the more-affordable and less-advanced shadow mask CRTs. Even the all-in-one Mac got in on the game with the Macintosh Color Classic, a streamlined version of the original with a 10-inch, 512x384 Trinitron RGB display (which was actually “upgradeable” to 16-color, 560x384 via the Apple IIe card).
A few other clunky all-in-ones passed through Apple’s catalog during the early to mid-90s, including the low-end Performa (10-inch, 512x384 Trinitron) and LC 500 series (14-inch, 800x600 Trinitron); the Power Macintosh 5000 (15-inch, 640x480 with 16-bit color; 832x624 with 8-bit color), and the education-marketed Power Mac G3 All-In-One and its brilliant 15-inch, 1068x 768 Multiscan CRT.
Despite an abundance of self-contained Macs in Apple’s lineup, however, there were still a few standouts in the crowd, most notably the limited-edition Twentieth Anniversary Mac, which arrived in 1997, two decades (and a year) after Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded the company. Among a slew of innovations, the TAM was built around a sleek, 12-inch, 800x600 flat-screen display capable of displaying 16-bit color. Apple had a hard time selling the 12,000 units it made, but the landmark machine paved the way for a generation of desktop LCDs and changed the way we looked at computer displays forever.
Although it would still be a few years before the LCD revolution would take hold, The Twentieth Anniversary Mac marked a shift in Apple’s design from ordinary, functional boxes to eye-catching (and sometime jaw-dropping) works of art. The first of these new aesthetic marvels came in the form of a blue, bulbous, semi-translucent machine that surrounded a 15-inch, shadow-mask CRT screen with a 1024x768 resolution. Unlike previous all-in-ones, designer Jonathan Ive put the iMac’s focus on its screen, with little more than a bezel, two small speakers and an optical drive to detract from the viewing experience.
The iMac’s head-turning see-through plastic shell quickly became a new design aesthetic, beginning with the 1600x1200 17-inch DiamonTron and 21-inch Trinitron, CRT Studio Displays (with VGA DE-15 connectors), wrapped in a blueberry-and-white translucent case to match the Power Mac G3 tower. Apple’s final CRT display, a crystal-clear, 17-inch 1600x1200 flat-screen Diamondtron would arrive in 2000 alongside the Power Mac G4 Cube, a fitting, dynamic end to an illustrious run.
On the portable front, Apple’s new focus on style was felt in its PowerBook line, too, with a new 12-inch, thin film transistor (TFT) Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) 15-bit 800x600 display for its first G3 model. Later models, such as the Wall Street, Lombard and Pismo, included a 24-bit 1024×768 14-inch display. The lower-end, Clamshell iBook, marketed as a mobile version of the CRT-centric iMac, opened to a 12-inch, 800×600 active-matrix TFT display.
If the line between the iBook and the PowerBook displays had begun to blur, the Titanium PowerBook G4, released at the 2001 Macworld expo in San Francisco, clearly delineated the professional and consumer lines. Super thin and unbelievable sexy, the PowerBook G4 took the G3’s 12-inch, 4:3 screen and stretched it to near-16:9 widescreen with a 1152x768 resolution measuring 15 ultrawide inches; a refresh the following year upped the resolution to 1280×854.
A dramatically redesigned iBook released in 2001 with a 12-inch TFT Extended Graphics Array (XGA) active-matrix display upped the resolution to 1024×768, and a 14-inch model with the same resolution joined the lineup at Macworld San Francisco in 2004. When the PowerBook G4 received an aluminum redressing in 2003, 17-inch and 12-inch TFT LCD displays at 1440×900 and 1024×768, respectively, were added to the lineup; later revisions increased the 15-inch to 1440×960 and the 17-inch to 1680×1050.
A few months before the iMac introduced the industry to the beauty of clear plastics, Apple released its first flat-screen display, the 15-inch Apple Studio Display, a 1024x768 active-matrix LCD display with a 120-degree viewing angle that rested on a bluish-gray adjustable stand.
A similar model released a few months later added blueberry accents and a brighter monitor, and in 2000, Apple wrapped its 15-inch Studio Display in a classier, three-legged enclosure and introduced the proprietary the Apple Display Connector that merged video, USB and power into a single cable. A year later brought a similarly styled 17-inch display, with an increased native resolution of 1280x1024.
While stunning and fairly pricey, Apple’s Studios represented the low-end of its display lineup. At the high end were the Cinema Displays, which were indistinguishable from their cheaper cousins, but offered far higher resolutions. The first of these, released in September 1999, measured 22 inches--the largest for Apple at the time--and had a resolution of 1600×1024; it was bested in 2002 by a 23-inch, 1920x1200 HD model, and a 20-inch, 1680x1050 display rounded out the family a year later.
While Apple’s standalone displays were getting a makeover, a breathtaking redesign of the iconic all-in-one was in the works. The result was the sunflower-inspired G4 iMac, a 15-inch, 1024×768 flat-panel TFT LCD screen that “floated” on an adjustable chrome arm. Striking, functional and futuristic, the iMac G4 line was quickly expanded to include a 17-inch, 1440×900 TFT widescreen LCD and later, an impressive 20-inch,1680x1050 behemoth.
The bulbous CRT iMac may have been replaced by a sleeker model, but Apple’s education clients still wanted a low-cost, high-performance classroom option. The answer was the eMac, an all-in-one CRT that resembled the iMac G3 but modernized it with a 17-inch flat 1280x960 CRT wrapped in a gleaming white enclosure.
At 2004‘s World Wide Developers Conference, Apple dumped the clear plastic once and for all, and rolled out an all-aluminum lineup with a definitive flagship: a 30-inch, 2560×1600 Cinema HD Display joined 20-inch, 1680x1050; and 23-inch, 1920x1200 models. With a new industrial design came a new connector, and Apple dropped ADC in favor of universal DVI (though the enhanced resolution of the 30-inch model required a dual-link DVI card, severely limiting its compatibility).
A new iMac arrived shortly after bringing yet another radical display design. At first glance, the iMac G5 looked more like a standalone display than an all-in-one, as Apple built the computer behind its 17-inch, 1440x900 and 20-inch 1680x1050 displays.
With the transition to a new chip came the transition to a new series of notebooks, rebranded as MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The professional models mainly kept the same resolution--1440×900 and 1680×1050--but about six months later, Apple introduced its first non-matte display with the wide extended graphics array (WXGA), 1280x800, 13-inch MacBook (a glossy display would also make its way into Apple’s MacBook Pros, but anti-glare/matte screens were available as BTO options).
Later MacBook Pro revisions added 17-inch, 1920x1200 screens and LED backlighting, and a 13-inch, 1280x800 model was released in 2009; the MacBook line also replaced its LCD with an LED model in 2008, the same screen utilized by the thin and light MacBook Air, until its most recent update, which augmented the 13-inch model to 1440x900 and added a 1366×768 11.6-inch model.
The iMac was redressed for Intel, too, but its displays maintained the same size and resolution until a 24-inch, 24", 1920×1200 in-plane switching (IPS) LCD landed in September 2006. In 2009, a true widescreen unibody model replaced the 20 and 24-inch models with 21-inch, 1920×1080 and 27-inch, 2560×1440 versions.
Finally, Apple whittled its display lineup down to just a single 27-inch Cinema Display with a controversial glossy 2560x1440 LED screen, built-in iSight and a next-generation Mini DisplayPort connector, leaving the iMac as the only desktop LCD in Apple’s catalog.
In 2001, a tiny music player changed the landscape with a 160x128 backlit monochrome display. Nestled above a simple wheel, the iPod’s two-inch display wasn’t the center of attention like the Newton or eMate; rather, it spent most of its time in standby mode, ready to be called into action. In fact, the original iPod’s display was so inconsequential, not a single pixel was changed through its formative years, that is until a mini model with a 138x110 1.67-inch model arrived in 2004.
Later that year, iPod Photo expanded the device’s capabilities beyond music by adding a 220x176 pixel LCD capable of displaying up to 65,536 colors, but the monochrome screen remained in the rest of the line until the fifth generation brought a 2.5-inch, 320x240 quarter video graphics array (QVGA) color display for viewing photos and videos.
The brighter, crisper screen set a new precedent for the iPod, and a few months later, the mini got in on the color act, too (now rebranded as the iPod nano), with a vibrant 176x132 1.5-inch display. The nano would go through several size and shape changes over the years, beginning with a 320x240 2-inch stubby display with the third generation and moving on to 240x320 2-inch (4G), 240x376 2.25-inch TFT (5G) and 240x240 1.50-inch TFT (6G) displays throughout its lifetime.
The iPod’s screen advancements culminated in 2007 with Apple’s first handheld touch-screen device since the MessagePad, a 3.5-inch, 480x320 scratch-resistant glass-wrapped LCD called the iPhone. Utilizing patented multi-touch technology, the iPhone’s display allowed for numerous gestures and taps that let users control everything on the screen with just a finger (or two). A year later, the iPod touch was launched with the same screen, and an oleophobic coating helped keep the fingerprints away on the iPhone 3GS.
Handheld went lap-held with the iPad, which features an 9.7-inch, 1024x768 LED-backlit glossy multi-touch display with IPS technology. But nothing can compare with the iPhone 4’s Retina display:
Apple’s stunning 3.5 inch Retina display has 960 x 640 pixels—four times as many pixels as the iPhone 3GS and 78 percent of the pixels on an iPad. The resulting 326 pixels per inch is so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when the phone is held at a normal distance, making text, images and video look sharper, smoother and more realistic than ever before on an electronic display.
And just think, iPad 2 is just around the corner.
jozsef.varga29
June 24, 2011 at 4:01pm
"And just think, iPad 2 is just around the corner." I think you meant iPad 3...
#mistakes
