iBook Turns 20: Watch Steve Jobs Unveil the World's First Notebook With Wireless Internet

[jazz1]

Upon returning to Apple in the late 1990s, Steve Jobs came up with a 2×2 product grid in an effort to simplify Apple's then-bloated lineup of computers. The grid was split into four quadrants, including a professional desktop, a consumer desktop, a professional portable, and a consumer portable.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Jobs unveiling the fourth and final product in the grid, the iBook, at the 1999 Macworld Expo in New York City.

Targeted at consumers and students, the iBook easily stood out from other notebooks of its era with its unique clamshell-like design, consisting of hard, translucent plastic casing topped with soft, colorful rubber. Initial colors included Blueberry and Tangerine, with later models available in Graphite, Indigo, and Key Lime.

The original iBook, priced from $1,599, was equipped with a 12.1-inch display with an 800×600 resolution, a full-sized keyboard, and a trackpad. It also featured a retractable handle along its hinge, with Apple calling it an "iMac to go," although it was decently heavy at 6.7 pounds -- even for its time.

Above all, the iBook was the first mass consumer product with support for wireless networking, with the 802.11b standard allowing for speeds up to 11 Mbps. Wireless support was not built in and required purchasing an optional $99 AirPort wireless card and a $299 AirPort base station.

Jobs demonstrated the iBook's wireless networking by walking across the stage with the notebook while loading a website, with the audience erupting in cheers. He then placed it through a hula hoop to prove there were no cables attached.

Memorably, a younger Phil Schiller even jumped from a height while holding the iBook as it wirelessly transferred accelerometer data. Referencing the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Schiller quipped "this is definitely one small step for man, and one giant leap for wireless networking."

Other tech specs included a 300MHz PowerPC G3 processor, 3.2GB hard drive, 32MB of RAM, ATI Rage Mobility graphics, 10/100 Ethernet, a CD-ROM drive, and up to six hours of battery life. To keep costs down, it had no FireWire port, video out, or microphone, and only one speaker and one USB port.

Apple went on to introduce a redesigned iBook with a more traditional notebook design in May 2001, followed by the white polycarbonate MacBook in 2006, but the original will always be an important part of Apple's history.

Last year, YouTubers iJustine and MKBHD teamed up to unbox an original, sealed iBook:

For more nostalgia:
CNN news article about the iBook from July 21, 1999
CNN interview with Steve Jobs from July 21, 1999
iBook page on Apple.com circa October 1, 1999We invite any readers who still own an iBook to share a photo in the comments section.

Article Link: iBook Turns 20: Watch Steve Jobs Unveil the World's First Notebook With Wireless Internet

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I think it would be easier to split their current into three product categories rather than two.

When you look at it that way I don’t think it’s that confusing.

You’re right, not confusing at all looking at it that way.

 

[McG2k1]

Make your whole product demo hinge on its wireless ability...then make that ability a $99 add on. Classic.

 

[wellander1]

I miss those wonderful unique colours.
Imac g3s has some nice colours as well.

 

[jazz1]

I had the orange one, and the flying saucer shaped WiFi modem. I proudly showed it to my boss at work. He called it a “Toliet Seat” in design. But I loved it.

 

[JGIGS]

On my MacBook Pro I just select my phone in the WiFi list, and it connects via my iPhone’s LTE. I don’t even have to take my iPhone out of my pocket.

But then why have LTE iPads then?

I actually would just use my phones hotspot and not buy another LTE enabled device for how little I would use it outside my house but just playing devils advocate.

 

[Mike MA]

Always nice to look back at Apple‘s past, even though I started with the good old G4 PowerBook.

 

[UnusedLoginID]

And that’s just for the official grid, not counting the systems people WANT to exist. Like the “Mac Pro, but not as powerful because I really like the features, but I don’t have THAT much money”. Or the “Mac mini, but powerful enough to run 4 8k monitors”. Or the “MacBook Pro that’s super thick, with a 17 inch screen and ALL DA PORTS!”

Actually, as far as Mac goes, one thing sticks out, the Mac mini just doesn’t belong and shouldn’t exist.
View attachment 849248

Actually it does fit perfectly. Not everyone wants a computer with an all-in-one display.
It fits right in the middle for:
- newbies to Mac who already have the display and input devices and don’t want to spend more than $1000
- professionals who want a small powerful box to act as a mail/file/video/print server in a rack somewhere in the office (or home)
- it can even be argued it’s portable enough to move it between locations and it does offer lots of expansion.

 

[dblumberg]

What a salesman. 20 years later and I want this iBook after watching his presentation.

 

[jlc1978]

Why is LTE needed on iPhones or iPads? There's plenty of free wifi out there.

Exactly. The same arguements for wifi only phones could be made as people are making for not having LTE as an option on laptops.

 

[vixster1901]

I would gladly take that (iBook) keyboard on my current mbpro.

 

[jlc1978]

Like your response, should of pointed out to that person
LTE is not in every country but WiFi is.

There are a handful of countries without 4G/LTE networks. I'd be willing to bet that the available free wifi coverage covers less area than LTE. I'll even inc lude as free wifi that requires a password but does not charge for use; meaning you have to be in a physical location and request a password to use it, as opposed to simply connecting to the network as long as you can see it.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I remember the RAM could be dislodged from the clamshell ones in the rude ways of the shipping process...

I would imagine this was only one of several reasons for soldered memory. Sure, you can’t upgrade, but it also decreases the chance of a customer getting a system “dead on delivery” due to dislodged RAM to zero. I would imagine dislodged RAM was FAR more common than actual bad RAM module.

 

[Praahan]

Sure, self-centered authoritarian egotists firmly convinced that the world revolves around them are definitely the dreamers that change the world. After all what else is in need to be changed to make the world better if not making cool tech devices. It’s not like there are wars, hunger, slavery, exploitation, children that die every minute from curable diseases just so that entitled western people can keep their life style and be able to afford their shiny widget.

I wish these guys pushed medical boundaries, they could have found a cure for cancer. I wouldn't have lost my wife at such young age to the terrible cancer.

 

[justperry]

Wish I had an iDate with Justine...

Just..perry.....just..ine, perfect match.

Wow, $1600 price twenty years ago? That’s $2500 adjusted today - more than a 15” Macbook Pro!
Mr. Tim does really good job at keeping manufacturing costs down...

Apple laptops got substantially cheaper later on.

 

[Greenmeenie]

I don’t have mine anymore, but I bought the Graphite Special Edition in 2000. It was my very first laptop. God i loved that thing. Yeah, it was heavy. But most laptops back then were. The design was just so different. The clamshell shape. The handle. The airport wireless. Such a great laptop.

I use an 11” ipad pro as my main computer/laptop now...and would never go back to a laptop...but i do wish i still had that old ibook just for sentimental reasons.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Not everyone wants a computer with an all-in-one display.

The vast majority do, when you consider that a notebook/laptop is just a computer with all-in-one display, the majority of systems Apple sells fit that description.

newbies to Mac who already have the display and input devices and don’t want to spend more than $1000
The majority buying Macs today are new to the system and almost all of them are choosing a MacBook or MacBook Pro. The next most popular system is the iMacs.

professionals who want a small powerful box to act as a mail/file/video/print server in a rack somewhere in the office (or home)
Hmm, it seems to me that, no matter how powerful Apple makes the mini, there will always be a PC alternative that’s cheaper AND more powerful. Any pro could configure any nondescript PC to be just as secure as a Mac for those low value activities... and the build quality of a Mac would be wasted in a rack... much better use in front of someone else in the office that’s being productive.

it can even be argued it’s portable enough to move it between locations and it does offer lots of expansion.
But, nowhere near even as portable as the luggable iMac.

Like, if you WANTED to buy a Mac mini for almost any purpose (other than specifically running Apple’s apps like Logic and Final Cut) you COULD, but the majority of folks buying Macs would find more utility elsewhere in the lineup.

 

[btbeme]

Sure, self-centered authoritarian egotists firmly convinced that the world revolves around them are definitely the dreamers that change the world. After all what else is in need to be changed to make the world better if not making cool tech devices. It’s not like there are wars, hunger, slavery, exploitation, children that die every minute from curable diseases just so that entitled western people can keep their life style and be able to afford their shiny widget.

What an amazing and tragically shortsighted viewpoint.

Advances in technology, pushed by people like Jobs and Musk and many others, is exactly what is helping move humankind forward. These technologies are helping connect the world in ways that Steve could not have imagined on that stage twenty years ago.

Wireless internet access with inexpensive and portable computing devices helped make instant global communication what it is today. For example, tell me where Facebook, video phoning, satellite connection to the farthest reaches of the third world, instant transport of money, etc would be without these “egotistical” giants? Twenty years ago, it was a miracle to load the Disney website -slowly - while walking across a stage in a controlled and scripted environment. Today, the world communicates, pays attention, and addresses issues IN REAL-TIME due to these fledgling technologies taking flight.

Where will we be with the ability to capture sunlight, store it for practical use, and end some dependence on a global oil trade in 20 years? How about bringing the miracle of electricity to drill and pump a well and cool a home in equatorial Africa without building pipelines? Will this be possible? I don’t know either, but I am thankful that people like Elon Musk are willing to take the arrows from the increasingly entitled masses to push that technology forward.

 

[oneMadRssn]

The original iBook, priced from $1,599

That is approximately $2,500 in 2019 dollars. Just some perspective on everyone's complaints about prices lately.

 

[ChrisA]

Yes, but your phone is out of battery in an hour if you do that. At least, that's the experience I have (had) with both my 5s and 7. Besides that a direct connection will be faster and more stable.

If you have a Macbook and an iPhone you can use a USB cable to power the phone from the Macbook. Then both will run out of battery at the same time.

Not only that but you can use a USB data connection rather than WiFi hotspot. The wired USB is VERY secure.

So, the best solution is to connect your iPhone to you Mac with a cable and use the cable for both power and data.

 

[mi7chy]

iMac and iBook look hideous like children's toys you'd find at Toys"R"Us. And, the PowerBook looks like a Compaq Presario. They went backwards in design from the Apple IIe, IIgs, IIci, etc.

 

[orbital~debris]

Those scalloped keyboard keys were a delight to type on!

Loved my trusty iBook SE (graphite). Found it difficult to choose between that colour and the Key Lime colourway.

 

[itsmilo]

Because it’s unnecessary given that 100% of Mac owners also own .... wait for it ..... a phone!

but even back in let’s say 2010 laptops didn’t have a mobile chip. I am not just talking about Macs but laptops in general. you would think they would have put it into „mobile“ computers before Tablets where even a thing. of course 3G back then

 

[LizKat]

That is approximately $2,500 in 2019 dollars. Just some perspective on everyone's complaints about prices lately.

Yeah I always eventually laugh about that too, having shelled out around $2500 for a 1985 unenhanced 512k Mac... and I remember paying less for a new-to-me car back around then.

Now I look at some new laptop base or so config and think gee they want $1500 for THAT?

(and then I remember what I paid for a Powerbook 170 with a 40MB (yeah MB) hard drive in it.... and on and on.

By time I reel through all those prior scenarios, I'm prepared to shell out around $2500 in current USD for whatever my next Apple book is going to be, so it all seems to have stayed better than even flat for me when I really bother to think about it.

 

[justperry]

That is approximately $2,500 in 2019 dollars. Just some perspective on everyone's complaints about prices lately.

Pretty positive you are aware that Macs were cheaper just a few years ago, I know that prices were bearable from about 2005 to 2015, last few years Apple added $400-500 to the laptops retail price (more in the EU and other places), hell, all Apple stuff got substantially more expensive in just about 4-5 years.

Just an example
Pretty sure there even was a MacBookPro starting at $1799 at some point, too lazy to look it up.
Edit: Actually I did, twas 2014 15" MBP, in 7 years it went up by $700, $100 a year.