The system specifications of the Classic are very similar to those of its predecessors, with the same 9-inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT display, 512 × 342 pixel resolution, and 4 megabyte (MB) memory limit of the older Macintosh computers.

[5] However, it ensured compatibility with the Mac's by-then healthy software base, as well as enabled it to sell for the lower price, as planned.

Gassée consistently pushed the Apple product line in two directions, towards more "openness" in terms of expandability and interoperability, and towards higher price.

The original Macintosh plans called for a system around $1,000, but by the time it had morphed from Jef Raskin's original vision of an easy-to-use machine for composing text documents to Jobs's concept incorporating ideas gleaned during a trip to Xerox PARC, the Mac's list price had ballooned to $2,495.

[7] With the "low-left" of the market it had abandoned years earlier booming with Turbo XTs, and being ignored on the high end for UNIX workstations from the likes of Sun Microsystems and SGI, Apple's fortunes of the 1980s quickly reversed.

The Christmas season of 1989 drove this point home, with the first decrease in sales in years, and an accompanying 20 percent drop in Apple's stock price for the quarter.

[8] Many Apple engineers had long been pressing for lower-cost options in order to build market share and increase demand across the entire price spectrum.

[8] MacWEEK magazine reported on July 10, 1990, that Apple had paid $1 million to Modular Computer Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, for the right to use the "Classic" name as part of a five-year contract.

[13] Brodie Keast, an Apple product marketing manager, said, "We are prepared to do whatever it takes to reach more people with Macintosh [...] The plan is to get as aggressive on price as we need to be.

[14] After spending $40 million marketing the Classic to first-time buyers,[15] Apple had difficulty meeting the high demand.

[16] Apple doubled its manufacturing space in 1990 by expanding its Singapore and Cork, Ireland factories, where the Classic was assembled.

"[24] PC Week criticized the lack of a faster processor, stating, "The 7.8 MHz speed is adequate for text applications and limited graphics work, but it is not suitable for power users.

"[25] Similarly, PC User's review concluded, "The slow processor and lack of expansion slots on the Macintosh Classic offset the low prices".

[28] In the February 1991 edition of Electronic Learning, Robert McCarthy wrote: "Teachers, educational administrators, and software developers are enthusiastic about the new, lower-cost Apple Macintosh computers".

Steve Taffe, manager of instructional strategy at MECC, a developer and publisher of educational software, explained his excitement about the Classic: "[it] is terrific – both because it's a Mac and because of that low price.

Sue Talley, Apple's manager of strategic planning in education, said of the Classic: "we see it going into applications where you need a fair number of powerful stations, but where color is not a big issue."