Macintosh Performa

In the early 1990s, Apple sold computers through a chain of authorized resellers, and through mail order catalogs such as those found in the latter third of MacWorld Magazine.

A typical reseller sold Macintosh computers to professionals, who purchased high-level applications and required performance and expansion capabilities.

While the Performa models resembled their professional counterpart on the system software and hardware level, certain features were tweaked or removed.

Computers running Windows were generally cheaper, and encouraged by manufacturer spiffs, advertising co-ops, and other promotion programs.

[8] In February 1997, just days after Steve Jobs returned to the company, Apple refreshed its entire line of desktop computers, retiring a dozen Performa models based on the Power Macintosh 6200 and 6400 with no replacement, and reducing the range of Power Macintosh to six computers (plus a few Apple Workgroup Server variants).

[9] By early 1998, Apple's lineup was reduced to four computers: One desktop, one all-in-one, and two minitowers (one of which was sold as a server product).

Apple and related products were displayed and sold in a physically separate location by specialized employees (currently done at select Best Buy stores).

Software bundles usually included ClarisWorks, Quicken, a calendar/contact manager such as Touchbase and Datebook Pro, America Online, educational software such as The American Heritage Dictionary, The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, The TIME Almanac (on models equipped with a CD-ROM drive), Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, or Mario Teaches Typing, and a selection of games such as Spectre Challenger, Diamonds, and Monopoly.

Another software package that only the Performa was equipped with was called MegaPhone, a screen-based telephony (SBT) application developed by Cypress Research.