Stephen “Steve” Kahng, a computer engineer best known for his design of the Leading Edge Model D, founded the company in November 1993.

At the MacWorld Expo in January 1995, just days after receiving notice he had the license to clone Macintosh computers, Kahng enlisted Mac veteran Michael Shapiro to help build the company.

Jim Gable, Apple's director of Mac licensing was quoted in The Wall Street Journal saying "[Kahng] is clever and fleet of foot.

The CodeStation was a package consisting of the recently announced Power Series clone, rebranded and bundled with the latest PowerPC version of CodeWarrior (CW6 Gold which introduced Magic Cap support).

At the early 1996 Macworld trade show in San Francisco, Power Computing found itself the star attraction because Apple was so preoccupied with its mounting financial woes that then-CEO Michael Spindler cancelled an appearance.

PCC got another break when a computer firm that had spent $170,000 erecting an immense booth pulled out at the last moment, allowing Mr. Kahng to pick up the prime exhibiting space for $30,000.

At that Macworld, the PowerCurve — a line of mid-range, CPU-upgradeable Mac OS systems based on the PowerPC 601 and the industry-standard PCI expansion bus — was introduced.

In May 1996, just one year after Power Computing started selling Mac clones, the company reached the 100,000 units sold milestone.

At Macworld Expo 1997, the company presented a military-themed campaign that urged the Mac faithful to “Fight Back.” Power Computing employees were outfitted in camouflage.

Jobs believed that Apple had started to license clones too late to repeat the business model pioneered by Microsoft in the early 1980s.

At MacWorld Boston in August, Power Computing President Joel Kocher unsuccessfully tried to convince attendees to rally against Apple's stiff new licensing policies.

[8][9] As part of the deal, Apple got back the license that allowed Power Computing to sell Macintosh-based machines, also obtaining "the right to retain key employees with expertise in direct marketing, distribution, and engineering".

[11] Indeed, Power Computing merely emphasised the withdrawal of its license, reprinting the Apple press release, and encouraging potential buyers to hurry while stocks of its clone models remained.

However, regulatory delays to the Apple deal, delaying receipt of the agreed funds, and lawsuits from suppliers forced the company to downsize,[13] and with the PowerTrip line subsequently cancelled due to "lacklustre sales and manufacturing problems", the company was described as being in "dire straits", looking "to find a new way to sell, manufacture and service" and hoping to introduce a new strategy and new products in the spring of 1998.

[14] Parts shortages forced the company to halt production in 1997, and by late January 1998, the last of Power Computing's physical assets were auctioned off.

Ironically, this made Power Computing one of two Macintosh clones to get a Mac OS 8 upgrade disk (the other was UMAX, which got it under an agreement with Apple).