2001: Apple gives birth to Mac OS X — the beating heart of today’s Macs, iPhones and, soon, the iPad.
Fired and then rehired by his own company, Steve Jobs drove a near-broke Apple Computer to profitability with the success of the iMac in 1998. But arguably the reacquisition of Jobs would prove even more valuable to the Cupertino, California, corporation in 2001, when Apple introduced its cutting-edge operating system Mac OS X.
Mac OS X was comprised of Unix-based technologies that were developed by NeXT, a company Jobs founded in 1985 during his 11-year exile from Apple. With NeXT, Jobs’ goal then was to make a Mac-like computer for education that would put Apple out of business.
Fortunately for Jobs, Apple nearly did that to itself. During Jobs’ absence, Apple’s stock fell 68 percent and the company neared bankruptcy. Over those years, Apple had promised Mac users a new operating system again and again, and failed to deliver each time. In 1996, Apple killed its operating system project codenamed Copland, and soon the floundering corporation announced it was purchasing NeXT to build a new Mac OS. Of course, that meant rehiring Apple’s ousted leader. Jobs soon retook the helm as Apple’s CEO.
Finally, on March 24, 2001, Apple released its new operating system Mac OS X with a retail price of $130. The X, enthusiasts have neurotically noted, stands for “10″ to represent its version number, and is thus not to be pronounced “ex.”
The OS promised improved stability and delivered a new “Aqua” user interface along with backward compatibility for the earlier Mac OS 9. Like most first-generation products, Mac OS X was rough: Many features were missing, and it suffered from a number of compatibility issues. For example, DVD playback and CD burning were not supported, and many pieces of external hardware were incompatible with the system.
Still, Mac OS X was an important step for Apple. John Siracusa, Ars Technica’s Apple specialist, summed up the significance of Mac OS X when he reviewed the operating system in 2001:
Siracusa had noted that the “success of Mac OS X is still an open question.” Today, the operating system’s success is indisputable. Mac OS X has been refined over the years to eliminate its early flaws. Now in its seventh version (Snow Leopard), Mac OS X still powers Apple’s latest Macs, which have helped Apple brave the economic recession. And perhaps even more importantly going forward, specialized versions of Mac OS X are driving the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the upcoming iPad. Apple’s annual revenues are now beyond $50 billion, according to Jobs.
