The Macintosh marketed as Mac, is a series of personal computers (PCs) designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It is targeted mainly at the home, education, and creative professional markets.
Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh 128k on January 24, 1984. This was the first mass-marketed personal computer featuring a graphical user interface and mouse. The 128 was followed by numerous updated models also based on the Motorola 68000 family processors, producing a family of products in the Macintosh lineup. Although the aggressively priced IBM Personal Computer (PC) soon overtook Apple in sales, Macintosh systems found success in education and desktop publishing and kept Apple as the second-largest PC manufacturer until 1994 when it was overtaken by Compaq.
By 1990 onwards, improvements in the rival Wintel (portmanteau of Wndows and Intel) platform, notably with the introduction of Windows 3.0, gradually took market share from the more expensive Macintosh systems. The performance advantage of 68000-based Macintosh systems was windswept by Intel's Pentium, and starting in 1994 the Macintosh started a move to the PowerPC-based Power Macintosh line. Nonetheless, the falling prices of PC components and the release of Windows 95 caused Apple to struggle as the Macintosh user base declined. In 1998, Apple consolidated its multiple consumer-level desktop models into the all-in-one iMac, which proved to be a sales success and saw the brand energized.
Another switch occurred with Apple's transition to Intel processors starting in 2006. The Mac lineup is now entirely based on these processors and related systems. Modern members of the Mac family are broken into two groups, desktops and laptops. Current members of the desktop lineup include the all-in-one iMac, entry-level Mac mini, and the Mac Pro tower graphics workstation, while the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro make up the laptop offerings. Its Xserve server was discontinued on January 31, 2011. Production of the Mac is based on a vertical integration model. In Apple facilitates all features of its hardware and creates its own operating system that is pre-installed on all Mac computers, unlike most IBM PC compatibles, where multiple sellers create and integrate hardware intended to run another company's operating software. Apple exclusively produces Mac hardware, choosing internal systems, designs, and prices. Apple also develops the operating system for the Mac, currently OS X version 10.9 "Mavericks". The modern Mac, like other personal computers, is capable of running alternative operating systems such as Linux, OpenBSD, and, in the case of Intel-based Macs, Microsoft Windows with the aid of Boot Camp. Apple does not license OS X for use on non-Apple computers, though it did for a short time through their official Macintosh clone licensing program from 1995 to 1997.