Macintosh Bible, 8th Edition, The

The iBook

The iBook, announced in July 1999 at Macworld Expo New York, was Apple's first real foray into the consumer portable market. It may have been the most anticipated Apple portable in history, with the PowerBook G4 Titanium coming in a close second.

The iBook filled the empty consumer-portable quadrant in Steve Jobs' two-by-two product matrix. The iBook sat directly under the wildly successful iMac in the matrix—the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

A completely new class of PowerBook, at only $1,299 the iBook brought the power of the G3 processor to the masses in an attractive, portable package.

Borrowing design cues from the iMac, the iBook attempted to appeal to everyone from students of all ages to computer novices to early adopters ...