110 Macworld • October 2019FEATUREThe original iMacbusiness. In fact, Apple is a company that’s rarely
stood still in terms of its evolution.
To prove the point, let’s step through 20 years
of Apple’s business, five years at a time.1999: The Mac comeback
Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 and we all
know what happened next. But that transformation
took a while. Look at a sample quarter from 20
years ago – the fourth fiscal quarter of 1999 –
and you’ll see a very different company that the
Apple of today.
First off, there was only really one Apple product
back then: the Mac. 80 percent of Apple’s revenue
came from the Mac, with 20 percent coming from
other products, mostly Mac accessories and
software. In the fourth quarter of 1999, Apple’s
total revenue was $1.34 billion, generating $111
million in profit. To put that in perspective,
Apple generated that much revenue
every two days or so in the third
quarter of 2019.
In the fourth quarter of
1999, Apple sold 772,000
Macs. We don’t know how
many Macs Apple sells in
a quarter now, because
it stopped releasing unit
sales figures
last year, but
it’s probably
in the ballpark of110 Macworld • October 2019FEATURE
TheoriginaliMacbusiness. In fact, Apple is a company that’s rarely
stood still in terms of its evolution.
To prove the point, let’s step through 20 years
of Apple’s business, five years at a time.1999: The Mac comeback
Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 and we all
know what happened next. But that transformation
took a while. Look at a sample quarter from 20
years ago – the fourth fiscal quarter of 1999 –
and you’ll see a very different company that the
Apple of today.
First off, there was only really one Apple product
back then: the Mac. 80 percent of Apple’s revenue
came from the Mac, with 20 percent coming from
other products, mostly Mac accessories and
software. In the fourth quarter of 1999, Apple’s
total revenue was $1.34 billion, generating $111
million in profit. To put that in perspective,
Apple generated that much revenue
every two days or so in the third
quarter of 2019.
In the fourth quarter of
1999, Apple sold 772,000
Macs. We don’t know how
many Macs Apple sells in
a quarter now, because
it stopped releasing unit
sales figures
last year, but
it’s probably
in the ballpark of