January 12, 2000: G5 Arrives at Apple…Kinda

Long before the aluminum clad G5 Towers were introduced, users were clamoring for a new chip from Apple computer. The G5 had been heavily rumored to be just around the corner for years. Whispers abounded that the G5 chip had been "taped out" or that pallets of computers with the chip littered the storage area of retailers before any Apple event that occurred after the G4 was introduced. The predictions were wildly premature.

So when was the first G5 actually owned by an Apple employee? That question is easily answered. It was a full 30 months before the public saw the G5 that an Apple employee first took possession of a G5. In this instance the G5 wasn't a computer but a private jet, the Gulfstream V, and the owner was Steve Jobs. The CEO of Apple was given the jet by Apple's Board of Directors for the remarkable turnaround of Apple Computer's fortunes.

The move was not without controversy. The gift was deemed extraordinarily expensive by some but the complaint was tempered in large part by the realization that Steve Jobs had likely saved Apple from bankruptcy. Controversy aside, it was this month of 2000 that an Apple employee first took possession of a G5.