November 15, 1997: First G3 Systems Show Up

The iMac gets credit as the machine that saved Apple, but the machine that returned Apple to profitability was a dull platinum box.

Of course, it wasn't the box that had people excited; it was what was inside: the new G3 processor. Replacing the 604 chips, sometimes with lower clock speeds, the G3 provided a big boost in performance. Apple also touted the G3 as much faster than the contemporary Pentium.

Users bought into the hype and snatched the G3 Macs up in remarkable quantities. The platinum box that moved Apple to the black side of the accounting ledger was introduced in 233 MHz and 266 MHz configurations on this day in 1997.