September 19, 1994: Apple Announces Clones Are Coming

Apple, under the leadership of John Sculley, had rejected the notion of clones more than once. The reasons were varied: either the clone was too late, there was little upside, or there wasn't a clear thing to license.

In retrospect, Apple did miss any window of opportunity that might have existed, but that didn't stop them from trying to license other manufacturers successfully once Sculley was ousted.

Apple was hoping to increase the Mac OS slice of the market by finally licensing clones, and publicly announced the company was willing to license six computer makers this day in 1994.

Source: Apple Confidential 2.0 252