Macintosh Performa - Marketing Theory

Marketing Theory

With a strong education market share throughout the 1990s, Apple wanted to push its computers into the home, with the idea that a child would experience the same Macintosh computer both in the home and at school, and later grow to use Macintosh computers at work.

Before the existence of the Apple Store, Apple sold computers through authorized resellers, either brick and mortar or mail order. A typical reseller sold Macintosh computers to professionals, who purchased high-level applications and required performance and expansion capabilities. Consumers, however, purchased computers based on the best value, and weren't as concerned about expansion or performance. Apple wanted to sell their computers through department store chains (such as Sears), but this would conflict with existing authorized reseller agreements, in which a geographic area had only one reseller.

To prevent these conflicts, Apple split the Macintosh line into professional and consumer models. The professional line included the Classic, LC, Centris, Quadra, and Power Macintosh lines, and continued to be sold as-is (e.g., no consumer software bundles or limited features). The consumer line included computers similar to the professional line labeled "Performa".

The Performa line was marketed differently from the professional line. To satisfy consumer-level budgets, the computers were sold bundled with home and small business applications. Most models were also bundled with a keyboard, mouse, an external modem and either a dot-29 or dot-39 pitch monitor (professional models were sold à la carte with keyboard and mouse bundles chosen by the dealer or sold separately). Software bundles usually included ClarisWorks, Quicken, a calendar/contact manager such as Touchbase and Datebook Pro, America Online, Apple's At Ease child-safe interface, educational software such as American Heritage Dictionary, The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Microsoft Bookshelf (on models equipped with a CD-Rom), Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, or Mario Teaches Typing, and games such as Spectre Challenger, Super Munchers, and Monopoly, all pre-installed over a slightly customized version of the Macintosh System software, denoted by a P in the version number (e.g., System 7.1P5).

Although the Performa models resembled their professional counterpart on the system software and hardware level, certain features were tweaked or removed. The Performa versions of the System software introduced some features that were later included in mainstream system releases, most notably the Launcher. System 7.5 ended the separate Performa releases. Many of the Performa models also lacked level-2 cache, used to speed processing of applications. When comparing between a Performa and its professional counterpart, benchmark tests favored the professional counterpart.