Hey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explained, and today we’re going to explore the history
of Apple printers, we’ll discuss the various models, but also look into why Apple decided
to pull out of the printer market despite their twenty-year success in the space.
This topic was the third place winner of last weeks voting poll and if you didn’t get
to vote, make sure you’re subscribed, that way the voting polls will show up right in
your activity feed and you can let me know which video you’d like to see next.
So Apple’s line of printers were made through the 1980s and 1990s, and many people are unfamiliar
with the fact that Apple even had printers because they’ve been out of the printing
business for almost two decades.
They stopped releasing new printers in 1996, when Steve Jobs returned to the company.
And then all of Apple’s printers were eventually discontinued in 1999.
Now you may assume that because Apple stopped selling their printers, they must’ve had
poor sales.
But that wasn’t the case, Apple had successfully sold printers on the market for 20 years and
all of a sudden they decided to end the line.
So to figure out why Apple made this move, we need to go back to 1980, when their first
model of printer was released.
While many people overlook this part of Apple’s history, the company’s legacy in the printing
business is well worth remembering.
Since the decision to cut printers from their product line may have saved Apple from a financial
disaster and huge revenue losses, but we’ll get into that later after we explore their
best and worst printer models.
The year was 1979 when Apple officially announced their first thermal printer, which was released
in March of 1980.
It was called the Apple Silentype and sold for $599.
It created a huge buzz in the industry since it was almost half the price of comparable
printers on the market.
It was compatible with the Apple II and Apple III, and was very small and compact.
With an 80 column output, the Silentype used a special kind of heat-sensitive paper that
turned dark when heated.
Besides being less expensive than many other printers on the market, the Silentype was
surprisingly quieter and more reliable in operation.
And although it was branded as an Apple printer, the Silentype wasn’t fully created by Apple.
Actually, part of the reason why this printer is so significant in Apple’s history, is
because it marked one of the first times they looked for an engineering solution from a
third party, rather than producing it themselves.
Apple borrowed heavily from the Trendcom Model 200 and used its technology as the base for
their printer before giving it a redesign and changing other details.
After the Silentype, they continued to look for engineering solutions and components from
other companies, which they could incorporate into new models of Apple printers.
In fact, in some cases Apple put such little effort in their printer line that they just
rebranded existing printer models and sold them under the Apple name.
Now in 1982, Apple released their first dot matrix printer, which was specially designed
for the Apple II and Apple III series.
The device was simply called the Apple Dot Matrix Printer or Apple DMP for short.
Its core components were produced by C. Itoh Enterprises at about the same time when Apple
was working on another, similar product.
In 1983, they followed up with a release of the Apple Letter Quality Printer, also known
as the Apple Daisy Wheel Printer, since it featured a Qume daisy wheel engine.
And in 1984, Apple released three new printers, one of which was the Apple Color Plotter,
known as the first and only plotter in their line.
And if you’re wondering what a plotter is, it’s basically a type of printer that uses
pens to draw on sheets of paper.
The device came out around the same time as the Macintosh, whose release casted a shadow
over Apple’s new printers.
The second model that came out that year was the Apple Scribe printer.
Initially, Apple had the intention to release the Apple Scribe along with the Apple IIc’s
in order to provide a printing device that was suitable for their new computers.
But the Apple Scribe didn’t see much success, mainly because it required a rather expensive
supply of wax transfer ribbons.
The third model released in 1984 certainly left a much larger impact on the history of
printing technologies.
This was the Apple ImageWriter, another device that featured an Apple design with C. Itoh
technologies.
The ImageWriter was an advanced version of their last dot matrix printer, but only a
year later, in 1985, it was replaced by the Apple ImageWriter II, a sturdier and certainly
more powerful model.
This was a very big update in Apple’s line of printers since it was the first to feature
their new snow white design language in order to match the Apple IIc.
And this earned it the I.D.
Design Review and Silver Industrial Design Excellence Award in 1986, a first for any
desktop printer.
It sold for $595 and it featured some of Apple’s original technologies made to work with Macintosh
to allow for a better printing experience.
Now Apple had invested so much effort into the ImageWriter II, that it featured some
of the best engineering solutions of all Apple printers.
It was one of the most powerful and reliable printers on the market, while also being more
affordable.
And that combination led to the ImageWriter II becoming Apple’s best- and longest-selling
printer of them all.
It was finally discontinued in 1996, after being on the market for more than a decade!
Next up in March 1985, was the Apple LaserWriter, the company’s first laser printer.
Apple was the fourth company to release a laser printer at the time and this new printing
technology didn’t come cheap.
Since a single LaserWriter cost $6,995.
And before Apple entered the laser printing market, three companies already had products
in the space.
The first was IBM who released their laser printer in 1979, then came Xerox in 1981 and
finally HP in 1984.
And I should mention that HP’s laser printer featured the same Canon engine as Apple’s
first LaserWriter.
Now at the beginning, Apple wasn’t a market leader when it came to laser printing technologies.
But thanks to one key factor, they found themselves in the lead in no time.
See, all three companies that tried their hand at producing laser printers lacked a
vital element, which was a relatively inexpensive computer that featured software to take advantage
of the laser printer technology.
And Apple had their Macintosh that was designed to work seamlessly with their LaserWriter,
and that’s what put them on top of the market.
It also allowed the LaserWriter to become the first PostScript printer in the world,
which basically means it was capable of printing high resolution text and graphics on plain
paper.
With the LaserWriter, Apple helped lead the desktop publishing revolution, and it took
the world of design and symbol production in a completely new direction.
Now Apple updated their printer in 1988 with the Apple LaserWriter II, but the improvements
were minor.
Apple essentially made the printer more versatile by allowing complete replacement of the computer
circuit board that operated the printer.
This meant customers could fine tune their LaserWriters for specific purposes.
The next big update to Apple’s printer line came in 1991, with the Stylewriter.
This was their first inkjet printer and it provided stunning print quality at the relatively
low price of $600.
Now the early 90s was when inkjet technology became more popular than dot matrix.
And this shift helped push the Stylewriter to the top of the market.
The printer used ordinary paper but could produce graphics that were almost laser-quality
at 360 dots per inch or dpi for short.
This meant customers could get better quality prints at a more affordable price, which marked
the return of Apple’s lower cost printers.
In the next six years, the company continued with production of cheaper printers that made
printing accessible to everyone.
In 1992, they introduced the Personal LaserWriter NTR, which was a series of smaller laser printers
that came at a much cheaper price than the laser printers before it.
And 1993 saw the release of the Stylewriter II, it was based on a Canon engine, had twice
the memory of its predecessor and double the printing speed.
Now Apple’s first color printer also came out in 1993, called the Apple Color Printer.
It was essentially a rebranded Canon BJC-820, and even though this printer didn’t suffer
from print slowdowns caused by slow rasterization like other inkjets, it was prohibitively expensive
and didn’t see many sales.
So after a short break from printers, Apple made a comeback in 1997 with the Apple Color
StyleWriter 6500, Apple LaserWriter 12/640 PS and the Apple Color LaserWriter 12/660
PS.
Now the last printer Apple ever released was the Apple LaserWriter 8500, which came out
in August 1997.
It cost $3,100 and featured 600dpi printing with the ability to handle various paper sizes.
This model was also able to take up a much heavier workload of 20 pages per minute.
Even though the Apple LaserWriter 8500 marked the end of Apple’s printer production in
1997, it was still sold until 1999.
After this, the company was restructured and cut printers from their product lineup completely.
So at the beginning, Apple enjoyed quite a bit of success in the printer market.
But a variety of factors contributed to them leaving the space.
For example, the first half of the 1990s wasn’t a good year for Apple financially, and they
were forced to scale back their role in the printer market.
In fact, some of their printers cost Apple more to manufacture than what they sold for,
so those were the first products to be cut from the lineup, since it didn’t make sense
to continue selling a product that didn’t generate a profit.
And when Jobs returned to the company in 1996, his goal was to make Apple more lean and focused.
This resulted in his famous four-product matrix business plan that didn’t include any printers.
And this ended up being a smart move, because in the early 2000’s many other companies
entered the printer market and drove the price of printers down dramatically.
They were essentially selling printers at a loss, hoping to profit off of the expensive
residual cost of ink cartridges.
So that meant customers no longer wanted to pay a higher price for Apple printers when
they didn’t offer anything much different from the cheaper versions available on the
market.
Basically, printer technology became a commodity that shifted the market’s barrier of entry
so low that almost any tech company could compete.
So you can see why Apple left the market and let other companies enjoy the printers race
to the bottom.
Now there’s always people wondering whether or not Apple will return to the printing market
with some major innovation to separate themselves from the competition, but I don’t think
that’s likely to happen.
Especially considering the fact that our lives are becoming more digital year after year.
We used to print driving directions from MapQuest, but now we get turn by turn directions straight
from our phones.
We used to print recipes from the internet, but now we read recipes off our iPads from
our favorite cooking app.
And even schools are printing less, with students turning in essays through email or turnitin.com,
rather than handing them in on paper.
I think Apple recognizes this declining demand for printers, and they aren’t really interested
in entering a market without much of a future.
But even though we might not see any new printers from Apple in the future, it’s always fun
to look back at their long history in the printing market.
So that is the history of Apple printers, and if you want to vote for the next video
topic, don’t forget to subscribe.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.