Most Expensive Macs in Apple History

It’s a known fact that Macs are more expensive than other computers on the market, but not everybody knows just how incredibly expensive these machines have been over the years. For instance, only a few people remember how much the first personal computer by Apple cost when it was launched back in 1983. Dubbed Lisa, this remarkable device cost a whopping $9,995, which is about $21,600 today, in post-inflation prices.

Some seven years later, another mind-blowingly expensive Apple product was launched, called the Macintosh IIfx. This was the successor of the Mac II, and it was priced at $9,000, or some $14,900 in today’s money.

The incredibly successful Apple II was followed by the Apple III, which was released in 1980 and discontinued in 1984, due to some serious design problems that were not acceptable in a computer that cost $4,340 ($11,400 today).

Next came the Macintosh Portable, an outstanding machine that cost $6,600 (the equivalent of $11,300 in today’s money) when it was launched. It had a16MHz processor, only 8 MB of memory, and a 640 x 400 pixel black-and-white display.

Finally, another expensive Apple product was Jonathan Ive’s brainchild, the 20th Anniversary Mac (TAM) with a 250 MHz processor, and an impressive 800 x 600 pixel color display. It was launched with the prohibitive price of $7,499, or about $10,140 in our time. Being so highly priced and considered more impressive design-wise than function-wise, this computer simply failed to catch on. However, dedicated Macintosh collectors still find the TAMs very irresistible today and are willing to pay big money for one unit.