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· Announcement

Apple IIc, Apple Mouse IIc, Apple Scribe Printer and Disk IIc

Apple announced four products on 1 April 1984: Apple IIc, Apple Mouse IIc, Apple Scribe Printer and Disk IIc. The day spanned Accessories, Early computers, Printers and Storage.

It was the 3rd of 7 dated moments the archive holds for 1984, 68 days after the previous one, 24 January 1984.

Apple IIc product photograph

Bilby · CC BY 3.0

What Apple announced

Apple IIc

Early computers · Apple II · discontinued 1 August 1988

The Apple IIc is a personal computer introduced by Apple Inc. shortly after the launch of the original Macintosh in 1984. It is essentially a compact and portable version of the Apple IIe. The IIc has a built-in floppy disk drive and a keyboard, and was often sold with its matching monitor. The c in the name stands for compact, referring to the fact it is a complete Apple II setup in a smaller notebook-sized housing. The computer is compatible with a wide range of Apple II software and peripherals.

The Apple IIc has rear peripheral expansion ports integrated onto the main logic board instead of the expansion slots and direct motherboard access of earlier Apple II models. Apple intended the Apple IIc to require less technical expertise to use. The Apple IIc weighs 7.5 lb (3.4 kg). It was succeeded by the Apple IIc Plus in 1988.

Apple Mouse IIc

Accessories · Pointing devices · discontinued 1 December 1985

The archive holds no written summary for this product. Its photographs, family, and dates are on its product page.

Apple Scribe Printer

Printers · Printers · discontinued 1 December 1985

Apple has produced several lines of printers in its history, but no longer produces or supports these devices today. Though some early products use thermal technology, Apple's products can be broadly divided into three lines: ImageWriter (dot matrix), LaserWriter (PostScript laser), and StyleWriter (thermal inkjet).

Disk IIc

Storage · Drives

The Disk II Floppy Disk Subsystem, often rendered as Disk ][, is a 5 +1⁄4-inch floppy disk drive designed by Steve Wozniak at the recommendation of Mike Markkula, and manufactured by Apple Computer. It went on sale in June 1978 at a retail price of US$495 for pre-order; it was later sold for $595 (equivalent to $2,940 in 2025) including the controller card (which can control up to two drives) and cable. The Disk II was designed specifically for use with the 1977 Apple II personal computer to replace the slower cassette tape storage.

Apple produced at least six variants of the basic 5 +1⁄4-inch Disk II concept over the course of the Apple II series' lifetime: The Disk II, the Disk III, the DuoDisk, the Disk IIc, the UniDisk 5.25" and the Apple 5.25 Drive. While all of these drives look different, and use four different connector types, they're all electronically extremely similar. They can all use the same low-level disk format, and are all interchangeable with the use of simple adapters, consisting of no more than two plugs and wires between them. Most DuoDisk drives, the Disk IIc, the UniDisk 5.25" and the AppleDisk 5.25" even use the same 19-pin D-Sub connector, so they are directly interchangeable. The only 5 +1⁄4" drive Apple sold aside from the Disk II family was a 360k MFM unit made to allow Mac IIs and SEs to read PC floppy disks.

Read the full record →
Apple IIc product photograph
Apple IIc

Bilby · CC BY 3.0

Apple Mouse IIc product photograph
Apple Mouse IIc

Christopher W. · CC BY-SA 2.0

Apple Scribe Printer product photograph
Apple Scribe Printer

CC BY-SA 3.0

Disk IIc product photograph
Disk IIc

CC BY-SA 3.0

Also in 1984

Sources

  1. Apple IIc · Wikipedia
  2. Apple Mouse IIc · Wikipedia
  3. Apple Scribe Printer · Wikipedia
  4. Disk IIc · Wikipedia

Dates on this page are announcement dates, not shipping dates. Product summaries are drawn from the linked articles, and specification claims in them are the publisher’s, not independent testing. Photograph credits and licences are listed in full on the image credits page.