PowerBook 5300
The PowerBook 5300 series was Apple's first generation of portable computers with a PowerPC processor and was released in August 1995. Despite its attractive features, a series of breakdowns of the first models made it one of the worst Apple products of all time.
There were four models of the 5300, from the inexpensive grayscale model 5300 to the high-resolution TFT model 5300ce:
| PowerBook 5300 | 640 × 480 pixel grayscale LCD | 100 MHz | 8 MB RAM | US $ 2300 |
| PowerBook 5300cs | 640 × 480 pixel passive color LCD | 100 MHz | 8/16 MB RAM | US $ 2900 |
| PowerBook 5300c | 640 × 480 pixels TFT | 100 MHz | 8/16 MB RAM | US $ 3900 |
| PowerBook 5300ce | 800 × 600 pixels TFT | 117 MHz | 32 MB RAM | US $ 6,800 |
The compact and tool-free expandable housing of the PowerBook 190 served as the housing, all of which had in common the high expandability with up to 64 MB RAM, two PCMCIA slots, SCSI, ADB and infrared interfaces, a module slot (there were modules with floppy, ZIP , etc. drive , MO drive or integrated power supply) and an internal expansion slot for which it monitor Two-operation were about a module with Ethernet and a video card for an external display in.
The technical progress (other notebooks at that time had Pentium processors with a maximum of 75 MHz or even 486 CPUs; exchangeable modules, high RAM equipment and TFT resolutions over 640 × 480 were hardly affordable rarities) of this PowerBook series was, however, from the breakdowns of first devices overshadowed. The originally planned lithium-ion batteries supplied by Sony caught fire and had to be replaced by NiMH batteries; Many devices already broke during transport ( Dead On Arrival ), and there were problems with various components that Apple had to fix with a repair program that was extended well beyond the warranty period.
Although the improvements were able to fix all the problems of the 5300 series and, thanks to their expandability, many devices often remained in use well beyond the year 2000, the reputation of the series has never recovered. As early as October 1996, Apple introduced the successor with the 1400 series, although in almost no way they went beyond the standards set by the 5300 series (the most notable is probably the CD-ROM drive). The 3400 series from February 1997 resumed compatibility with the 5300 modules, but apart from DMA capability and slightly faster CPUs, it still had no major innovations to offer.
With this, the PowerBook 5300 can serve as an example of how breakdowns at launch can damage the reputation of a product (and in some cases the entire company) well beyond the time it is eliminated.