Editing Power Macintosh (section)

=== Release and reception (1994–1995) ===
[[File:Power Macintosh 8100-80AV - front.jpg|thumb|Front view of a Power Macintosh 8100/80AV, the most powerful first-generation Power Macintosh]]
The original plan was to release the first Power Macintosh machine on January 24, 1994, exactly ten years after the release of the [[Macintosh 128K|first Macintosh]].{{r|pmbook|p=26}} Ian Diery, who was EVP and general manager of the Personal Computer Division at the time, moved the release date back to March 14 in order to give manufacturing enough time to build enough machines to fill the sales channels and to ensure that the Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card would be available at the same time. This was a departure from prior practice at Apple; they had typically released upgrade packages months after the introduction of new Macintoshes.

The Power Macintosh was formally introduced at the [[Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts]] in Manhattan on March 14. Pre-orders for the new Power Macintosh models were brisk, with an announced 150,000 machines already having been sold by that date.<ref>{{cite magazine
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DTsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA33
| title = Power Macs an instant hit with Apple's core following
| magazine = InfoWorld
| publisher = InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
| date = March 21, 1994
| volume = 16
| issue = 12
| first = Tom
| last = Quinlan
| page = 33
| access-date = December 19, 2020
| archive-date = May 9, 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210509145647/https://books.google.com/books?id=DTsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA33
| url-status = live
}}</ref> MacWorld's review of the 6100/60 noted that "Not only has Apple finally regained the performance lead it lost about eight years ago when PCs appeared using Intel's 80386 CPU, but it has pushed far ahead."<ref>{{cite magazine
| url = https://archive.org/stream/MacWorld_9406_June_1994#page/n57/mode/2up
| title = Power Macintosh 6100/60
| magazine = MacWorld Magazine
| date = June 1994
| pages = 56–57
| first = Galen
| last = Gruman
}}</ref>  The performance of 680x0 software is slower due to the emulation layer, but MacWorld's benchmarks showed noticeably faster CPU, disk, video, and floating-point performance than the Quadra 610 it replaced.  By January 1995, Apple had sold 1 million Power Macintosh systems.

Speed-bumped versions of the Power Macintosh line were introduced at the beginning of 1995, followed in April by the first [[PowerPC 603]] models: an all-in-one model called the [[Power Macintosh 5200 LC]] and a replacement for the [[Macintosh Quadra 630|Quadra 630]] called the [[Power Macintosh 6200]]. [[Macintosh Performa|Performa]] variants of these machines were sold as well, continuing the practice of re-branding other Macintosh models for sale in department stores and big-box electronics retailers.  While the 5200 LC was well received by critics for its design, performance, and cost, both it and the 6200 suffered from stability issues (and in the case of the 5200, display issues as well) that could only be solved by bringing the machine to an Apple dealer for replacement parts.<ref name="macsecrets">{{cite book
| url = http://www.toddp.com/classic/Software%20Install/Apple%20Support%20Documents/Macintosh%20Secrets/Mac%20Secrets%204th%20ed./ch13.pdf
| title = Macworld Mac Secrets (4th ed)
| last = Pogue
| first = David
| date = January 1997
| publisher = Hungry Minds
| isbn = 0-7645-4006-8
| page = Chapter 13 – The PowerPC Macs: Model by Model, pg. 450
| access-date = January 20, 2018
| archive-date = October 11, 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171011130948/http://www.toddp.com/classic/Software%20Install/Apple%20Support%20Documents/Macintosh%20Secrets/Mac%20Secrets%204th%20ed./ch13.pdf
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

By mid-1995, the burgeoning Power Macintosh line had all but completely supplanted every prior Macintosh line, with only the high-end [[Macintosh Quadra 950|Quadra 950]] and two low-cost education models (the all-in-one [[Macintosh LC 580]] and desktop [[Macintosh LC 630|LC 630]]) remaining in production. The competitive marketplace for "accelerator cards" that had existed for earlier Macintosh systems largely disappeared due to the comparatively low price of Apple's Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card (US$600).<ref>{{cite magazine
| url = https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_9502_February_1995
| title = Making the move to Power Mac
| last = Gruman
| first = Galen
| date = February 1995
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_9502_February_1995/page/n95 92]–102
}}</ref>  [[DayStar Digital]] sold upgrade cards for the IIci and various Quadra models, and full motherboard replacements were available from Apple as well.  [[Macintosh clones]] from companies like [[DayStar Digital]] and [[Power Computing Corporation|Power Computing]] were also coming to the market at this time, undercutting Apple's prices.