Performa

Apple used the Performa label to market consumer-friendly hardware/software bundles to home users. In most cases, Performas were not really computer form factors. They were product bundles. Beginning in 1992, Apple’s grand vision of marketing consisted of a dizzying array of confusing nameplates that were duplicative across the product lines. Apple marketed the Quadra line to businesses, the LC line to educators, and the Performa line to consumers. The Performas consisted of repackaged Macs from Apple’s main product series. The duplicative Performa/Quadra/LC product lines confused many consumers and lead to terrible inventory control that thankfully ended in 1997. Listed below is a conversion chart with links to each Performa and Macintosh counterpart. Apple differentiated each Performa of the same form factor by differing the amount of RAM and VRAM, the hard drive sizes, the software bundles, and the hardware mix (modem/monitor/cards).