Mac Mini in the context of Apple TV (device)

Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh apple. The current product lineup includes the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, and the iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro desktops. Macs are currently sold with Apple's UNIX-based macOS operating system, which is not licensed to other manufacturers and exclusively bundled with Mac computers. This operating system replaced Apple's original Macintosh operating system, which has variously been named System, Mac OS, and Classic Mac OS.

Jef Raskin conceived the Macintosh project in 1979, which was usurped and redefined by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1981. The original Macintosh was launched in January 1984 at US$2,495 (equivalent to $7,600 in 2024), after Apple's "1984" advertisement during Super Bowl XVIII. A series of incrementally improved models followed, sharing the same integrated case design. In 1987, the Macintosh II brought color graphics, but priced as a professional workstation and not a personal computer. Beginning in 1994 with the Power Macintosh, the Mac transitioned from Motorola 68000 series processors to PowerPC. Macintosh clones by other manufacturers were also briefly sold afterwards. The line was refreshed in 1998 with the launch of the iMac G3, reinvigorating the line's competitiveness against commodity IBM PC compatibles. Macs transitioned to Intel x86 processors by 2006 along with new sub-product lines MacBook and Mac Pro. Since 2020, Macs have transitioned to Apple silicon chips based on ARM64.
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A home theater PC (HTPC) or media center computer is a convergent device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a media center application that focuses on video, photo, audio playback, and sometimes video recording functionality. Since the mid-2000s, other types of consumer electronics, including game consoles and dedicated media devices, have crossed over to manage video and music content. HTPCs are defined by their dedicated use for large screens like televisions or projectors, and their combination with media center applications, though said applications are also usually run on regular computers and digital media players.

HTPCs and other convergent devices integrate components of a home cinema into a unit co-located with a home entertainment system. An HTPC system typically has a media center application with remote control and the software interface normally has a 10-foot (3 m) user interface design so that it can be comfortably viewed at typical television viewing distances. An HTPC can be purchased pre-configured with the required hardware and software needed to add video programming or music to the PC, or they can also be pieced together to build a system out of discrete components as part of a software-based HTPC.

The Mac Studio is a small-form-factor workstation computer developed and marketed by Apple. It is one of four desktop computers in the Mac lineup, sitting above the consumer-range Mac Mini and iMac, and positioned below the Mac Pro. It is configurable with either the M4 Max or M3 Ultra system on a chip.

Mac Pro is a series of workstations and servers for professionals made by Apple since 2006. The Mac Pro, by some performance benchmarks, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is one of four desktop computers in the current Mac lineup, sitting above the Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Studio.

Introduced in August 2006, the Mac Pro was an Intel-based replacement for the Power Mac line and had two dual-core Xeon Woodcrest processors and a rectangular tower case carried over from the Power Mac G5. It was updated on April 4, 2007, by a dual quad-core Xeon Clovertown model, then on January 8, 2008, by a dual quad-core Xeon Harpertown model. Revisions in 2010 and 2012 revisions had Nehalem-EP/Westmere-EP architecture Intel Xeon processors.