1996


 * January 9: The AppleVision 1710 Display is released.
 * January 15: The Universal Serial Bus (USB) 1.0 specification is released.
 * January 27: The PowerBook Duo 280c is discontinued.
 * January 31: Chairman Mike Markkula calls an emergency meeting of the Apple Board of Directors, in which Michael Spindler is replaced as CEO by Gil Amelio.
 * February 1: The Macintosh Performa 580CD and 5200CD are discontinued.
 * February 2: Gil Amelio resigns from National Semiconductor to become CEO of Apple Computer.
 * February 14: The Macintosh Performa 6310CD is released in Asia and Europe.
 * March 11: Mac OS 7.5.3 is released.
 * March 14: The Newton MessagePad 130 is announced. The Color StyleWriter 1500 and 2500 are released.
 * March 25: The MessagePad 130 is released.
 * March 28: The Pippin Atmark game console, based on Apple Computer's Pippin platform, is released in Japan.
 * March 29: Apple Computer announces its Game Sprockets API for game development.
 * March 31: Apple Computer shuts down its eWorld service at 12:01 am.
 * April 1: The Macintosh Performa 475, 550, 575, Power Macintosh 5300 LC, and Macintosh Performa 6116CD are discontinued.
 * May 13-16: The 1996 Worldwide Developers Conference is held in San Jose, California, where OpenDoc is discussed. Cyberdog 1.0 is released as OpenDoc's "killer app".
 * October 28: The eMate 300 and MessagePad 2000 are announced.
 * November: Apple Computer considers purchasing Be, Inc.; Steve Jobs calls Apple CTO Ellen Hancock to advise against the purchase.
 * December 20: Apple Computer announces that it would acquire NeXT, bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple as a consultant.