Shred makes some interesting points about quality. It seems as though most Spindler and Amelio era Macs were made of inferior materials or were deliberately crippled in design. This wasn't anything new--the LC, Classic II, and IIvx were all released earlier--but the worst came from 1993-1997. Remember how the 630s had the older SCSI controller installed? How about the PB150 without an ADB port? I think we all know the troubles with the 5200s/6200s.

Many of these moves were designed to save money on the consumer end, but don't forget about Apple wanting to cut corners as well. Quality did suffer and a lot of the serious Mac folks went ahead and bought clones instead. Some were better than anything Apple put out in the mid-90s. In fact, Apple didn't get themselves back on the map with some serious machines until the G3s--and even the first generation used the uninspiring designs of the older Power Macs/Quadras.