The production of The Macintosh Classic was boosted by the success of the Macintosh Plus and Macintosh SE.

The Classic's system requirements were very similar to the predecessor models, with the same 9-inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT monitor,
512 × 342 pixels resolution, and the same 4MB memory limit of the older Macintosh computers.

Apple's decision not to update the Classic with newer technology - such as a 68010 CPU, larger RAM capacity or a color display
- ensured compatibility with the then reliable software and also allowed Apple to keep the price low, which they wanted for this model.

Nonetheless, the Classic did bring some improvements over the older Macintosh Plus, Apple's previous base model.
For example, it was up to 25% faster and included an Apple SuperDrive 3.5-inch (9 cm) floppy drive as standard.