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The Macintosh was born on January 24, 1984 – a quarter century ago. What does Apple have planned to commemorate the birthday?

Nothing, it would seem, as the day arrives and passes without comment from Apple. It's not like the company hasn't celebrated an anniversary before: the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh marked 20 years of Apple (if not the Mac itself). While housing some disappointments within its gorgeous bronze body, the machine was nonethless amazing, distinctive, and a testimony to Apple's groundbreaking industrial design. (You're just a click away from the web's most extensive overview of the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, so enjoy!)

Why no similar project to mark the Mac's 25th? I can't speak a word on behalf of Apple or the Be-turtlenecked One. I can only offer this conjecture from the peanut gallery:

Apple no longer needs to step beyond its everyday products and build one-off, "what if" concepts. At the Apple of 2009, every shipping product is an idealized showpiece – like those sleek, impossible concept cars at the auto shows, only real.

The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh said "here's what we could build if we weren't churning out the faceless bland Performas that the market demands". The modern Mac says "this is the most marvelous thing that we or anyone can build and ship, period – and we're betting that the market will love it". It's a bet that the company is winning. 

Apple can't surprise us with hidden genius on the occasion of this anniversary, because Steve Jobs made it the company's mission to inject that genius into every shipping product. How can the company go "up" from the brilliant iMac, iPhone, iPod, and MacBooks? Nothing held back means there's nothing saved for "special" products.

Apple's special anniversary treat for us is the same brilliant ideas and execution it's always been offering, and constantly improving upon, especially for the last decade. Here on its big birthday, the just-as-it-is Mac is far more exciting than any one-shot concept model could be. And that's something for both Apple and its customers to celebrate.