IMac

The iMac is a line of all-in-one Apple Macintosh computers produced by Apple Computer, aimed at the consumer and education market.

History

Apple announced the iMac on May 7, 1998 and started shipping machines 3 months later. It was a landmark event for it’s time and had a massive impact on both the company and the computer industry as a whole.

Apple was already unique in producing all-in-one desktop computers (where the CPU and the monitor are contained within one object) at the time. Aesthetically however, the iMac was dramatically different from any other mainstream computer ever released before it. It was made of translucent plastic coloured “Bondi Blue”. The machine was egg-shaped around a 15" CRT. There was a handle, and the computer interfaces were hidden behind a door that opened on the right-hand-side of the machine. 2 headphone jacks in the front complemented the built-in stereo speakers. Jonathan Ive, currently VP of Industrial Design at Apple, is credited with the design.

Legacy Macintosh peripheral connections such as ADB, SCSI, Geoport serial ports were eliminated in favour of USB ports. The floppy drive was also discarded. Even though these were already aging technologies, Apple’s move was considered ahead of its time and heatedly debated. For example there was no analogous way to exchange small files with existing machines, possibly requiring owners to buy a USB floppy drive. Furthermore backups of files were slow over the USB connection. Purists felt that files could be transferred by network file sharing or via email.

The iMac keyboard and mouse were also redesigned with translucent plastics and a Bondi Blue trim. The keyboard was smaller than Apple’s existing keyboards, with white letters on black keys; both features attracted debate. The major faux pas was the included round mouse. This round mouse was instantly derided as being unnecessarily difficult to use and particularly reprehensible from Apple who was a pioneer of the graphical user interface. Apple stuck with the round mouse, although adding a divet in later versions. Eventually, a brand new optical mouse replaced the round mouse across all of Apple’s hardware offerings.

Technical

The original iMac had a PowerPC 233 MHz G3 chip, which also ran in Apple’s top of the line Power Macintosh line at the time.

Parts such as the front-mounted IrDA port, and the CD-ROM drive (which featured the optical mechanism in the tray) were borrowed from the Apple notebooks.

Although the iMac did not officially have an expansion slot, the first versions had a slot dubbed the “mezzanine slot”. 3rd party developers managed to create video and SCSI cards for this slot, however Apple soon removed the mezzanine slot from later iMacs.

The iMac was fully compatible with the Mac OS just like any other Macintosh.

Impacts

Popular culture

Apple famously declared that “the back of our computer looks better than the front of theirs”. The distinctive aesthetics was easily “spotted” in public. iMacs were recognisable on television shows and print, sometimes via Apple product placement. All this increasing Apple’s brand awareness, and embedding the iMac into popular culture.

Internet

Apple later adopted the “i” prefix across it’s consumer hardware and software line.

USB

Before the iMac was released, Windows-based machines shipped with both USB and legacy connections, providing little incentive for 3rd party hardware manufacturers to create USB peripherals. Therefore, the iMac is credited with the proliferation of USB devices, also allowing current Macintosh users to have a large selection of cheap devices such as hubs, scanners, storage devices mice, and cables.

Oddly, although USB was also available on the PC, many of these USB peripherals were made of translucent coloured plastic, a trend that still continues.

After the iMac, Apple continued to remove legacy peripheral connections and floppy drives from the rest of its product line; and other computer makers have started to follow suit.

Apple

Furthermore Apple’s focus on design allowed each of its following products to create a unique distinctive identity. Later releases of the Power Macintosh, iPod, PowerBooks and the Mac OS would have the same striking “Apple-look”. Apple derided the beige colours pervading the PC industry. They would later use brushed aluminium and plain white plastics.

Legal action

In 1999 Apple obtained the domain name appleimac.com from cybersquatters after legal intervention.

Updates

A later hardware update created a sleeker design. This second generation iMac also featured a slot-loading optical drive, FireWire, silent fanless operation, and the option of AirPort wireless networking. These line of iMacs represented Apple’s entry into digital video making, with capabilities far ahead of any consumer desktop. Apple continued to sell this line of iMacs until March 2003, mainly to customers who wanted OS 9 capability.

USB, FireWire, modem, ethernet, wireless networking soon became standard across Apple’s entire product line. FireWire in particular was a high speed interface, which corrected the deficiencies of the first iMacs.

As Apple continued to release new versions of its computers, the term ‘iMac’ continued to be used to refer to machines in its consumer desktop line.

G4, G5 iMacs and the eMac

By 2002, public sentiment was that the CRT iMac had grown long in the tooth—in particular the G3 processor and 15" monitor were fast becoming dated. Speculation raged over how Apple would fit a G4 and larger monitors into an all-in-one design. In January 2002, a flat panel iMac was launched with a completely new design. A 15" LCD was mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemi-spherical dome containing a full-size tray-loading optical drive and the G4 CPU. The CRT model was kept in production, primarily for the educational market.

The iMac G4 was incrementally upgraded. They were made available with 17" and then 20" widescreen LCDs over the following 2 years.

Apple had all but eliminated the CRT machines from it's product line. However the LCD iMacs were never able to hit the low price point held by the previous G3 iMacs, largely because of the cost of the LCD screen. As low cost machines were particular important for the education market, the eMac was released in April 2002.

The eMac is a G4-powered Macintosh that resemble the original iMac G3—with the egg shape encasing a 17" CRT in an all-in-one design. It was initially sold only to the educational market ("e" stands for "education"), but Apple started selling it to the general public a month later. The eMac is essentially the 17" iMac that users had been requesting for years.

The iMac design was overhauled yet again in August 2004. By then the G5 chip had been released, and was being used in the Power Macintosh line. Famously the Power Macintosh G5 needed multiple fans in a large casing as the G5 is a particular hot chip. Apple's new design managed to incorporate the G5 into an all-in-one, while still maintaining a distinctive form factor. These used the same 17" and 20" widescreen LCDs with all of the CPU and optical drive was mounted directly behind the LCD panel, giving the appearance of a thickened desktop LCD monitor.

Models

iMac G3 ("Tray-loading iMac")