Apple miniaturized the internal components, making the new iMac fan-less and even more translucent. Refined styling including a shorter case, improved speakers, and slot-loading optical drive smoothed out the computer’s rough edges. Less than a year later, the iMac saw another major design change. Playlist: Apple’s iMac color commercials.
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The company’s teams spent over 6 months determining how to produce the exact colors they wanted. According to Jobs, the plastics simply didn’t exist when Apple began their research.
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Even Apple’s pro products would later get a splash of color, like the iMac-inspired line of Studio Displays that debuted in 1999.Įngineering colorful, translucent Macs turned out to be no small task. Colors made the computer feel more human and let users express themselves. In early 1999, Steve Jobs announced a line of five new iMacs spanning a range of colors: blueberry, grape, tangerine, lime, and strawberry.
“ Bondi blue” was the color chosen for the first iMac, allegedly named after the waters of Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The iMac’s vibrant hues also embodied the spirit of 1960s Olivetti typewriters, which were notable for their use of color in a market dominated by dull, corporate designs. Retro-futurism played a quietly important role in the computer’s appeal to customers, which was reminiscent of both the aesthetic used in the animated cartoon series and even vintage computer terminals. Then-VP of Industrial Design Jony Ive asked “What computer would The Jetsons have had?” when designing the original iMac. While the iMac wasn’t the first Apple product to use translucent plastic, it was decidedly more “Un-PC,” without a spot of beige to be found. To design the iMac, Apple pushed its latent industrial design team, a group that had been underserved by previous company leaders. And it was the first to show that computers could be cool. It was Apple’s first computer to be built for the internet era (that’s where the i comes from.) It was the first to drop all legacy I/O in favor of the more modern USB standard.
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The original iMac was a product full of firsts. Apple had the opportunity to make a splash, and they embraced it. Beige towers still dominated the landscape, and even Apple’s own designs looked largely the same as they had for the past decade. Next in line was a consumer-grade desktop computer, a segment of the market that had grown stale and uninspired. In early 1998, a reinvigorated Apple was in the midst of filling out its new, four-quadrant product matrix. On this anniversary week, we’ll take a look at the design evolution of the iMac. Explorations of color, form, material, and miniaturization have marked significant breakthroughs throughout the years. Perhaps none are more significant than the iMac’s design story.
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The iMac’s timeline tells many stories – some of reinvention and business strategy, others of software and hardware. Its ticket to entry is two decades of valuable lessons and ideas that tell the recent history of the personal computer industry and reveal Apple’s priorities and values. This Sunday, Apple’s iMac line joins the 20-year club. Few technology products boast such a feat in an industry where changing customer preference and exponential technical advancement can quickly obsolete even the most well-considered plans. A 20th anniversary is a milestone worthy of celebration in its own right, but even more so when describing a computer.
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