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Goodbye to the classic Apple iMac
bbcnews.com ^ | march-31-2003 | By Mark Ward BBC News online technology correspondent

Posted on 03/31/2003 8:06:47 PM PST by green team 1999

Goodbye to the classic Apple iMac

By Mark Ward
BBC News online technology correspondent

The computer that came in different hues and revolutionised the home computing market - not to mention Apple's fortune - is finally being phased out.


Consider the desktop computer. For years these instruments of social change could not have looked less revolutionary if their designers had tried.

Instead of anonymous beige boxes, users yearned for something less like an oversized box and more like an implement fit for the 21st Century.

Something like the Apple iMac, for instance. When the company first unveiled its new, blue model in 1998, the iMac was an instant hit.

It was a crowd-puller that instantly looked more "computery" than almost anything that had been built since the first desktop computers appeared in 1981.

"It became iconic very quickly," says Neil Smith, head of the design for industry course at Northumbria University (formerly Newcastle Polytechnic, where iMac creator Jonathan Ive was a student).

But this futuristic-looking trendsetter is about to disappear. Apple has decided to stop selling the iMac to the public, though it is still likely to be available to schools.

In some ways, this is a strange decision for Apple to take, largely because the iMac is widely credited with saving the company from a long and miserable demise.

The iMac pumped much needed cash, cachet and credibility back into Apple at a time when it sorely needed it.


Outside the box

Apple had always been known for its smart technology and its idiosyncratic way of doing business.

One of Apple's mottos has long been "Think Different", says Mr Smith, but prior to the launch of the iMac it was getting harder and harder for non-Mac owners to work out just where this difference crept in.

With the release of the iMac it suddenly became very obvious.

Mr Smith says Apple worked very hard on every aspect of the iMac - its looks, its hardware and software - to make it easy to use.

"They found a way to humanise the PC and to take it out of the grey anonymous box. It was a sympathetic bit of form making, and it became a symbol of a very different approach."

The classic iMac has since been superseded by the eMac and the flat screen, angle poise iMac.

For Clive Grinyer, former head of the Design Council and co-founder of the Tangerine design consultancy with Jonathan Ive, the debut of the iMac was a hugely liberating moment.

"It had an amazing impact in design circles," he says. "It did what everyone had been talking about for a long time."


The new look of Apple's computers

Good looks

What it did was make explicit how Apple was thinking differently. The radical styling and ease of use made concrete the company's claim to be not just another box-shifter.

While many companies try to manipulate the public's perception through advertising and marketing, rather than through the appearance of what they make, Apple's iMac was a notable exception to this trend. It tried, and to a large extent succeeded, in embodying the company's philosophy.

"The classic iMac was so simple and so self-contained," says Mr Grinyer. "It does it all and says it all and completely conveys the message about what the product is in the product's shape. It did what a computer always should have done."

For Mr Grinyer, only a design-led company such as Apple could have taken the risk and produced the original iMac.

"That's the stuff that you cannot copy, it is in the company's heart."

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Send us your comments:

The iMac, and its availability in a range of "flavours", directly influenced most desktop products. Never before would you consider buying a strawberry stapler or a blueberry bin. Isn't it strange that the new Apple products have developed as simplified versions of the original iMac and iBook, as if the range has matured into "proper computers". But won't all the new pure white Macs age and eventually fade to resemble the beige counterparts they originally rebelled against? Toby Bradbury, UK

The design of the iMac went beyond just its aesthetics. It was the first desktop and home computer I'm aware of to be built without a floppy disk drive. This leap of faith into a world where the internet is your computer's connction to the outside world may prove to be as significant a step forward as its outward appearance. Richard Butler, UK

An under-powered and over-priced pretty box - mine crashed more than any PC I have ever had, I gave it away in the end. Dom, UK

Whenever anyone asks what kind of computer I have, not only do I tell them it's an iMac, I also proudly tell them it's 'Indigo'. Maybe it's just a colour to most people, but to my wife it was the perfect co-ordinated accessory for our spare room. Which is the only reason I was allowed to buy one. Unless Apple starts doing the new iMac in funky colours, I fear I will never have a new computer ever again. RIP iMac, you will be sorely missed. Chris Townsend, Herts, UK

for information and discusion only,not for profit etc,etc.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: appleimac; macuserlist; technology
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good bye apple,al gore will sink the company.
1 posted on 03/31/2003 8:06:47 PM PST by green team 1999
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To: green team 1999
this is NOT current events. The the "new" imac in the picture has been out well over a year?

Stupid hit piece.
2 posted on 03/31/2003 8:11:28 PM PST by jbstrick (Behold the Power of CHEESE!)
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To: green team 1999
apple will always be a nich machine. You could even call it a boutique computer. Algore has nothing to do with apple's limitations. In everyday SMALL business, we use IBM/Windows machines. Small business does not want work arounds, software is made to run on windows. If I grow or my business has a need, that need WILL be filled with a windows software package; I might be lucky to find it in apple. I know its a old complaint but its still valid.
3 posted on 03/31/2003 8:14:35 PM PST by longtermmemmory
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To: green team 1999
Funny ... I always thought of the i-mac as a joke. A joke almost as funny as Apple itself. Only a fool cares what a good tool looks like. I have a flat screen and a box under the desk where I can't see it. I have wireless everything. Now that's cool. Stupid liberals. (oh yeah ... my monitor is also a tv with picture in picture. Too cool.)
4 posted on 03/31/2003 8:16:48 PM PST by mercy
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To: green team 1999
Yahoo reported today that Agore got 30,000 stock options for joining the board. My Granddaughter is still using the Bondi Blue (model A) she got in 1998.
5 posted on 03/31/2003 8:18:28 PM PST by tubebender (?)
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To: mercy
Notice that in the Movie Zoolander the IMac was unfathonable! Apple II and IIIs were workhorses. Then Lisa showed promise but was unable to deliver as were the first MACS! When a company, Apple, goes from 80+ percent market share to where they are today, boutique is a generous appleation!
6 posted on 03/31/2003 8:21:04 PM PST by Young Werther
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To: jbstrick
It's current news. Apple continued selling the older G3-based iMac even after the G4-based flatscreen Mac was introduced - until a week or two ago.

The G3 iMac was a good, economical model for schools, but the eMac is better.

7 posted on 03/31/2003 8:22:55 PM PST by HAL9000
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To: green team 1999
The iMac is now a "classic"? Sheesh, that really dates me!

I still think of that little box with the single floppy drive and the greyscale screen as the "classic" Mac.

Good grief, the iMac just came out LAST YEAR!

Er, didn't it?
8 posted on 03/31/2003 8:27:16 PM PST by Illbay (Don't believe every tagline you read - including this one)
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Apple will save itself by moving it's OS to x86. Which is well within their means considering their new core is based on an OS that already runs on such. Apple is gonna kill itself just like sun will. They depend too much on Hardware.

Did anyone else hear about Sun going to Linux and eventually sunsetting their SVR4 offering? Ludicrous IMO. Sun's hardware, just like Apple's, can't stand up to the rest of the industry.

9 posted on 03/31/2003 8:33:27 PM PST by Michael Barnes
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To: jbstrick
this is NOT current events. The the "new" imac in the picture has been out well over a year?

I'm writing this on one of the "new new" iMacs, vintage last month: 1G processor, 1G RAM. While it runs as the Unix server on my office LAN, I can use its great graphic interface.

10 posted on 03/31/2003 8:33:43 PM PST by BlazingArizona
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To: jbstrick
Wow! What streangth of emotions! Are you a member of the Apple Cult?
11 posted on 03/31/2003 8:36:28 PM PST by TopQuark
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To: green team 1999
I'm sitting here in the familiar glow of my iMac. I love this little machine and all those that preceded it. We got our first mac when it was one of the first Macintoshes off the assembly line.

I'm just sick that Steve jobs would politicize Apple by inserting a nincompoop like Al Gore on the Board of Directors. Now I can't buy any more Macs. Alas!

12 posted on 03/31/2003 8:38:23 PM PST by passionfruit
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To: TopQuark
Replacing the i-Mac with the i-Gore?
13 posted on 03/31/2003 8:38:44 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Replacing the i-Mac with the i-Gore?
well gore sure looks like a robot.
14 posted on 03/31/2003 8:55:54 PM PST by green team 1999
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To: green team 1999
No need for any "flavor" of iMac here - a power user. I use the G4 tower - Dual 1Ghz G4 Processors, Superdrive (DVD-R + CDRW, Yamaha CDRW, 1GB ram, ATI Radeon 9000Pro):

I do use a Dell UltraSharp 1800FP LCD monitor, though -if anyone cares...hehehe.

15 posted on 03/31/2003 9:10:02 PM PST by TheBattman
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To: BlazingArizona
BLASPHEMY! UNIX SERVER and GRAPHIC INTERFACE should NEVER be in the same sentance. Now, please go flog yourself 100 times while repeating I will never stray from the CLI.

;-)

16 posted on 03/31/2003 9:11:04 PM PST by Michael Barnes
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To: TopQuark
I have three PC's and one BSD box.
17 posted on 03/31/2003 9:14:04 PM PST by jbstrick (Behold the Power of CHEESE!)
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To: TheBattman
Bah....

heheheh..I know..who has millions lying around?

18 posted on 03/31/2003 9:14:45 PM PST by Michael Barnes
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To: green team 1999
dittos. I hate to say I have an apple, never again.
19 posted on 03/31/2003 9:15:15 PM PST by snooker
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To: green team 1999
It reminds me of those old "streamlined" cars back in the 1930s.
20 posted on 03/31/2003 9:16:26 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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