Apple iMac: Way back then... and now

With the release of the updated 21.5 and 27 inch iMac, Apple has created a little throwback page, putting the original iMac G3, side-by-side with the latest, ultra-thin iMac model.

The page doesn’t have much in terms of information to consumers, except to illustrate how far the iMac has gone, in almost 18 years, and the contribution it made to the design of desktop PCs in the late 90s.

Where it all began

The design of the Apple iMac G3 was credited to Jonathan Ive, who was hired by Steve Jobs, a year after Jobs returned to Apple, and drastically reduced the company’s lineup, to focus almost exclusively on desktop All-In-One’s, starting with the consumer-focused Power Macintosh, which was then re-branded with the G3 denomination, to differentiate between consumer-focused systems, and high-end workstations, featuring a tower configuration, which targeted professionals.

The new “breed” of 1998 iMac G3’s brought a series of changes in the landscape of home and professional PCs. Some of those changes were rather controversial, such as the elimination of the 3.5 inch floppy disk drive, in favor of a tray-loading CD-ROM drive. Even in the wake of controversy, Apple did not bend on the floppy (did we just say that...?), until the industry proved Apple was right to move past dying formats, especially when building truly high-end products.

Not surprisingly, and as a result of Apple deciding against the inclusion of the obsolete drive, manufacturers took it upon themselves to make their own external 3.5 inch drive accessories, designed to match the G3’s iconic design.

A 56.6Kbps integrated modem was also part of the All-In-One setup, which, in a very early iteration, featured speeds up to 33.6Kbps, later bumped to the new standard, by consumers demand.

The original iMac was powered by the fastest PowerPC G3 processor of its time, whose lineage ran back to earlier Power Macintosh aimed at professional users.

While from a consumer’s point of view, the most iconic feature of the G3 was, undisputedly its unusual egg-like shaped, colorful and translucent enclosure for its 14 inch CRT display, from a “techie” standpoint, the shape of the logic board was certainly a fascinating choice, which took a considerable effort to design and implement.

With the G3’s rounded logic board, Apple created a disruption on how PCs were manufactured, by giving inspiration to other PC makers, to gamble on unusually shaped, and unusually configured All-In-One desktop computers, featuring customized mainboards, and often odd combinations of ports and options.

With that said, Apple’s design of the G3 became popular enough to become a pop-culture icon, one of the very few true custom hardware designs that gained overwhelming mass adoption. A trend that motivated Apple to continue with two more iterations of the iMac, under the PowerMac denomination, which included the PowerMac G4 and PowerMac G5, both precursors of the Mac Pro.

The iMac came a long way

There is room to argue that if it weren’t for the G3, there would be no Mac Pro today. Although we are sure, some other high-end iteration would be existing, within an alternative timeline, the design of the G3 had a major influence in how future Macs would look and feel. For instance, the minimalist, rounded design of the accessories, like the hockey-puck shape of the original iMac mouse.

Early on, Apple realized, mostly through the work of Joni Ive, that a rounded design made it for a more compact, slim and slick visual effect of any product, which can be easily witnessed by comparing a regular 90’s beige 14 inch CRT monitor, side-by-side the G3’s blending curves and complete lack of sharp edges.

That early take on Apple’s high-end desktop design set the course for today’s trends, now capable of ultra-thin, wireless configurations, a take that inspired each future iteration of Mac’s accessories, including the Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard.

Ive’s influence in the design of many Apple products lead to the innovative way of designing the iMac, in such a way as to provide the illusion of flatness, by constructing a curved back, to conceal increasingly smaller and more powerful internals, like the flash storage, higher memory options, energy efficient processing, and integrated graphics.

The latest iteration of the iMac, released only a few days ago, comes from a continuous evolution towards a thinner design that ultimately fuses together the Retina display, with the glass cover, which reduces reflectivity and glare, while featuring brighter colors better contrast and a sharper image than in previous models. The two new upgrades feature high-end processing with the sixth gen Intel Skylake CPU powering the 27 inch configuration, and finally, a Retina display upgrade for the 21 inch version of the new iMac.