Could 6, 1998: Steve Jobs unveils the iMac G3, a brightly coloured, translucent pc that may assist save Apple.
Ten months after Jobs’ new administration staff takes over, the iMac loudly publicizes that the times of Apple quietly fading into the background are over.
Authentic iMac launch: A pc from an excellent planet
It’s tough to overstate simply how completely different the iMac appeared when in comparison with different computer systems on the time. Subsequent to the grey or beige bins constructed by rivals, it actually stood out.
“It appears to be like prefer it’s from one other planet,” Jobs mentioned on the time. “ planet. A planet with higher designers.”
The designer chargeable for the iMac G3 was Jony Ive, then simply 31 years previous. Ive had been at Apple for a number of years earlier than Jobs’ return, however he was on the verge of quitting. As a substitute, he discovered a lot in frequent with Jobs that his deliberate resignation became the pair creating a breakthrough new machine.
The iMac G3 was very a lot an replace of the philosophy that drove the unique Macintosh in 1984. On the time, Apple’s most inexpensive pc price $2,000, nearly twice what a typical Home windows PC ran. Jobs initially wished one thing stripped-down and inexpensive, by means of which customers might entry the web.
Nonetheless, simply as occurred with the unique Mac, the venture grew to become extra formidable and morphed into an announcement pc. With its translucent sea-blue design (named Bondi Blue after the water at an Australian seaside), the iMac G3 appeared accessible and straightforward to make use of.
Not everybody favored it, although. Some folks thought it appeared too toylike, particularly with its horrible “hockey puck” mouse. However everybody acknowledged its distinctiveness.
Photograph: Apple
iMac G3 specs: A smash hit for Apple
When it comes to specs, the iMac G3 boasted a 233 MHz PowerPC 750 (G3) processor, 32MB of RAM, a 4GB EIDE arduous drive, and a selection of both ATI Rage IIc graphics with 2MB of VRAM or ATI Rage Professional Turbo graphics with 6MB of VRAM.
Two different items of iMac G3 {hardware} additionally advantage a point out.
The machine got here with a built-in phone modem at a time when most computer systems included these solely as non-compulsory extras.
It additionally, notably, didn’t include a floppy disk drive at a time when this was customary. Like Apple’s elimination of the three.5mm headphone jack years later, this brought about an uproar — till everybody realized Cupertino made the appropriate name.
The iMac went on sale in August 1998 a couple of months after Jobs’ unveiling. By this time, the all-in-one pc racked up 150,000 preorders. The excessive degree of curiosity drove Apple’s inventory value to greater than $40. This marked its highest level in three years.
The iMac G3 kicked off a brand new Apple period
The iMac’s colourful design later made its method to the iBook laptop computer, which additionally proved immensely widespread. As well as, Apple launched a sequence of iMac G3 fashions in various colours, together with oddball patterns like Flower Energy and Blue Dalmatian.
Apple moved away from the ultra-colorful look a few years later, starting with the distinctive white iPod. For years, the look most related to the fashionable iMac was a single skinny slab of aluminum.
In 2021, Apple launched the primary iMac powered by the corporate’s speedy (and proprietary) M1 chip. Other than an enormous efficiency increase from the Apple silicon, the primary M1 iMacs additionally ushered in a top-to-bottom redesign. And so they got here in seven completely different colours — a throwback to when the Bondi Blue iMac G3 was the best pc round.
Did you personal the iMac G3? What did you consider it once you first noticed it? Tell us within the feedback under.
