Apple Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Steve Jobs Unveiling the iMac

[Abazigal]

This article comes to mind.

https://stratechery.com/2018/apples-middle-age/

Keep in mind, the swashbuckling Apple — the one led by Steve Jobs, not Tim Cook — that looms so large in everyone’s imaginations, couldn’t have had more different circumstance. Jobs was a product and execution genius, but in truth we have no idea how he would deal with the strategy questions facing Cook. Making iTunes for Windows was as correct strategically as is making HomePod exclusive to iOS devices; that the former fits ones’ mental model of how a company “should” operate is a matter of circumstance, not principle.

The fact of the matter is that Apple under Cook is as strategically sound a company as there is; it makes sense to settle down.

People really need to stop saying “Steve Jobs would never have done this”. The man did what he felt was best for Apple then given the unique business conditions, just as Tim Cook is doing what makes the most sense for Apple now given the current business climate it is facing.

 

[lec0rsaire]

I never had one since I was a Windows guy back then. I had a Thinkpad around that time (one of the best practical designs ever btw) but this machine was everywhere. I never thought the ‘90s powermacs were ugly. That was just what I thought computers should look like.

The iMac really started Apple down the path to becoming the leader in design. While Steve gave the final go ahead and probably turned down many designs, we can’t overlook how brilliant Jony is. He has consistently produced breathtaking designs. We kind of take it for granted today. We expect useful and pretty products. Before this it was all about performance and nobody really cared much about aesthetics.

Even Apple’s packaging gave you a great impression right from the start. While packaging is very minimalist today for environmental reasons, the packaging of the early iPods, MacBooks, iMacs and iPhones just felt like you were buying a high quality product while PC manufacturers kept shipping everything in ugly brown or white cardboard boxes for the most part. The iMac even came with a cleaning cloth! You usually get this with luxury watches and designer sunglasses but not with tech devices. Today, if a company wants people to think of their products as high end, presentation is taken very seriously.

 

[Pakaku]

In 2002, the iMac received its first significant redesign, with a thin flat-panel display affixed to a white semicircular base with a cantilevered metal arm.

Probably still my favourite design of the series

 

[skottichan]

Probably still my favourite design of the series

Same. I'm not going to lie, I'd love an iMac Retro; a 27" iMac using a similar design to the G4 iMac.

 

[hans1972]

Not happy with an Apple computer or phone? Simple. Vote with your wallet and purchase a better one that you like from another company. Much easier to whine, for some, than to actually take action and purchase that better product. That's certainly a real head-shaker.

And still even if they move to Windows and Android, some of them stille come here to complain.

I seriously hope that Apple will abandon the Mac Mini, make the new Mac Pro insanely expensive and make it complete impossible to use NVIDIA cards to get CUDA-support with Macs just to piss them off.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Clearly he is not here anymore, so nor does it make your question relevant either. Perhaps out of Respect for Jobs, You don’t have to interject his name of What He Would Think When Apple’s name is derived of Apples product line.

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Now I'm starting to feel old.

I felt old in 2004.
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It was also Jony Ive's first work for Apple if I recall correctly.

It must have been, look how much thinner it is now.

 

[JediZenMaster]

And maybe pondering this, Apple will regain the sense of fun that iMac inspired. Now, aluminum is the new beige.

That would be awesome except when they try to be “fun” with commercials people get upset and accuse them of pandering to a specific demographic or ignoring the “prosumer” which apparently is supposed to be the only customers Apple should care about per some comments made on MR.

 

[hans1972]

Apple users are not permitted to criticizes Apple?

Some of the members here should be censored.

Every time there is an article about Apple Watch bands, several people complain about the Mac Mini. And they keep doing it for years.

It is like they feel betrayed by Apple. And a lot of them have abandonment issues.

Why not just get over it and move on?

 

[brinary001]

Seems like you always...ALWAYS have something negative to say, this should be a happy thread.

It's true. There are very few users I recognize on this site, but this is one of them. Every time I see a comment from Naraxus I can always count on it being negative and cynical. Like get outside once and a while see the world for more than just Apple's shortcomings

 

[ipponrg]

Some of the members here should be censored.

Every time there is an article about Apple Watch bands, several people complain about the Mac Mini. And they keep doing it for years.

It is like they feel betrayed by Apple. And a lot of them have abandonment issues.

Why not just get over it and move on?

Why not just ignore them or censor yourself from those threads? If you ignore them, you won't see their post.

 

[frankly]

Extreme nitpick time



I’m pretty sure (and Mactracker seems to confirm) that FireWire debuted in the blue and white Power Mac G3 a few months before it appeared in any iMacs. The original iMac models definitely didn’t have it. The quote doesn’t exactly claim that the iMac was the first Apple product with FireWire, but it could easily be construed that way!

I took this the same way. The iMac did not get Firewire until the third iteration, the iMac DV in October of 1999, a full 18 months after the introduction of the original iMac.

 

[brinary001]

while the removal of the floppy drive and legacy ports was controversial, the computer ultimately pushed the industry forward.

And how many people have bitched about ditching the headphone jack? USB? Optical drives? The list goes on. All in the post-Jobs era, mind you.

 

[DakotaGuy]

3 different form factors in less than 10 years. Zero form factor changes in the last decade. Tim Cook sucked all the magic out of Apple.

The difference is they needed the Mac back then, but now it's just a hobby product at best. Tim Cook is counting the billions they are making off the iPhone so why spend money on changing the design of the iMac? They could discontinue it tomorrow and it wouldn't even register on the balance sheet. I do believe if Steve were still alive and running Apple right now you'd see a lot more love given to the Mac because it was "his baby" from the start. Usually only emotional ties can save certain products at large corporations. Ford was looking at discontinuing the Lincoln brand until the Ford family stepped in and say no way because it was Henry's baby that he purchased in 1922 from Henry Leland. Now you can argue if this was a good business decision or not, but I'd say looking at the popular new Lincoln Navigator they are finally finding their place. Tim Cook knows how to make money, but he has no attachment to any products other then the iPhone.

 

[hans1972]

Why not just ignore them or censor yourself from those threads? If you ignore them, you won't see their post.

They are in every thread on articles on the front page. Please show me an article about Apple Watch bands where no one complains about the Mac Mini? There are too many to censor and new ones keep popping up.

Also, I consider my behaviour much better since I am an Apple fan at a site which I consider to be an Apple fan site, among other things.

So my wish is for them to disappear, which is as likely as Apple changing to become what they like.
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I do believe if Steve were still alive and running Apple right now you'd see a lot more love given to the Mac because it was "his baby" from the start.

I thought Lisa was his baby?

Steve Jobs loved the iPad and I believe that he would have sacrificed everything Mac to secure the success of the iPad. Remember that it was Steve Jobs who talked about the post-PC world:

"I'm trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy... because the PC has taken us a long way. They were amazing. But it changes. Vested interests are going to change. And, I think we've embarked on that change. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years? ... We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it's uncomfortable."

 

[freiheit]

We sold some of these at Best Buy when I worked there in late '98. They definitely looked like nothing which had come before and started a trend, across many different product categories, of colorful translucent plastic shells.

Now... has anyone got an actual good quality (better than the low-res copy on YouTube) of the original in-store demo video of the Simplicity Shootout? The one where "Brodie helped"?

 

[rsdotscot]

The end of the article mentions that in 2014 it got 4K and 5K displays. This isn't quite correct. The 5K display on the 27" iMac came in late 2014, but the 21.5" 4K display came in late 2015.

 

[JosephAW]

We use the 2002 LCD models for our security system and they are great

 

[DakotaGuy]

I thought Lisa was his baby?

Steve Jobs loved the iPad and I believe that he would have sacrificed everything Mac to secure the success of the iPad. Remember that it was Steve Jobs who talked about the post-PC world:

"I'm trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy... because the PC has taken us a long way. They were amazing. But it changes. Vested interests are going to change. And, I think we've embarked on that change. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years? ... We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it's uncomfortable."

Well Lisa came first, but he was deeply involved with the launch of the first Mac in 1984. You do make some good points and I guess we'll never know what an Apple still run by Jobs would look like today, but I do believe it would be very different. Jobs probably would have been more likely to keep things updated if he thought they warranted it or dumped them quicker if they were obsolete. Apple is still selling new computers that were last updated in 2013. That's an embarrassment in the tech world.

 

[Defthand]

It's one thing to criticize, but this site has turned into a perpetual whine fest. The constant negativity is just annoying at this point. Seems that some people here do it just to seem "cool" and rack up the thumbs up.

It’s not uncommon for a franchise’s most loyal fans to be its loudest critics. Every iconic brand has a clic of evangelists who are intimate with that brand’s legacy and DNA. When the brand’s quality suffers, or the brand dumbs down its offerings to woo mainstream users, the diehards are understandably alarmed. Know any BMW or Harley-Davidson enthusiasts? You should visit their fanboy discussions! This one is tame by comparison.

 

[jimbobb24]

My first iMac was the 2004 model. It was great and we continue to use iMacs as our primary computer. They have been awesome for us.

 

[oldhifi]

I bought a Macintosh 128K when it came out , with printer.. loved swapping disks..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_128K

 

[pika2000]

It’s not uncommon for a franchise’s most loyal fans to be its loudest critics. Every iconic brand has a clic of evangelists who are intimate with that brand’s legacy and DNA. When the brand’s quality suffers, or the brand dumbs down its offerings to woo mainstream users, the diehards are understandably alarmed. Know any BMW or Harley-Davidson enthusiasts? You should visit their fanboy discussions! This one is tame by comparison.

The problem is, most critics here don’t even know Apple’s (Jobs) vision/DNA. They are all more like Wozniak, the geek that wanted geeky stuff and tinker around. Jobs is not that. Proof is the Macintosh, tightly sealed, and not designed for user accessible innards. Steve Jobs changed the screws on the iPhone into penta-lobe screws to discourage disassemble. That’s Apple DNA, and it is consistent even today under Cook.

 

[Roller]

I thought Lisa was his baby?

Yes, Lisa was quite literally his baby.

I never owned one of the original iMacs, but I'll always remember them fondly as the computers that made Apple cool again (except for the round mouse, which was uncharacteristically bad.)

 

[nitramluap]

I don’t think Apple will abandon Macs... ever. There will always be a need for them.

iPhones, iPads, Apple TV and Apple Watch are all ‘content consumption’ devices. This is fine for most people whose sole contribution to content creation is some narcissistic nonsense for their ‘social’ media.

For the full ecosystem to work however, you need ‘content creation’ devices. That’s the Mac. The iPad will never take over either, although it can be used for some content creation. I think it has just the right amount of overlap.

Having said all that, Apple’s abandonment of a key part of their ecosystem - the AirPort hardware - was not a good sign.

A lot of this is like spinning plates. The Mac plates are getting a bit wobbly. They need a spin up.

 

[Glideslope]

I still have a Blueberry, and Grey iMac DVD ( in the archives.) That Grey DVD at 400MHz had me drooling.