Yep, and...
- Only one color, Bondi Blue, and not the array pictured.
- It also came with a decent keyboard and the world's worst mouse ever (mis)designed or built.
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Apple Released the First iMac 25 Years Ago Today
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I recall the whole debate whether bondi and blueberry were the same shade of blue or not, some arguing that bondi had a green-ish tint to it while blueberry did not - the sort of pointless discussion you would have on Twitter or Insta nowadays I suppose.
What is it about Apple hating the idea of respecting the past? It's fine to always look forward but there's somethings great to look back on. If you erase your history, you are doomed to repeat it. Not everything new is good. Case in point: The 2013 Mac Pro and the Touch Bar Era Macbook Pros, both horrible designs they had to revert.
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I still have one of the original Bondi blue iMacs. It doesn't work any more. But man, that was the prettiest color ever. I was sorry they didn't keep selling that color.
But what they *did* was change colors regularly, and that was brilliant. Apple has gotten very boring with color these days. I remember the day when people would get excited about new iMacs and sometimes buy a new one just to get a fun new color. When the modern M1 iMac came out, my 3 employees clustered around to see the new machines and talk excitedly about what colors they wanted. These are women who traditionally didn't care at all about getting a new machine. And... when was the last new iMacs? The last *exciting* colors for anything from Apple? It's like Apple is afraid to have fun any more.
But what they *did* was change colors regularly, and that was brilliant. Apple has gotten very boring with color these days. I remember the day when people would get excited about new iMacs and sometimes buy a new one just to get a fun new color. When the modern M1 iMac came out, my 3 employees clustered around to see the new machines and talk excitedly about what colors they wanted. These are women who traditionally didn't care at all about getting a new machine. And... when was the last new iMacs? The last *exciting* colors for anything from Apple? It's like Apple is afraid to have fun any more.
I had a Power Computing that I'm sure was cheaper than the Apple equivalent. I think my parents had an Apple desktop that was about 3k and mine was probably half of that or a bit more.
My dad was in the graphics design business and an Apple was manditory back then, even though his design application didn't involve computers at the time.
My memory matches that. I did some I.T. support of early iMacs (maybe not first generation, though) and reset using the paperclip-reset many times.
It's wild to reflect on the near-euphoria with the Bondi blue iMac and the translucent candy-colored variants that Apple was creative again. Vibrant colors, thoughtful designs (**cough cough** hockey puck mouse **cough cough**), moving past the Mac clone era, Centris / Performa / Quadra branding confusion (but thanks, Gil Amelio, for trying), and making computers that were humane and getting us past the beige/black/gray boxy nightmares. USB! 'A Bugs Life' on a free DVD to show off later iMac models with a DVD drive.
And, oh, with the lack of a floppy drive an entire world became reliant on Zip Drives, waiting tensely each use whether the file would transfer or whether the click-click-click of death meant you were hosed.
I remember getting the gen 1 trying to figure out how I was going to work without a floppy drive. Shortly after I got my first CD-R and never looked back.
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
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Check out all 13 colors of the iMac (1998) 🫣
About respecting and recognising ones past - Apple do it every time they release a new product with the usual spiel: “the mouse, the iPod, multi touch” etc. It does not mean that you have to do retro product. There’s a Swedish saying “Var sak har sin tid” “Each thing has its time”.
And we always seem to only remember the good stuff, even though there were faults with the original iMac, for instance “the puck” aka the round shaped mouse that shipped with the iMac. It was an ergonomic nightmare, but of course, looked quite cool.
Apple is about moving things along, not dwelling in the past. But they have not forgotten their past - at least not the good parts.
I desperately wanted an iMac when they launched, but I was a poor young professional living month to month. I ended up getting the eMachines eOne when those came out and it was such a disappointing experience. I ended up getting an Indigo iMac in 2000. Loved that computer.
About respecting and recognising ones past - Apple do it every time they release a new product with the usual spiel: “the mouse, the iPod, multi touch” etc. It does not mean that you have to do retro product. There’s a Swedish saying “Var sak har sin tid” “Each thing has its time”.
And we always seem to only remember the good stuff, even though there were faults with the original iMac, for instance “the puck” aka the round shaped mouse that shipped with the iMac. It was an ergonomic nightmare, but of course, looked quite cool.
Apple is about moving things along, not dwelling in the past. But they have not forgotten their past - at least not the good parts.
We could've had at least one iPod throwback at least last year. A 20th Anniversary Limited Edition iPod that supported AirPods, had bluetooth, and access to music streaming services. It would've been fun.
Which is a problem with Apple nowadays. Apple's forgotten how to have fun. Microsoft is now seen as the fun ones with their Windows guerilla marketing and the entirety of Xbox. Hell Microsoft even did a limited run rerelease of the Zune as a promotional stunt for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Apple in conjunction is just boring. No brand silliness like they used to do during the days of Mac vs PC 2, aside from their Twitter replying to Ryan Reynolds' fake complaint letter in regards to a Ted Lasso episode. The Mac is the only fun thing they have left.
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Don't forget that the 5 colors were called "flavors." How do you appeal to a consumers emotions, make it trigger as many senses as possible.
Never owned/used a computer before this iMac. The much-despised puck-mouse was my intro to using a mouse. Learned to draw/retouch/refine with this mouse for Photoshop/Illustrator/QuarkXpress. Never bothered me the least...
LOL was there a debate??? Bondi is clearly greenish/turquoise, while Blueberry was blue. If some couldn't tell the difference, well-- glad these people aren't working in any profession that requires colour-accuracy assessment.
I have a working iMac G3 DV and an iBook G3 running Mac OS 9. I still use them! Great computers.
What stands out to me about the second era of Jobs is how, under his leadership, Apple brought these paradigm-shift products out that no one had really seen. Compare that to not only modern Apple, but other companies, and it's night and day. Now, it feels like everything is same-y. Nothing is really new and exciting and makes you go, "Wow!".
I still have the sales receipt of the Bondi Blue G3 iMac from 1998. In the other hand, I saved one of the original iMac and hid it under my desk at work.
Well, most people are not, even those who so-call care about whether bondi and blueberry are the same colour or not. To most people it's just blue, and that's alright.
Too close to the annual iPhone dog and pony show (which wasn't even conceived of back then ).
Pragmatically the windows was either way before Spring or WWDC or significantly after the September event.
If it has an M3 then needs a new OS so October (or later).
It wouldn't be surprising if they did a M3 24" iMac only for a period of time ( 1-2 months) before rolling it out to other Macs as part of making the iMacs anniversary launch 'special'. And then go back to putting it on "update only when necessary" status.
The original iMac was never about the biggest, most expensive screen possible. It only drifted into that zone more and more as Apple de-focused off the Mini and then the Mac Pro to herd more folks into buying iMacs.
I was lucky enough to. I was 18 and just graduated HS and my dad worked for Merril Lynch at the time. After much convincing, since he thought it was the stupidest decision ever, I got him to put all of my graduation cash gifts in Apple Stock. I think at the time (2002) it was 90 cents a share, might have been lower. I knew the second I got a 1st Gen iPod that this was going to take off like nuts. Needless to say he regretted not investing in it himself.
I remember the computer lab at the university I studied at starting year of 2000 that had 25 of these. What color bomb to walk in to! 💙