The computer that came in different hues and revolutionised the home computing market - not to mention Apple's fortune - is finally being phased out.
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.
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.
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The classic iMac has since been superseded by the eMac and the flat screen, angle poise iMac.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."
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.
"It made a brand become visible through the product and the thing itself," says Mr Grinyer.
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."
