iMac Turns 25 Today: When to Expect the Next Model to Launch

[MacRumors]

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Steve Jobs introducing the iMac, a computer that helped Apple return to profitability following near bankruptcy in the late 1990s. The original iMac featured a colorful, translucent design in an era where most computers were boxy and beige, proving that computers did not have to look boring.

"This is iMac," said Jobs, at the Flint Center in Cupertino. "The whole thing is translucent. You can see into it. It's so cool. We've got stereo speakers on the front. We've got infrared right up here. We've got the CD-ROM drive right in the middle. We've got dual stereo headphone jacks. We've got the coolest mouse on the planet right here."

The original iMac pioneered many industry firsts, such as USB and FireWire, while abandoning the floppy drive and other legacy ports. The computer featured a 15-inch display, a PowerPC G3 processor, a 4GB hard drive, 32MB of RAM, a CD drive, two USB ports, and an Ethernet port for connecting to the still-nascent internet.

Over the past two and a half decades, the iMac has received many design changes, moving to a flat screen and an aluminum enclosure. Fittingly, the current 24-inch iMac features a colorful design just like the original model did all those years ago.

When to Expect a New iMac

Apple released the 24-inch iMac in April 2021 with the M1 chip and an ultra-thin design available in seven colors, including green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. This is currently the only new iMac in Apple's lineup, as the Intel-based 27-inch iMac and iMac Pro models were both discontinued over the past few years.

A new iMac will launch in late 2023 at the earliest, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In February, he said Apple had no plans to update the iMac with the M2 chip and is waiting until the M3 chip, which has yet to be announced. The M3 chip is expected to use TSMC's 3nm process for significant performance and power efficiency improvements.

TSMC has reportedly faced yield issues with 3nm chip manufacturing, and Gurman said there is a possibility the new iMac does not launch until 2024. In any case, the next iMac appears to remain several months away from launching.

Article Link: iMac Turns 25 Today: When to Expect the Next Model to Launch

 

[swingerofbirch]

FireWire first came out on the iMac? I know it wasn't on the first one. I had the bondi blue Rev. B. I know they had it on the later iMac DV models.

But I thought FireWire was first on one of the PowerBooks with the coffee-colored keyboards, but it's difficult to remember.

Not sure if I would describe the Internet as "nascent" when the iMac came out. Making it *easier* to get on the Internet was a marketing push of the iMac, but it was by no means new.

Weird tidbit I remember: The original iMac was supposed to at first only come out with only a 33.6k modem, but they changed it to 56k shortly before shipping.

And with the Rev B I had I believe the only change was a slightly increased amount of VRAM. It was a great computer.

Edit: Going down memory lane a bit more with little tidbits I remember:

The first time I saw an iMac was transcendent. It just looked so different and was so cool. I know by rote memory that it had a huge impact, but it's hard to remember it viscerally because now I kind of think: How could that have made such a huge impression? But it did. This was before Apple stores and it was in a local electronics shop.

The CD-ROM was very noisy --I think it was a 24x CD-ROM, and Apple shipped an update to address the noise that was just a software fix to make it run slower.

It came with Nanosaur, and some other games I don't remember as well.

I somehow got postcards from Apple that were to help advertise the iMac. It had pictures of the iMac with marketing slogans. One said Mental Floss, I recall.

I got the bondi Rev B iMac in 9th grade, and at the time I remember trying to explain to my teacher what it was, and she said, "You mean it's like a Dell?"

That year in my science class, we had to write a report on inventors, and I wrote one on Steve Jobs and included the iMac as one of his inventions. Wish I still had that report.

It was a pretty big deal to get a G3 Mac at that price. From memory, the other G3 Macs were not that much more powerful than the iMac. It was Apple's re-entry to the consumer market.

Everything became translucent with blue highlights like the iMac for a while, including the USB printer we bought to go with it. A lot of knock-off products.

I didn't do this, but I also vaguely recall that it could somehow play PlayStation games out of the box owing to the iMac and PlayStation using the same type of processor.

We ended up donating the bondi iMac to my cousins, shipping it cross country. Unfortunately for some reason they said it didn't work (not sure what was wrong or if it was user error) and they tried opening it up and it further broke . . .

 

[lysingur]

One of my favourite Mac posters. Still beautiful to look at after all these years.

 

[DMG35]

Still have one, but its an aquarium now (that needs a new fish).

 

[the future]

It‘s really amazing and delightful to see how the new M1 iMac picked up the playful, colourful design cues of the OG again. The „Pixar Lamp“ iMac was cool as well, but all other (white/silver/grey) interim models were just a little boring in comparison.

 

[ThomasJL]

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Steve Jobs introducing the iMac,

That is the type of innovation that we will never see under the leadership of an inside-the-box thinker like that mediocre MBA suit Tim Cook.

 

[JustAnExpat]

That is the type of innovation that we will never see under the leadership of an in-the-box thinker like that mediocre MBA suit Tim Cook.

Most of the time under Apple Steve Jobs was boring. Think about it. Most of the iMacs he released were boring gray slabs

 

[steve09090]

That is the type of innovation that we will never see under the leadership of an in-the-box thinker like that mediocre MBA suit Tim Cook.

M1 chip, Apple Watch, AirPods. Clearly failures, right 😂😂.

Most of the time under Apple Steve Jobs was boring. Think about it. Most of the iMacs he released were boring gray slabs

Or plastic white MacBook bodies that crack.

 

[Xand&Roby]

I remember that moment.
I used to travel around the European capitals with a phone in my pocket called Nokia 7110 and with a telephone plan, consulting train timetables and buying tickets, consulting addresses and maps to reach restaurante and pubs, through W@p.
Meanwhile Jobs was trying to save a virtually bankrupt company and his iMacs filled the internet cafes of half the world.
It was 1999, few months after the iMac presentation.
In my eyes as a young man, a phone that surfed the web and was in my pockets was more interesting than a desktop computer, beautiful, which cost 3 times as much.
And also in the eyes of the people I lent my phone to to buy tickets, who looked at me like an alien.

 

[Nicole1980]

I always thought computers were fun, but the original iMacs were key in that they signaled to the general population that computers could be 'fun', not just beige business machines.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

Maybe I should dig out my 2000 G3. The one with FireWire.

 

[JosephAW]

Remembering you used to get a G4 iMac for $799

 

[Mr. Dee]

I remember a graphic designer from Mexico using G3 iMacs up to 2008 with Adobe CS v1 to create graphic designs for t-shirts. They were considered old then. Always remember when I was at community college, my former high school teacher asked me for help with installing an HP printer on their neighbors red G3. That was like the first time I ever interacted with one. It was strange because the interface was nothing like Windows.

Back in high school, Time magazine had fold out ad from Apple about the new G3 iMac back in 1998. I copied the literature and customized it for a Principles of Business class project.

Another memory I have of the iMac is from the Jennifer Lopez ‘If you had my love’ music video with the iMacs falling in the pool. I always wanted one has a collectors item. But they are too heavy.

 

[sirozha]

What about the elephant in the room? Are we going to ignore it?

Will there be a 27” 5K M-Series iMac?

 

[rufwork]

“We've got the coolest mouse on the planet right here.”

There’s a reality distortion field that didn’t work.

What a craptastic hockey puck. Hurt to use for a long time, and it was hard to orient for quick adjustments - take hand from keyboard, grab mouse, guess which way is up, move slightly sideways.

Man I hated when I was in a lab full of bondis and [only] first party mice.

(Granted, with a good 3rd party mouse it was a great computer!)

 

[MrTangent]

“We've got the coolest mouse on the planet right here.”

There’s a reality distortion field that didn’t work.

What a craptastic hockey puck. Hurt to use for a long time, and it was hard to orient for quick adjustments - take hand from keyboard, grab mouse, guess which way is up, move slightly sideways.

Man I hated when I was in a lab full of bondis and [only] first party mice.

(Granted, with a good 3rd party mouse it was a great computer!)

I had one for my G3 PowerMac. I liked mine. Guess I am the only one?

 

[NEPOBABY]

FireWire first came out on the iMac? I know it wasn't on the first one. I had the bondi blue Rev. B. I know they had it on the later iMac DV models.

But I thought FireWire was first on one of the PowerBooks with the coffee-colored keyboards, but it's difficult to remember.

If I remember correctly Pismo 500mhz was the first PowerBook with Firewire one year after the iMac DV.

 

[Realityck]

"This is iMac," said Jobs, at the Flint Center in Cupertino. "The whole thing is translucent. You can see into it. It's so cool. We've got stereo speakers on the front. We've got infrared right up here. We've got the CD-ROM drive right in the middle. We've got dual stereo headphone jacks. We've got the coolest mouse on the planet right here."

I liked the 7th major revision iMac (2012) when it went to the slim metal unibody, wasn’t a fan of the several generations of plastic models. A lot of us were more into the towers with external CRTs. The most recent 24”with it’s color choices brought back thoughts of first iMac series.

 

[zedsdead]

There really needs to be a 27" consumer model in the lineup. I have several family members that would upgrade should that come out. They current have 27" Intel iMacs and don't want to downgrade to the 24".

The alternates are more expensive and more complicated than the all in one solution.

 

[East India Company]

We've got the coolest mouse on the planet right here

Yeah right.. the worst mouse ever you mean?

 

[McScooby]

Should it not have a pic of the Bondi Blue on the splash page as that's 25 years?

Colours were great, but need to wait later for their 25th, much like the Snow Dalmatian.

 

[rufwork]

I had one for my G3 PowerMac. I liked mine. Guess I am the only one?

Probably not, but I wasn’t quite alone either…

Wikipedia includes one scathing review.

“Many reviewers criticized the mouse for its design; in 2008, Bryan Gardiner of Wired deemed the mouse to be among "Apple's most notorious flops."[1]”

Though I would argue this:

“Another flaw introduced in the Apple USB Mouse, shared across all of Apple's USB offerings, is the atypically short cord.”

It went in the keyboard’s ports. Duh. 😉 Welcome to usb-land, reviewers.

 

[NEPOBABY]

Yeah right.. the worst mouse ever you mean?

Yep.

It was one of the earliest cases of trying to change user behavior.

The concept behind the puck mouse was that it was supposed to be moved around with finger tips instead of the palm of the hand. In reality users want to rest their hand on a mouse as it is more comfortable, but that doesn’t work when a mouse is round. Just causes hand strain.

The same issue we are seeing in recent times. The MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar and shallow keyboard didn’t feel natural and didn’t give users the physical feedback they want.

Same issue we are seeing again with VR fans thinking that day to day computing can be done in a 3D environment with hand waving all day. That’s not how 99% of people want to use computers. It’s tiring and will wear out the neck and shoulders if that was being done every day for years.

User comfort needs to be put first. Always.

 

[the future]

The concept behind the puck mouse was that it was supposed to be moved around with finger tips instead of the palm of the hand. In reality users want to rest their hand on a mouse as it is more comfortable, but that doesn’t work when a mouse is round. Just causes hand strain.

Then how come that trackpads are so popular, even on the desktop? You can‘t rest your hands on those, either.

 

[Gudi]

Steve Jobs 1997: "If we only had four [products], we could put the A-Team on every single one of them."
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