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

[Bug-Creator]

In 1998 I had already bought my 1st 18" LCD monitor (1280x1024) so while the computer part of the iMac may or may not been o.k. that screen made it into little more then a toy.

Also never a fan of those fugly translucent design.

Millions thought otherwise, they were (and still are) wrong, Apple got (and still gets) rich on people that are wrong.

 

[adib]

Looking forward to a new translucent iMac....

 

[Realityck]

The all metal 27" 2012 iMac design was the first one I really liked and continued to be that way until Apple yanked them. Note the built in Superdrive slot. We all bemoaned the fact that Apple never supported Blu-ray recording or playback.

 

[adib]

8GB is a lot of RAM to have on a mouse, you know.

Put the entire computer inside the mouse, ála Commodore 64.

 

[JosephAW]

The Entry level iMac G4 was $1299, the same entry price point as it is now.

Must be thinking of eMac.

 

[MuppetGate]

Worth noting is the fact that the iMac has made it through not just a major operating system transition but two processor architecture changes clearly pegs it as a survivor. Clearly it is a unique product from a marketing standpoint.

Great observation. 👍🏾

 

[mr.datsun]

>When to expect the Next Model to Launch?

Let's face it. Nobody knows except Apple. It's no longer reasonable to ask these questions or to speculate on answers.

 

[Matsamoto]

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

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This is some serious IP 68 rating😁
Very funny project!

 

[ThomasJL]

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In 12 years under Steve Jobs, there were seven different iMac designs introduced. In 13 years under Tim Cook, there were only two.

"Can't innovate anymore, my a**!"

 

[TSE]

I was about 5 when the original iMac was released and was unaware, but I remember going to public school in 2000 where they received the brand new ones with the slot loading drive. I was absolutely blown away by the design, even asa 7 year old. I remember being oddly infatuated with the the 'iMac' typeface that was on the front. It was the first sign of me being destined to become a designer.

 

[Warped9]

Context matters. From today’s perspective the original G3 iMac looks a bit odd and unserious. But at the time it was very cool and very counter to all other things computer on the market. It was a welcoming splash of colour in a sea of dull and unimaginative beige. Overnight it made everything else look outdated and an eyesore. The iMac looked good no matter where you put it. It looked like having a computer could be fun.

The iMac evolved into an object of neglect. Design wise it matured and became minimalist and more serious, but over time Apple barely acknowledged its existence while focusing on iPhone, iPad and MacBook. iMac was just kept alive, barely.

The current iMac was long overdue. Not so much in design given the design is largely evolutionary, but in terms of performance. The M1 rejuvenated the iMac and the return of colour is again a welcome counterpoint to the current sea of largely grey, silver and black computers. That said, the base iMac, like the base MacBook Air, should have better starting specs.

The original iMac could appeal to many who barely noticed computers or those who thought themselves not of the mainstream. The current iMac is much the same. Most mainstream consumers are going to go for a laptop that is now seen very much as the go-to do-it-all device you can put or carry anywhere and connect to a bigger display if needed.

In a way the current iMac is like the VW Beetle, Kia Soul or Mazda Miata—a product that goes against accepted convention, offering something more than utility.

 

[Lioness~]

If Apple had released a bigger 27-30" iMac before the Mac Studio and the ASD, I would’ve bought it without blinking. My old 2013 was literally walking on its knees, and didn’t serve much. So I was desperately waiting for whatever desktop that would come.

Now Apple did what they did, and I am totally happy with my desktop setup as it is.
Still, it will be interesting to see where Apple goes with the desktops.
If they even have a clear vision of them today? We'll see?

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

iMac G3 in french-polished walnut burl.

Ideal if iMac was released in 1979.

 

[woolypants]

an Ethernet port for connecting to the still-nascent internet.

Tell me you're young without telling me you're young.

At that point most people used dial-up to get online, and the iMac had a modem built-in for this. This was at a time when many modems were still external, so built-in was part of the iMacs all-in-one USP.

DSL was still some distance away for most households.

Most workplaces at that time didn't offer Internet connections, either*. Ethernet was used mainly for file sharing and shared printer access.

* There was actually a lot of debate about whether workplaces should offer workers internet. After all, wouldn't they just spend all day browsing the web and not working? I got my first job in 1997 at a magazine publisher where we wrote about the internet and there was only one online computer that we had to ask to use, and then only for a work-related matter (e.g. checking links we were publishing). It's hard to say when the tipping point was but I'd say it was probably early 2000s was when workplaces realised that workers could be empowered by the Internet, and it wouldn't just be abused.

 

[Gudi]

.

 

[Solomani]

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 . . .

Yeah. The early Bondi Blue iMacs arrived in the era of 14k and 56k modems. The majority of computer users did not have access to cable internet yet. Those were fun times.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Yeah. The early Bondi Blue iMacs arrived in the era of 14k and 56k modems. The majority of computer users did not have access to cable internet yet. Those were fun times.

I believe our very first modem was 1400 baud, maybe 2400 baud, not sure. I would guess that this was in 1992-ish. Not sure exactly. We used it with a Mac LC II and connected to the Internet by dialing into CompuServe (a bit like AOL). Back in those days you actually had to pay for the CompuServe software. I think you could use CompuServe without the software but it was maybe command line if you didn't pay? Not sure. Was very slow. I remember one of the first things I did was just to look at a weather map and it took a long time to load, but was still very cool. It had an encyclopedia, and of course e-mail. I had one friend who also had CompuServe and so one person to email back and forth.

 

[tubular]

Yeah. The early Bondi Blue iMacs arrived in the era of 14k and 56k modems. The majority of computer users did not have access to cable internet yet. Those were fun times.

Yep. I had DSL, a protocol that used existing phone lines but without the need to dial up.

Also, one of the fun things about Model A was that if it locked up, it also locked up the USB connection to the keyboard, so the power button on the keyboard wouldn't work and you had to use a paper clip to poke a little hole inside the hatch on the side. They fixed that pretty quick.

Moving from ADB to USB (and the curse of the you-tried-to-plug-it-in-the-wrong-way that we're still fighting 25 years later with USB-A peripherals) also meant that I lost the ability to use my Kensington Trackball, with a trackball the size of a cue ball, as a mouse. I still kinda miss it.

 

[nt5672]

Never will I ever buy another iMac. Apple obsoletes them too quickly.

 

[wigby]

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.

We need thinkers from both inside and outside the box. What was the famous expression I'm about to misquote? "Only Steve Jobs could've created the iPad but only Tim Cook could've shipped iPad for $499."

 

[wigby]

Never will I ever buy another iMac. Apple obsoletes them too quickly.

Not sure what you mean. We run some 10-14 year old iMacs at work. Some of them still receive security updates too. You can run any Mac or PC as long as you want but you cannot expect old machines to run the latest software. That goes for every computer ever made.

 

[Realityck]

Never will I ever buy another iMac. Apple obsoletes them too quickly.

IMHO I think most are more concerned with timely updates rather then Apple obsoletes them to quickly. The 24" iMac I am currently using really has nothing about it that makes it seem not current with most people needs aside from a somewhat smaller 4.5k display and the wish to be utilizing a updated AS SoC with it.

 

[Pecka]

In hindsight, I'm surprised the iMac saved Apple because the OS was still a piece of crap.

 

[Warped9]

When you first step into the Apple ecosystem or universe it can be like a light goes on and the rest of the (computer) is still in the dark. It’s almost like a first love, and no love after that is quite the same.

My first iMac and iPod (Nano) were incredibly exciting and satisfying possessions for me. They were cool, modern and enjoyable to own and use. No subsequent Apple product ever felt like that again despite every subsequent Apple device I’ve owned has been better and more capable than those that preceded them.

My current 2011 21.5 “hackintosh” is vastly superior to my 2002 Indigo G3, but the 2011 doesn’t make me smile when I see it. My current iPad Air 5 is better than any iPad I have ever had. My iPhone 8+ is way better than the iPhones I had before. My iPod Touch is better than my original Mint Green iPod Nano (with that wonderful scroll wheel), but it’s just not as cool.

In terms of form Apple’s devices, much like the rest of the marketplace, are mature. You can tweak the forms, but overall the forms are set for how each type of device is generally used. New configurations will happen when our current devices evolve to be used in presently unknown ways.

The M series chips are a significant upgrade forward—a significant innovation, but they’re housed in devices that don’t look much if any different from the many that preceded them.

 

[AlexJaye]

I've been meaning to replace my 27" Late 2012 iMac, but Apple has killed the concept with this 24" piece of colorful crap they have managed to produce. Hopefully they will fix this course.