Apple’s iMac has turned 10 years old and “is still with us, though it has transmogrified from a 233MHz CRT-based all-in-one system into today’s 3.06GHz flat-panel-based system. In the years following the announcement, the iMac helped Apple stagger to its feet, and in 2001 the iPod helped get the company back to the top of its game,” Jason Snell writes for Macworld.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that without the iMac, Apple would either be out of business or a vastly different company than the one we see today. And certainly the iMac was the first Apple product to truly bear the stamp of Steve Jobs, as well as designer Jonathan Ive, both of whom have spent the last decade driving Apple on to even more impressive creations,” Snell writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lance” for the heads up.]
Apple’s original iMac press release verbatim:
Apple Unveils iMac
The Internet-Age Computer for the Rest of Us
CUPERTINO, California — May 6, 1998 — In a major move in to the consumer market, Apple Computer, Inc. today unveiled iMac — the “Internet-age computer for the rest of us.” iMac features a striking design, easy Internet access and Pentium-toasting PowerPC G3 performance for US$1299.
“We designed iMac to deliver the things consumers care about most – the excitement of the Internet and the simplicity of the Mac,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s Interim CEO. “iMac is next year’s computer for $1299; not last year’s computer for $999.”
“Today we brought romance and innovation back into the industry,” added Jobs. “iMac reminds everyone of what Apple stands for.”
iMac is a complete Internet-age computer right out of the box, featuring:
• A speedy PowerPC G3 microprocessor running at 233MHz with a high speed 512k backside L2 memory cache;
• Built-in 15-inch high quality display with 1024×768 resolution, 13.8-inch diagonal viewable image size;
• Easy connectivity – one button Internet access, internal 33.6Kbps modem, 10/100Base-Tx Ethernet, 12Mbps Universal Serial Bus (USB), and 4Mbps infrared port (IrDA);
• The world’s easiest to use operating system, Mac OS 8.1, which runs thousands of Macintosh software titles;
• All housed in a stunning translucent enclosure that breaks new ground in industrial design.
iMac, available worldwide in August in one configuration for US$1299, will also include:
• 32MB SDRAM (expandable to 128MB);
• 2MB SGRAM (expandable to 4MB);
• 4GB IDE Hard disk drive;
• 24x CD-ROM drive;
• 10/100Base-Tx Ethernet;
• 33.6Kbps software modem;
• Two 12Mbps Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports;
• 4Mbps infrared technology (IrDA) port;
• Built-in stereo speakers with SRS sound;
• 66MHz system bus;
• Mac OS 8.1;
• Apple USB Keyboard and Apple USB Mouse.
Apple Computer, Inc. ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II, and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is now recommitted to its original mission – to bring the best personal computing products and support to students, educators, designers, scientists, engineers, businesspersons and consumers in over 140 countries around the world.
Source: Apple Inc.
And my Rev A iMac is still running, capturing internet radio on a co-worker’s desk. It’s running Mac OS X 10.3, a far cry from the 8.5(?) it started with.
I got the iMac right when it came out. No floppy disk, and this “new” technology called USB. An external Zip drive connected via USB was a dream come true.
In 1998, the fastest PC was Pentium II at about 266MHz. Even with 512MB of RAM (probably maximum you could put on it), it wouldn’t be able to run anything but Windows 2000; XP might install, but it would be practically useless.
Original iMac, with extra 512MB or RAM can comfortably run Tiger (until last september, latest version of Mac OS X).
I stil have an old blue&white;G3 tower (300MHz), with 1GB RAM. Most recent tiger runs quite well on it. It runs Adobe CS, all Apple pro applications (that are supported on G3, i.e. early versions) and is looking to celebrate its own 10th birthday in six months.
If there are still people who can’t figure out that Apple’s hardware outlasts ordinary PCs by a factor of at least 1.5, they should stick to their overpriced Windows machines.
I got a Bondi 233 in trade for an eMachines POS some years ago, and sold it after a year (got $300 for it, if you can believe that). Now I’m looking for one as a keepsake. I doubt that they’ll ever be worth as much as a 128k, but I still think it’d be a cool museum piece.
No floppy? This product will fail
Big barbecue and beer bash blowout at Bondi Beach?
@ Asmodeus
$99 http://www.shrevesystems.com/systems.html
I so wanted one. Still do… but with two drive bays. My eyes light up when I see one nowadays and I am tempted to hug it and kiss its plastic top. What curves! I remember walking into some office and being surprised at seeing the lovely secretaries each with a candy iMac on their desk. What a boner that gave me!
“No floppy?”
I’m pretty sure the stiffy replaced the floppy some time ago.
It even has its own NASCAR sponsor. Yeah.
Rob…please meet LiM to rectumfy your situation.
The iMac is the best computer ever!
At the end of that new iMac presentation the first thing I said was: “We’re back!”
Steve was in charge again and on his game. The minute I saw the iMac, I bought a bunch of Apple stock.
Input and request for info.
I just sold my old Bundi Blue iMac ref B. It had the tray so no upgrade to OS 10, or so I was told. Since I was limited to OS 9 I ran into the problem of internet surfing where browsers would not support the old OS. So old browsers that would not run flash, etc, etc. It was still running quite well when I sold it for $250, software included (games, etc.)
Side track item. —–
I am missing something here or was a big problem the lack of software upgrades that would keep the system up to date.?????
I am looking at getting a g4 tower (mostly for old times sake but also) for running internet access and other etc stuff. Also I always loved the look of that rounded tower.
What is the min power g4 tower I should accept. I know Apple says below 800mhz, no Leopard, but is that real??
Any other input is welcome. eldernorm@hotmail.com.
Thanks in advance….. and now back to your regular programming.
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I got my son a Strawberry iMac last year from a school for $25. I’m guessing a little on the specs, but I believe it was a 333 G3 and it has 384 mb of ram.
My five year old loves the hell out of his very own Mac — and it keeps him away from mine.
I installed Panther on it, and it runs beautifully. The only downside to the whole thing is that its hard drive is a paltry 10 gigs, and by the time you have the operating system on there and a few apps, it’s pretty well clogged.
I’d have to say it was the best $25 I’ve ever spent. I actually bought three of them with similar specs all at once for a grand total of $75 — one for my kid, one for a niece and one for my father-in-law (who has never owned a computer but had no problem figuring out how to use a Mac).
I should have bought more of them and sold them on ebay!
My new Intel iMac wishes its ancient ancestor a happy birthday and a case of Geritol.
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Curious if MDN uses a bondi iMac for its server.
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MidWest, you can save a lot of space with Youpi Optimizer. It strips out other-language resources and gets you back a gig or so from your OS+standard apps installation. There’s something to strip “fat” binaries, too, can’t remember the name right now.
MDN – Boldly serving today’s news at yesterday’s speed (☎).
ElderNorm: You can put Leopard on a 800MHz G4 it’s just you have to install it from a faster mac via FW Target disk mode or Cloning. It’s probably just easier to grab a 1GHz G4. They probably are cheap these days.
Skinny Mac: “There’s something to strip “fat” binaries, too, can’t remember the name right now.”
One is Xslimmer:
http://www.xslimmer.com/
I was on a business trip in 1999 when I got an email from a woman friend looking to buy a first computer for her parents. After I mentioned the “usual suspects” (Dell, HP, IBM) I wrote, “You really need to check out this new Apple iMac. I think it’s exactly what your folks need.” She wouldn’t even consider it! She bought them a Windows box. It’s what she knew. You still see that kind of stubbornness today, but it’s not as widespread.
As I think I mentioned in an earlier post this week, a former colleague who used to poo poo my subtle nudges toward the Mac finally had it after his HP notebook suffered a Windows melt-down. He’s now the happy owner of a 24″ iMac.What a remarkable 10 years it’s been!
P.S. Skinny Mac: “There’s something to strip “fat” binaries, too, can’t remember the name right now.”
There’s also Trimmit.
(http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/33361&vid=469137)
As always, back up first and use at your own risk.
My parents still have the Summer 2000 iMac they bought later that year. I maxed out its RAM a few years ago so that it could run OS X comfortably. Regrettably this machine has only a CD-ROM drive and no Firewire, so it can’t go beyond OS 10.3.9 (now I wish I’d urged them to at least go with the iMac DV, since it was only about $200 more at the time, and could run a fully current OS. Considering the only thing they use it for is to read email and go to a very few websites, what they have is fine though.
But I wish it could run 10.4 for my Dad, because he goes online to check some stocks, the names of which he must *type* into the nasdaq web page. Considering what a god-awful typist he is, this is a grueling process. How I wish I could set him up with 10.4 so all he’d have to do is hit F12 to bring up the stock widget in dashboard!!
The old girl has a mere 7Gb hard drive, so the last time I was home and ran software update, it complained about lack of space to run installs. I went through and deleted all the old OS 9 programs on there which freed up nearly a Gb of space. The updates were occasioned by a complaint from Mom that Safari no longer worked with mapquest or Google Maps. Took me a while to discover that because of their old system, the latest Safari that they can run is 1.3.2, and these sites did something that somehow breaks this older browser. Even the Apple support page suggested trying Firefox, which I did and that at least has stopped Mom’s tech support calls to me when she can’t print map directions!
Man, it hurts to see those iMac specs…
“When I was kid, I had to process my apps in 12 feet of snow. Uphill, both ways!!!!”
My wife never owned one of these first-generation iMacs. She was sold (switched) by the ease of adjustment of the second generation and has since upgraded to an Aluminum model. It’s been ten years? Amazing! Not surprising, her desk-lamp model is still working (needed a USB Ethernet as a replacement), but amazing. I wonder if any of the “fruit-colored” copy-cats are still operational.
I bought the original iMac (Rev A), it was my very first computer and it’s still in use today… I gave it to my mom and she uses it mostly for email and card games.
Can’t believe it’s been ten years already.