![]() ![]() Ease-of-use was much touted by Apple and consumers found that it lived up to that promise, affording the ability to set up and connect to the Internet in two steps. The unique new design made it easily recognizable, giving Apple new brand awareness. There was considerable attention given to it from the press and from marketing. The iMac was aimed at a low-budget market, with the original costing $1,299. The new case was sleek and modern, with the familiar handle that had been a feature on many early Macintoshes. The “i” indicated the computer’s compatibility with the internet, which was expanding at an exponential rate. It was posited as a computer for the new millennium. The iMac represented a new vision for Macintosh computers. There was one mezzanine expansion slot, analog audio input/output jacks, a built-in microphone and built-in speakers. The built-in monitor was a 15-inch shadow mask CRT with a 13.8” viewable area. It had a maximum RAM of 256Mb and an ATI Rage IIc graphics card. It had a tray loading CD-ROM, a USB keyboard and a USB mouse. It ran the G3 PowerPC 750 processor at 233Mhz and had 4Gb hard drive. Clearly I must find more “fossils” out there to hear old Apple stories and purchase their relics.The original iMac was an all-in-one shipped in an entirely new “Bondi Blue” translucent plastic case. I have a Newton Messagepad H1000 and an eMate 300 in the museum. The wife was at the intro of Apple’s first laptop. We were at the introduction of the Newton. I’ve never even seen a Lisa and I had no idea QuickTime development started in the late 1980s! He had the team from Microsoft showing off DOS… Bill Gates and Paul Allen. He was demonstrating what was to become the IBM PC. In my early corporate days around 1981 I sat in the back of the room for a demo conducted by Phil Estridge of IBM (he and his team died when a Delta jet went down in a storm on approach to Dallas. After being led deep inside a building we emerged into a lab and were shown what was to be called QuickTime. I was invited to Apple in 1986 or 87 to take a look at a new technology they were working on. My first encounter with Apple was 1983 testing the Lisa. I worked as a Cobol programmer for about a dozen years. Short 10-15 lines of code subs to do a very specific individual task. I began writing assembler language small subroutines in 1974 on punch cards. He was at the event when Phil Schiller jumped to show that the iBook’s internet connection was wireless using Apple’s AirPort card. The single best computer theater I saw was when Phil Shiller jumped from a window above the stage to a waiting Steve Jobs to show the iBook was not connected to any wires. The best was in 1999 for the introduction of WiFi and the iBook. The most memorable aspect of being an Apple Reseller in the 1990s was frequently going to Macworld Keynotes (mostly in New York plus one in Boston). I sold a bunch of Bondi iMacs when they came out. This iMac is pretty early in the build cycle. This is a work of art.īelow is the culmination of the email exchange I had with the iMac’s owner. Apple brought back the mentality that a computer should be approached not as a mysterious, heavy box, but as something you could simply pick up and move. Simplicity was part of the Jeff Goldblum ad campaign showing off how easy it was to set up an iMac. Plug in power, plug in the keyboard and mouse, and plug in the modem. If you wanted to move a file to another computer you were expected to use the internet. USB and the ability to plug and unplug peripherals without restarting was the future. Prominent Apple ports were removed breaking compatibility with old keyboards and mice. ![]() The iMac was notable in the computer industry for many reasons: By the time I was employed there Apple was selling models with new colors ( including Blue Dalmation and Flower Power ) and FireWire ports for connecting digital video cameras. I sold many iMacs when I worked at Computerware, a local Apple retail store before Apple had official stores. Steve Jobs had returned to Apple, eliminated most of the product line, elevated Jony Ive, and released the iMac. The iMac belongs in the museum because it marks the beginning of Apple’s transition from a boring, confusing, beige 1990s into an artistic, colorful, opinionated 2000s. I clicked Buy It Now not knowing that I would soon have a delightful email exchange with the owner. I have a fondness for blue and green Apple products like the iBook, Power Mac G3, and this iMac. Recently I found myself endlessly browsing eBay (again) searching for something on the list and I came across an iMac in the original color: Bondi Blue. I have a long list of Apple products that I believe are unique, desirable, or just unusual waiting to be proudly displayed in my Apple museum.
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