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The machine enjoys a relatively high profile in popular culture due to its distinctive aesthetics and Apple's successful marketing. The iMac and other Macintosh computers can also be seen in various movies, commercials, and TV shows (both live action and animated).
The iMac has also received considerable critical acclaim, including praise from technology columnist Walt Mossberg as the “Gold Standard of desktop computing";[1] Forbes Magazine described the original candy-colored line of iMac computers as being an “industry-altering success”.[2] The original 24" Core 2 Duo iMac received CNET's “Must-have desktop” in their 2006 Top 10 Holiday Gift Picks.
The announcement of the iMac initially caused considerable buzz among commentators, Mac fans, and detractors in the press and on websites. Opinions were polarized over Apple’s drastic changes to the Macintosh hardware.[4][5] At the time, Apple was revamping its retail strategy to improve the Mac purchasing experience. Apple famously declared that "the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else’s".[6] The distinctive aesthetics were easily spotted in public. The iMac was recognizable on television, in films and in print. This increased Apple’s brand awareness, and embedded the iMac into popular culture. When released, the iMac was one of the best selling computers in the U.S. and Japan for months, and Apple was unable to meet demand.
Apple declared the 'i' in iMac to stand for "Internet".[7]Attention was given to the out-of-box experience: the user needed to go through only two steps to set up and connect to the Internet. "There's no step 3!" was the catch-phrase in a popular iMac commercial narrated by actor Jeff Goldblum.[8] Another commercial, dubbed ”Simplicity Shootout”, pitted seven-year-old Johann Thomas and his border collie Brodie, with an iMac, against Adam Taggart, a Stanford University MBA student, with an HP Pavilion 8250, in a race to set up their computers. Johann and Brodie finished in 8 minutes and 15 seconds,[9] whereas Adam was still working on it by the end of the commercial. Apple later adopted the ‘i’ prefix across its consumer hardware and software lines, such as the iPod, iBook, and the iPhone. The prefix has caught on for non-Apple products as well.
Apple’s use of translucent candy-colored plastics inspired similar designs in other consumer electronics. For example, grilling machines, portable electronics, pencil sharpeners, video game consoles and peripherals (including the Nintendo 64, which was released in special edition ‘Funtastic’ colors) featured the translucent plastic. Apple’s introduction of the iPod, iBook, and iMac G4, all featuring snowy white plastic, inspired similar designs in consumer electronic products. The color rollout also featured two distinctive ads: ‘Life Savers’ color scheme was based upon the Rolling Stones song "She's a Rainbow" and the white advert had Cream’s "White Room", specifically its introduction, as its backing track.
The original iMac was the first Macintosh computer to include a USB port. In fact, USB was the only peripheral interface built into the original iMac; Apple dropped previous ports such as the Apple Desktop Bus and SCSI in favor of the newer interface. Although USB was invented by Intel and was also available on PCs at the time, the iMac’s popularity and sole dependence on USB helped popularize the interface among third party peripheral makers, as evidenced by the many early USB peripherals that were made of translucent colored plastic to match the color schemes of the original iMac[10]
Via the USB port, hardware makers could make products compatible with both PCs and Macs. This has allowed Macintosh users to use a large selection of inexpensive devices, such as hubs, scanners, storage devices, USB flash drives and mice.
After the iMac, Apple continued to remove older peripheral interfaces and floppy drives from the rest of its product line.
Aesthetically, the iMac was dramatically different from any other mainstream computer ever released. It was made of translucent "Bondi Blue"-colored plastic, and was egg-shaped around a 15-inch (38 cm) CRT. There was a handle, and the computer interfaces were hidden behind a door that opened on the right-hand side of the machine. Two headphone jacks in the front complemented the built-in stereo speakers. Jonathan Ive, currently Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, is credited with the industrial design.
Legacy Macintosh peripheral connections, such as the ADB, SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), and GeoPort serial ports, were eliminated in favor of USB ports; the floppy drive was discarded. Although these were aging technologies, Apple's move was considered ahead of its time and was hotly debated.[citation needed] For example, there was no analogous way to exchange small files with other existing machines, possibly requiring owners to buy an external USB floppy drive (the floppy drives sold well in the first few years of the iMac G3)[citation needed].
The keyboard and mouse were redesigned for the iMac with translucent plastics and a Bondi Blue trim (Apple USB Keyboard and Apple USB Mouse). The keyboard was smaller than Apple's previous keyboards, with white letters on black keys, both features that attracted debate. The mouse was of a round, "hockey puck" design, which was instantly derided as being unnecessarily difficult for users with larger hands. Apple continued shipping the round mouse, adding a divot in later versions so that users could distinguish where the button was. Eventually, a new oblong optical mouse, known as the Apple Mouse (formerly Apple Pro Mouse), replaced the round mouse across all of Apple's hardware offerings.Internally, the iMac was a combination of the MacNC project and CHRP.[citation needed] Although the promise of CHRP has never been fully realized, the work that Apple had done on CHRP significantly helped in the designing of the iMac. The original iMac had a 233 MHz PowerPC G3 (PowerPC 750) chip, with 512 KB L2 cache running at 116.6 MHz, which also ran in Apple's high-end Power Macintosh line at the time, though at higher speeds, with more expensive models shipping with 1 MB L2 cache. It sold for US$1,299, and had a 4 GB hard drive, 32 MB RAM, 2 MB video RAM, and shipped with Mac OS 8.1, which was soon upgraded to Mac OS 8.5. Parts such as the front-mounted IrDA port and the tray-loading CD-ROM drive were borrowed from the Apple laptops. Although the iMac did not officially have an expansion slot, the first versions had a slot dubbed the "mezzanine slot".[2] It was only for internal use by Apple, although a few third-party expansion cards were released for it, including some CPU upgrades from Newer Technology, a Voodoo II video card upgrade from 3dfx, and SCSI/SCSI-TV tuner cards (iProRAID and iProRAID TV) from the German company Formac; this was removed from later iMacs. According to an article in the German computer magazine c't, the socket can be retrofitted on revision C iMacs.[citation needed] The hard drive in the iMac G3 was a Quantum Fireball.The iMac line was continually updated after initial release. Aside from increasing processor speed, video RAM, and hard-disk capacity, Apple replaced Bondi blue with new colors—initially blueberry, strawberry, tangerine, grape, and lime; later other colors, such as graphite, ruby, sage, snow, and indigo, and the "Blue Dalmatian" and "Flower Power" patterns. A later hardware update created a sleeker design. This second-generation iMac featured a slot-loading optical drive, FireWire, "fanless" operation (through free convection cooling), and the option of AirPort wireless networking. Apple continued to sell this line of iMacs until March 2003, mainly to customers who wanted the ability to run the older Mac OS 9 operating system.
USB and FireWire support, and support for dial-up, Ethernet, and wireless networking (via 802.11b and Bluetooth) soon became standard across Apple's entire product line. In particular, the high-speed interface, FireWire, corrected the deficiencies of the earlier iMacs.
The iMac CRT model was renamed as the iMac G3, as it was now targeted at the education market, it was kept in production alongside the iMac G4 successor for a short while until the eMac was released.
As Apple continued to release new versions of its computers, the term "iMac" continued to be used to refer to machines in its consumer desktop line. Later redesigns of the iMac, however, never matched the first iMac in sales, mainly because they were targeted at a more expensive market segment.[citation needed]
Apple advertised it as having the flexibility of a desk lamp and it was nicknamed the "iLamp", similar to "Luxo Jr.", who was featured in a short film produced by Pixar, another venture of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The iMac G4 ad is memorable, as the computer sits in a store window and it "reacts" to every move that the street passerby does to it; at the end when the person sticks out his tongue the iMac responds by having its optical drive tray slide out. Another print ad of the iMac G4 attempted to dispel the five myths surrounding Macintosh computers, by touting their compatibility and superiority to Windows PCs, ending with the final myth "Macintoshes are easier to use than PCs. Guilty as charged."
The iMac G4 was incrementally upgraded. They were made available with 17-inch (43 cm) and then 20-inch (51 cm) widescreen LCDs over the following two years. By then, Apple had all but eliminated the CRT machines from its product line. However, the LCD iMacs were unable to match the low price point of the previous iMac G3s, largely because of the higher cost of the LCD technology at the time.
The iMac G3 was, by this point, obsolete and low-cost machines were particularly important for the education market. It was still being sold for a while after the iMac G4 debuted, until the G3 found a permanent replacement in April 2002 with the eMac. The eMac is a G4-powered Macintosh that resembles the original iMac G3 with the egg-shape encasing a flat 17-inch CRT in an all-in-one design. It was initially sold only to the educational market (the "e" stands for "education"), but Apple started selling it to the general public a month later. The eMac was essentially the 17-inch iMac that consumers had been requesting a few years earlier. By 2005 Apple had returned to selling the eMac exclusively to the educational market, presumably because of the introduction of the low-cost Mac Mini, targeted at the same market.
The iMac G4 was replaced by the iMac G5 on August 31, 2004. Reaction to the iMac G5 was mixed, though it was a more powerful computer, reviewers commented that it was less aesthetic since it did not retain the flexible adjustable arm.iMac G4 (iMac Flat Panel)
iMac G4
The Flat Panel iMac G4
The iMac G4.
Type: Desktop
Developer: Apple Inc
Released: January 7, 2002
Processor(s): PowerPC G4, 700 MHz–1.25 GHz
The iMac G4 was one of the biggest improvements and advancements in Apple Inc's growing empire of Mac desktops. The computer was considered completely separate from the previous, half egg shaped G3 models. Some new features included a flat-panel LCD screen, with diagonal measurements up to 20 inches; tray loading DVD+CD drive; and many more features. Critics and consumers took to the new Mac style nicely, but many missed the slot loading drive that were available in earlier models. The floating monitor was easily adjustable, and stood at any angle around the dome-shaped bottom. Unlike previous iMac models, the iMac G4 came only in white, and was not translucent like the iMac G3s.
The Gateway Profile attempted to compete with the iMac G4 in the all-in-one LCD computer market. The reviewer noted that the Profile had better processing power, due to its Intel Pentium 4, whereas the iMac was hampered because its G4 chip lacked the 1MB L3 cache that PowerMac G4 chips had. The iMac had clear advantages in LCD screen quality (it uses a digital LCD as opposed to an analog LCD), aesthetics (particularly the flexible monitor arm), and multimedia. Ending up, the reviewer concluded that the iMac was good for introducing users to a Macintosh, but he noted that their (relatively) expensive prices were approaching that of laptops, which are actually portable and have higher resolution LCD screens. The Profile would also be undercut by numerous OEM offerings (including one from Gateway) that bundled an LCD screen with the box containing a Pentium 4.iMac versus Gateway Profile
* January 7, 2002 — Apple introduces a new iMac line with three models.[1] It has a new futuristic form factor and contains a 700 or an 800 MHz G4 processor, and is only available in white. The display is now a 15-inch LCD, easily positioned by the "swing arm" attaching it to the base. (15-inch, 800 MHz model is M9250LL/A)
* July 17, 2002 — A new 800 MHz model with a 17-inch screen and an updated GPU is added to the line. (M8812LL/A)
* February 4, 2003 — The line is slimmed down to two models, one with a 15-inch LCD and a new 1.0 GHz model with a 17-inch LCD (M8935LL/A). AirPort Extreme as well as Bluetooth are available on the 17-inch model. The 15-inch model is largely identical to the January 2002 models.
* August 2003 — The iMac 15-inch and 17-inch models are upgraded to a 1.0 GHz and 1.25 GHz G4 processors, respectively (M9285LL/A, M9168LL/A). New features are USB 2.0 and DDR memory, and they both now support AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth.
* November 18, 2003 — 20-inch screen model (M9290LL/A) is added that is capable of a 1680 × 1050 pixel screen resolution, and features a 1.25 GHz G4 processor.
The iMac G5 was updated in October 2005 with a thinner design, an iSight webcam mounted above the LCD, and Apple's Front Row media interface. This version had a slightly bowed back and lacked the VESA Flat Display Mounting Interface of the earlier G5 iMacs.
The G5's all-in-one form factor was retained after Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel chips. * August 31, 2004 — Apple releases an all-new iMac line,[1] with both the LCD screen (17 or 20-inch widescreen) and computer (including power supply) contained in a 2-inch thick flat-panel housing. Its specifications include:
o A PowerPC G5 processor at 1.6 or 1.8 GHz
o Serial ATA hard drive (ATA in the Education Model)
o An NVIDIA GeForce 5200 Ultra GPU
o USB 2.0 and FireWire 400
o 10/100BASE-T Ethernet port,
o A V.92 modem
o A video-out port, an analogue audio-in jack, and a combination analogue/mini-TOSLINK audio-out jack (like the one in the AirPort Express units)
The enclosure is suspended above the desk by an aluminum arm that can be replaced by a VESA mounting plate, allowing the unit to be mounted using any VESA-standard mount. Apple boasts that it is the slimmest desktop computer on the market. The iMac G5 is available in three retail models (17-inch, 1.6 GHz is M9363LL/A; 17-inch, 1.8 GHz is M9249LL/A; 20-inch, 1.8 GHz is M9250LL/A) plus one education-only model that has no optical drive, no modem, and a more modest GeForce MX4000 graphics system.
Here was the ad campaign.
* May 3, 2005 — Apple releases "Rev. B", or the "Ambient Light Sensor" line (the name refers to a new light sensor on the bottom of the iMac that adjusts the glow intensity of the white pulsating sleep indicator light according to the ambient light). The entry model is now 17-inch, 1.8 GHz (M9843LL/A). The mid-model is 17-inch, 2.0 GHz (M9844LL/A) and the top model is 20-inch, 2.0 GHz (M9845LL/A). All models now feature 512 MB of RAM standard; the hard drive capacity is increased to 250 GB on the top model, with an option of 400 GB. Optional upgrades now include a double-layered 8× SuperDrive. All models now feature Airport Extreme wireless, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics chip with 128 MB of VRAM as standard. Also the 10/100 network interface has been upgraded to 10/100/1000. All models now ship with iLife '05 and Apple's new Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.
* October 12, 2005 — At the "One More Thing" event, Apple released new iMac G5s (the "Rev. C", or the "iSight" line); a 17-inch display running at 1.9 GHz (MA063L/A) and 20-inch display model running at 2.1 GHz (MA064L/A) with:
o A built-in USB 2.0 iSight camera
o A remote control called Apple Remote
o 512 MB PC2-4200 (533 MHz) DDR2; expandable to 2.5 GB total memory
o Slot-loading 8× double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
o Mighty Mouse
o A PCI-Express ATI Radeon X600 (Pro for the 17-inch model and XT for the 20-inch model) graphics chip with 128 MB DDR VRAM
o Built-in media center software called Front Row
o Horizontal input ports rather than vertical configuration.
o Thinner 1.5 inch (3.8 cm) flat panel housing with a curved rear housing
o Note: the built-in V.92 modem was removed and is now offered as the optional Apple USB Modem. The USB modem is available on the Apple Store website and also in Apple retail stores.
o In February 2006, Apple discontinued the 17-inch iMac G5 and began solely selling a 20-inch iMac G5 for US$1,499.
o The iMac G5 was completely discontinued in March 2006.
30 November 2005: The iMac G5 was declared "The Gold Standard of desktop PCs" by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal.
The iMac has an enclosure shaped like that of Apple's Cinema Displays and styling reminiscent to that of the iPhone. The front is made of a single sheet of aluminum with a plate of glass covering the monitor, while the backside is made of black plastic.Macworld Conference and Expo on January 10, 2006, Steve Jobs announced that the new iMac would be the first Macintosh to use an Intel CPU, the Core Duo. The features, price, and case design remained unchanged from the iMac G5. The processor speed, according to tests run by Apple using SPEC,[1] was declared as two to three times faster.
In early February 2006, Apple confirmed reports of video display problems on the new Intel-based iMacs. When playing video on Apple's Front Row media browser, some 20-inch iMacs (those built-to-order with upgraded video cards) showed random horizontal lines, ghosting, video tearing and other problems. The problem was fixed with a software update.
In late 2006, Apple introduced a new version of the iMac which included a Core 2 Duo chip and a lower price. Apple added a new 24" model with a resolution of 1920×1200 (WUXGA), making it the first iMac to be able to display 1080 HD content in its full resolution, and a VESA Flat Display Mounting Interface. Except for the 17–inch 1.83 GHz processor model, this version also included an 802.11n draft card.[2]
The current iMac ships with the Mighty Mouse, Apple Keyboard, Bluetooth and AirPort cards, an internal iSight camera, the Apple Remote for use with Front Row, and a power cord. A Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse are available for additional cost
Imac
The iMac is a desktop Macintosh computer designed and built by Apple, Inc. It has been a large part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998 and has evolved through three distinct forms. In its original form, the G3, the iMac was egg-shaped with a CRT monitor and was mainly enclosed by colored, translucent plastic. The second major revision, the G4, moved to a design of a hemispherical base containing all the main components and an LCD monitor on a freely-moving arm attached to the top of the base. The iMac G5 and the Intel iMac placed all the components immediately behind the monitor, creating a slim design which tilts only up and down on a simple metal base. The current iMac shares the same form as the previous models but is now thinner and uses aluminum and glass for its case.The machine enjoys a relatively high profile in popular culture due to its distinctive aesthetics and Apple's successful marketing. The iMac and other Macintosh computers can also be seen in various movies, commercials, and TV shows (both live action and animated).
The iMac has also received considerable critical acclaim, including praise from technology columnist Walt Mossberg as the “Gold Standard of desktop computing";[1] Forbes Magazine described the original candy-colored line of iMac computers as being an “industry-altering success”.[2] The original 24" Core 2 Duo iMac received CNET's “Must-have desktop” in their 2006 Top 10 Holiday Gift Picks.
Culture
The announcement of the iMac initially caused considerable buzz among commentators, Mac fans, and detractors in the press and on websites. Opinions were polarized over Apple’s drastic changes to the Macintosh hardware.[4][5] At the time, Apple was revamping its retail strategy to improve the Mac purchasing experience. Apple famously declared that "the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else’s".[6] The distinctive aesthetics were easily spotted in public. The iMac was recognizable on television, in films and in print. This increased Apple’s brand awareness, and embedded the iMac into popular culture. When released, the iMac was one of the best selling computers in the U.S. and Japan for months, and Apple was unable to meet demand.
Apple declared the 'i' in iMac to stand for "Internet".[7]Attention was given to the out-of-box experience: the user needed to go through only two steps to set up and connect to the Internet. "There's no step 3!" was the catch-phrase in a popular iMac commercial narrated by actor Jeff Goldblum.[8] Another commercial, dubbed ”Simplicity Shootout”, pitted seven-year-old Johann Thomas and his border collie Brodie, with an iMac, against Adam Taggart, a Stanford University MBA student, with an HP Pavilion 8250, in a race to set up their computers. Johann and Brodie finished in 8 minutes and 15 seconds,[9] whereas Adam was still working on it by the end of the commercial. Apple later adopted the ‘i’ prefix across its consumer hardware and software lines, such as the iPod, iBook, and the iPhone. The prefix has caught on for non-Apple products as well.
Apple’s use of translucent candy-colored plastics inspired similar designs in other consumer electronics. For example, grilling machines, portable electronics, pencil sharpeners, video game consoles and peripherals (including the Nintendo 64, which was released in special edition ‘Funtastic’ colors) featured the translucent plastic. Apple’s introduction of the iPod, iBook, and iMac G4, all featuring snowy white plastic, inspired similar designs in consumer electronic products. The color rollout also featured two distinctive ads: ‘Life Savers’ color scheme was based upon the Rolling Stones song "She's a Rainbow" and the white advert had Cream’s "White Room", specifically its introduction, as its backing track.
USB
The original iMac was the first Macintosh computer to include a USB port. In fact, USB was the only peripheral interface built into the original iMac; Apple dropped previous ports such as the Apple Desktop Bus and SCSI in favor of the newer interface. Although USB was invented by Intel and was also available on PCs at the time, the iMac’s popularity and sole dependence on USB helped popularize the interface among third party peripheral makers, as evidenced by the many early USB peripherals that were made of translucent colored plastic to match the color schemes of the original iMac[10]
Via the USB port, hardware makers could make products compatible with both PCs and Macs. This has allowed Macintosh users to use a large selection of inexpensive devices, such as hubs, scanners, storage devices, USB flash drives and mice.
After the iMac, Apple continued to remove older peripheral interfaces and floppy drives from the rest of its product line.
iMac G3
streamlined the company's large and confusing product lines immediately after becoming Apple's interim CEO in 1997; toward the end of the year, Apple trimmed its line of desktop Macs down to the beige Power Macintosh G3 series. Having discontinued the consumer-targeted Performa series, Apple needed a replacement for the Performa's price point. The company announced the iMac on 6 May 1998[1] and started shipping it on 15 August 1998. The launch of the iMac was a landmark event for its time, and had a massive impact on both the company and the computer industry.Aesthetically, the iMac was dramatically different from any other mainstream computer ever released. It was made of translucent "Bondi Blue"-colored plastic, and was egg-shaped around a 15-inch (38 cm) CRT. There was a handle, and the computer interfaces were hidden behind a door that opened on the right-hand side of the machine. Two headphone jacks in the front complemented the built-in stereo speakers. Jonathan Ive, currently Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, is credited with the industrial design.
Legacy Macintosh peripheral connections, such as the ADB, SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), and GeoPort serial ports, were eliminated in favor of USB ports; the floppy drive was discarded. Although these were aging technologies, Apple's move was considered ahead of its time and was hotly debated.[citation needed] For example, there was no analogous way to exchange small files with other existing machines, possibly requiring owners to buy an external USB floppy drive (the floppy drives sold well in the first few years of the iMac G3)[citation needed].
The keyboard and mouse were redesigned for the iMac with translucent plastics and a Bondi Blue trim (Apple USB Keyboard and Apple USB Mouse). The keyboard was smaller than Apple's previous keyboards, with white letters on black keys, both features that attracted debate. The mouse was of a round, "hockey puck" design, which was instantly derided as being unnecessarily difficult for users with larger hands. Apple continued shipping the round mouse, adding a divot in later versions so that users could distinguish where the button was. Eventually, a new oblong optical mouse, known as the Apple Mouse (formerly Apple Pro Mouse), replaced the round mouse across all of Apple's hardware offerings.Internally, the iMac was a combination of the MacNC project and CHRP.[citation needed] Although the promise of CHRP has never been fully realized, the work that Apple had done on CHRP significantly helped in the designing of the iMac. The original iMac had a 233 MHz PowerPC G3 (PowerPC 750) chip, with 512 KB L2 cache running at 116.6 MHz, which also ran in Apple's high-end Power Macintosh line at the time, though at higher speeds, with more expensive models shipping with 1 MB L2 cache. It sold for US$1,299, and had a 4 GB hard drive, 32 MB RAM, 2 MB video RAM, and shipped with Mac OS 8.1, which was soon upgraded to Mac OS 8.5. Parts such as the front-mounted IrDA port and the tray-loading CD-ROM drive were borrowed from the Apple laptops. Although the iMac did not officially have an expansion slot, the first versions had a slot dubbed the "mezzanine slot".[2] It was only for internal use by Apple, although a few third-party expansion cards were released for it, including some CPU upgrades from Newer Technology, a Voodoo II video card upgrade from 3dfx, and SCSI/SCSI-TV tuner cards (iProRAID and iProRAID TV) from the German company Formac; this was removed from later iMacs. According to an article in the German computer magazine c't, the socket can be retrofitted on revision C iMacs.[citation needed] The hard drive in the iMac G3 was a Quantum Fireball.The iMac line was continually updated after initial release. Aside from increasing processor speed, video RAM, and hard-disk capacity, Apple replaced Bondi blue with new colors—initially blueberry, strawberry, tangerine, grape, and lime; later other colors, such as graphite, ruby, sage, snow, and indigo, and the "Blue Dalmatian" and "Flower Power" patterns. A later hardware update created a sleeker design. This second-generation iMac featured a slot-loading optical drive, FireWire, "fanless" operation (through free convection cooling), and the option of AirPort wireless networking. Apple continued to sell this line of iMacs until March 2003, mainly to customers who wanted the ability to run the older Mac OS 9 operating system.
USB and FireWire support, and support for dial-up, Ethernet, and wireless networking (via 802.11b and Bluetooth) soon became standard across Apple's entire product line. In particular, the high-speed interface, FireWire, corrected the deficiencies of the earlier iMacs.
The iMac CRT model was renamed as the iMac G3, as it was now targeted at the education market, it was kept in production alongside the iMac G4 successor for a short while until the eMac was released.
As Apple continued to release new versions of its computers, the term "iMac" continued to be used to refer to machines in its consumer desktop line. Later redesigns of the iMac, however, never matched the first iMac in sales, mainly because they were targeted at a more expensive market segment.[citation needed]
iMac G4
was a computer that was produced by Apple from the beginning of 2002 to mid 2004. It replaced the aging iMac G3. The computer had a new design compared to older Macs. It had a 15-inch LCD which was mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading optical drive and a fourth-generation CPU (the PPC 74xx-series). This LCD computer was known and sold as The New iMac throughout its production life, while existing egg-shaped iMac was renamed the iMac G3 and continued to be sold for a few months. After the New iMac was discontinued, it was retroactively labeled iMac G4 to distinguish itself from the succeeding iMac G5 which also had an LCD screen.Apple advertised it as having the flexibility of a desk lamp and it was nicknamed the "iLamp", similar to "Luxo Jr.", who was featured in a short film produced by Pixar, another venture of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The iMac G4 ad is memorable, as the computer sits in a store window and it "reacts" to every move that the street passerby does to it; at the end when the person sticks out his tongue the iMac responds by having its optical drive tray slide out. Another print ad of the iMac G4 attempted to dispel the five myths surrounding Macintosh computers, by touting their compatibility and superiority to Windows PCs, ending with the final myth "Macintoshes are easier to use than PCs. Guilty as charged."
The iMac G4 was incrementally upgraded. They were made available with 17-inch (43 cm) and then 20-inch (51 cm) widescreen LCDs over the following two years. By then, Apple had all but eliminated the CRT machines from its product line. However, the LCD iMacs were unable to match the low price point of the previous iMac G3s, largely because of the higher cost of the LCD technology at the time.
The iMac G3 was, by this point, obsolete and low-cost machines were particularly important for the education market. It was still being sold for a while after the iMac G4 debuted, until the G3 found a permanent replacement in April 2002 with the eMac. The eMac is a G4-powered Macintosh that resembles the original iMac G3 with the egg-shape encasing a flat 17-inch CRT in an all-in-one design. It was initially sold only to the educational market (the "e" stands for "education"), but Apple started selling it to the general public a month later. The eMac was essentially the 17-inch iMac that consumers had been requesting a few years earlier. By 2005 Apple had returned to selling the eMac exclusively to the educational market, presumably because of the introduction of the low-cost Mac Mini, targeted at the same market.
The iMac G4 was replaced by the iMac G5 on August 31, 2004. Reaction to the iMac G5 was mixed, though it was a more powerful computer, reviewers commented that it was less aesthetic since it did not retain the flexible adjustable arm.iMac G4 (iMac Flat Panel)
iMac G4
The Flat Panel iMac G4
The iMac G4.
Type: Desktop
Developer: Apple Inc
Released: January 7, 2002
Processor(s): PowerPC G4, 700 MHz–1.25 GHz
The iMac G4 was one of the biggest improvements and advancements in Apple Inc's growing empire of Mac desktops. The computer was considered completely separate from the previous, half egg shaped G3 models. Some new features included a flat-panel LCD screen, with diagonal measurements up to 20 inches; tray loading DVD+CD drive; and many more features. Critics and consumers took to the new Mac style nicely, but many missed the slot loading drive that were available in earlier models. The floating monitor was easily adjustable, and stood at any angle around the dome-shaped bottom. Unlike previous iMac models, the iMac G4 came only in white, and was not translucent like the iMac G3s.
The Gateway Profile attempted to compete with the iMac G4 in the all-in-one LCD computer market. The reviewer noted that the Profile had better processing power, due to its Intel Pentium 4, whereas the iMac was hampered because its G4 chip lacked the 1MB L3 cache that PowerMac G4 chips had. The iMac had clear advantages in LCD screen quality (it uses a digital LCD as opposed to an analog LCD), aesthetics (particularly the flexible monitor arm), and multimedia. Ending up, the reviewer concluded that the iMac was good for introducing users to a Macintosh, but he noted that their (relatively) expensive prices were approaching that of laptops, which are actually portable and have higher resolution LCD screens. The Profile would also be undercut by numerous OEM offerings (including one from Gateway) that bundled an LCD screen with the box containing a Pentium 4.iMac versus Gateway Profile
* January 7, 2002 — Apple introduces a new iMac line with three models.[1] It has a new futuristic form factor and contains a 700 or an 800 MHz G4 processor, and is only available in white. The display is now a 15-inch LCD, easily positioned by the "swing arm" attaching it to the base. (15-inch, 800 MHz model is M9250LL/A)
* July 17, 2002 — A new 800 MHz model with a 17-inch screen and an updated GPU is added to the line. (M8812LL/A)
* February 4, 2003 — The line is slimmed down to two models, one with a 15-inch LCD and a new 1.0 GHz model with a 17-inch LCD (M8935LL/A). AirPort Extreme as well as Bluetooth are available on the 17-inch model. The 15-inch model is largely identical to the January 2002 models.
* August 2003 — The iMac 15-inch and 17-inch models are upgraded to a 1.0 GHz and 1.25 GHz G4 processors, respectively (M9285LL/A, M9168LL/A). New features are USB 2.0 and DDR memory, and they both now support AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth.
* November 18, 2003 — 20-inch screen model (M9290LL/A) is added that is capable of a 1680 × 1050 pixel screen resolution, and features a 1.25 GHz G4 processor.
iMac G5
The iMac G5 was the last line of iMac computers that used a PowerPC chip. In August 2004, the iMac design was overhauled. By this time, the PowerPC 970 chip had been released and was being used in the Power Macintosh G5 line. Famously, the Power Macintosh G5 needed multiple fans in a large casing because of the larger heat output from the PowerPC 970. Apple's new iMac design managed to incorporate the PowerPC 970 into an all-in-one design with a distinctive form factor that echoed the Netpliance i-Opener internet appliance. The new design of the iMac used the same 17 and 20-inch widescreen LCDs, with all of the main logic board and optical drive mounted directly behind the LCD panel; this gave the appearance of a thickened desktop LCD monitor.The iMac G5 was updated in October 2005 with a thinner design, an iSight webcam mounted above the LCD, and Apple's Front Row media interface. This version had a slightly bowed back and lacked the VESA Flat Display Mounting Interface of the earlier G5 iMacs.
The G5's all-in-one form factor was retained after Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel chips. * August 31, 2004 — Apple releases an all-new iMac line,[1] with both the LCD screen (17 or 20-inch widescreen) and computer (including power supply) contained in a 2-inch thick flat-panel housing. Its specifications include:
o A PowerPC G5 processor at 1.6 or 1.8 GHz
o Serial ATA hard drive (ATA in the Education Model)
o An NVIDIA GeForce 5200 Ultra GPU
o USB 2.0 and FireWire 400
o 10/100BASE-T Ethernet port,
o A V.92 modem
o A video-out port, an analogue audio-in jack, and a combination analogue/mini-TOSLINK audio-out jack (like the one in the AirPort Express units)
The enclosure is suspended above the desk by an aluminum arm that can be replaced by a VESA mounting plate, allowing the unit to be mounted using any VESA-standard mount. Apple boasts that it is the slimmest desktop computer on the market. The iMac G5 is available in three retail models (17-inch, 1.6 GHz is M9363LL/A; 17-inch, 1.8 GHz is M9249LL/A; 20-inch, 1.8 GHz is M9250LL/A) plus one education-only model that has no optical drive, no modem, and a more modest GeForce MX4000 graphics system.
Here was the ad campaign.
* May 3, 2005 — Apple releases "Rev. B", or the "Ambient Light Sensor" line (the name refers to a new light sensor on the bottom of the iMac that adjusts the glow intensity of the white pulsating sleep indicator light according to the ambient light). The entry model is now 17-inch, 1.8 GHz (M9843LL/A). The mid-model is 17-inch, 2.0 GHz (M9844LL/A) and the top model is 20-inch, 2.0 GHz (M9845LL/A). All models now feature 512 MB of RAM standard; the hard drive capacity is increased to 250 GB on the top model, with an option of 400 GB. Optional upgrades now include a double-layered 8× SuperDrive. All models now feature Airport Extreme wireless, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics chip with 128 MB of VRAM as standard. Also the 10/100 network interface has been upgraded to 10/100/1000. All models now ship with iLife '05 and Apple's new Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.
* October 12, 2005 — At the "One More Thing" event, Apple released new iMac G5s (the "Rev. C", or the "iSight" line); a 17-inch display running at 1.9 GHz (MA063L/A) and 20-inch display model running at 2.1 GHz (MA064L/A) with:
o A built-in USB 2.0 iSight camera
o A remote control called Apple Remote
o 512 MB PC2-4200 (533 MHz) DDR2; expandable to 2.5 GB total memory
o Slot-loading 8× double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
o Mighty Mouse
o A PCI-Express ATI Radeon X600 (Pro for the 17-inch model and XT for the 20-inch model) graphics chip with 128 MB DDR VRAM
o Built-in media center software called Front Row
o Horizontal input ports rather than vertical configuration.
o Thinner 1.5 inch (3.8 cm) flat panel housing with a curved rear housing
o Note: the built-in V.92 modem was removed and is now offered as the optional Apple USB Modem. The USB modem is available on the Apple Store website and also in Apple retail stores.
o In February 2006, Apple discontinued the 17-inch iMac G5 and began solely selling a 20-inch iMac G5 for US$1,499.
o The iMac G5 was completely discontinued in March 2006.
30 November 2005: The iMac G5 was declared "The Gold Standard of desktop PCs" by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal.
iMac (Intel-based)
The iMac is a midrange to high end desktop computer offered by Apple. The current Apple iMac features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, ATI Radeon HD graphics, and a choice of a 20" screen or a 24" screen, both glossy.The iMac has an enclosure shaped like that of Apple's Cinema Displays and styling reminiscent to that of the iPhone. The front is made of a single sheet of aluminum with a plate of glass covering the monitor, while the backside is made of black plastic.Macworld Conference and Expo on January 10, 2006, Steve Jobs announced that the new iMac would be the first Macintosh to use an Intel CPU, the Core Duo. The features, price, and case design remained unchanged from the iMac G5. The processor speed, according to tests run by Apple using SPEC,[1] was declared as two to three times faster.
In early February 2006, Apple confirmed reports of video display problems on the new Intel-based iMacs. When playing video on Apple's Front Row media browser, some 20-inch iMacs (those built-to-order with upgraded video cards) showed random horizontal lines, ghosting, video tearing and other problems. The problem was fixed with a software update.
In late 2006, Apple introduced a new version of the iMac which included a Core 2 Duo chip and a lower price. Apple added a new 24" model with a resolution of 1920×1200 (WUXGA), making it the first iMac to be able to display 1080 HD content in its full resolution, and a VESA Flat Display Mounting Interface. Except for the 17–inch 1.83 GHz processor model, this version also included an 802.11n draft card.[2]
The current iMac ships with the Mighty Mouse, Apple Keyboard, Bluetooth and AirPort cards, an internal iSight camera, the Apple Remote for use with Front Row, and a power cord. A Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse are available for additional cost
