IMac G3
The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of Macintosh personal computers that Apple Computer sold from 1998 to 2003. The iMac was Apple's first major product release under CEO Steve Jobs following his return to the financially troubled company he co-founded. Jobs reorganized the company and simplified the product line. The iMac was designed as Apple's new consumer desktop product—an inexpensive, consumer-oriented computer that would easily connect to the Internet.
The iMac's all-in-one design is based around a cathode-ray tube display; the G3 processor, components, and connectivity were all included in a single enclosure. Apple's head of design Jony Ive and his team developed a teardrop-shaped, translucent plastic case that was a radical departure from the look of the company's previous computers. The company developed new working methods to finish the computer quickly, and new workflows for designing future products. The iMac eschewed legacy technologies like serial ports and floppy disk drives in favor of CD-ROMs and USB ports.
Critical response to the iMac was mixed; journalists said the machine would be good for new computer users but bemoaned the lack of legacy technology, and said the separate mouse and keyboard were uncomfortable. Despite the reviews the iMac was an immediate commercial success, becoming Apple's fastest-selling computer, selling more than six million units in its lifetime.
The original model was revised several times, improving the processor speed, the amount of random-access memory, hard drive space, and other capabilities. The iMac is credited with saving Apple from financial ruin, and for turning personal computers from niche, technical products to mass-consumer fashion. Other computers and consumer products appropriated the translucent plastic look, leading to legal action from Apple. The iMac G3 series was succeeded by the iMac G4, and the iMac G3's position in education markets was replaced by the eMac.
Background
In the late 1990s, Apple Computer was experiencing severe financial difficulties. At the end of 1997, the company was selling 1.8 million Macs per year, in comparison with 4.5 million two years earlier. Apple's sales were compromised by licensed Mac systems that undercut and out-performed Apple's own products. Apple was unable to compete in the low-cost computer market, and entirely abandoned the sector.In December 1996, Apple purchased the NeXT computer company, founded by Steve Jobs. As part of the deal, he returned to Apple, the company he had co-founded in 1976 and then been ousted from in 1985. Apple also acquired NeXT's operating system NeXTSTEP, which would become the foundation for Apple's next-generation operating system Mac OS X. Jobs returned to Apple as an advisor but the company's board of directors dismissed CEO Gil Amelio on July 9, 1997, and Jobs replaced him in an interim capacity.
Around the same time, Apple's industrial design director Robert Brunner left the company and was succeeded by junior designer Jony Ive, who inherited the award-winning design team. Ive was dispirited with Apple's leadership and also considered leaving. At a meeting announcing Jobs's appointment as Apple's CEO, Jobs told his staff that Apple's problems stemmed from its poor products. Ive noted Jobs's focus on making industrial design a core part of Apple's comeback strategy. Ive and Jobs quickly developed a rapport, and Jobs retained Apple's industrial design team under Ive's leadership.
Jobs streamlined the company into profitability by cost-cutting, but the company still needed compelling products to boost sales. He planned to reduce Apple's extensive and confusing computer offerings to four products: a laptop and desktop model each for professionals and consumers. The planned consumer-oriented desktop computer would become the iMac.
Design
Jobs initially wanted the new consumer desktop to be a network computer—a cheap, low-powered terminal without disk drives that would connect to Internet servers. Ive's design team was given Jobs's specifications for the new product in September 1997: it should be a distinctive, all-in-one computer with a price of about $1,200, much lower than the for contemporary entry-level models. The engineering and design teams had less than one year to deliver a finished product.The design team tried to discern what objects conveyed the emotions they wanted the computer to evoke. While collaboratively developing sketches, designer Doug Satzger drew an ovoid drawing based on his earlier work on Thomson televisions. Ive and the rest of the team focused on the ovoid design, although Jobs initially rejected the look. Ive defended the design as playful and fun, and persuaded Jobs to accept the idea. Jobs began carrying a foamcore model of the computer around the Apple campus to show it off.
When discussing the idea of a machine that inspired positive emotions, the designers mentioned colorful candy dispensers. Materials tests with solid plastics looked cheap, so they made the case translucent. Translucent hardware design was not new to Apple's products; the Power Macintosh 8600, 9600, and Power Macintosh G3 tower computers had translucent green latches, and the LaserWriter 8500, eMate 300, and Studio Display incorporated translucent colored plastics more extensively. Former Apple senior designer Thomas Meyerhoffer described the eMate's plastics as a way of making the product accessible and distinctive. To Ive, the translucency "came across as cheeky" but meant the aesthetic design of the internal components would also need to be considered. Inspiration came from translucent items the designers brought to the office; one item was a piece of greenish-blue beach glass. This "Bondi blue" object inspired the color Jobs selected for the first iMac.
Apple's design team radically overhauled its processes to meet the tight deadline. In the past, they had sent two-dimensional blueprints or hand-drawn sketches to toolmakers to create molds, a laborious process that could take months. Instead, Apple relied on computer-aided design using the three-dimensional modeling program Alias Wavefront to sculpt designs, and CNC milling machines and primitive 3D printers to create physical mockups. Apple's product designers wrote software to allow the Wavefront 3D models to be brought into Unigraphics, a program that was used in aerospace design. This process allowed the engineers to compare 3D models of the computer's components with the casing, speeding up the process of finding a workable combination of external and internal elements.
Jobs reconsidered the network computer concept as similar products struggled in the market, and recalibrated the project as a full-featured computer with optical disc storage and hard drives. The finalized iMac's components and cathode-ray tube display are enclosed within a plastic shell. The translucent effect was achieved by mixing light-scattering particles into the plastic, instead of texturing the surface as is typically done with injection-molded parts. The computer features translucency throughout, such as the small foot to raise the computer, and the power cord resembling condensation on glass. Port labels and regulatory markings have holographic stickers. The design team added a recessed handle to the back of the computer to make it more personal and approachable for new computer users. The cost of the casing was more than three times that of a typical computer but Ive credited Jobs with intuitively understanding the design aims and not demanding justification for the increased costs. The keyboard and mouse were redesigned with matching translucent plastics and trim for the iMac. Ive was especially proud of the round mouse, which shows the complicated internal components that are partially hidden behind the Apple logo.
Jobs wanted the new computer to be a modern, legacy-free PC without old or proprietary technology. Engineers adapted the Common Hardware Reference Platform specification to speed development. This included standard SO-DIMM RAM of Windows-based PCs, and an Open Firmware read-only memory. While previous models stored substantial machine-specific OS components in ROM to minimize RAM use, with CHRP the iMac loaded them into RAM from storage, shortening production time. The iMac has no serial ports, Apple Desktop Bus, or floppy disk drive. To replace the removed ports, the iMac has Universal Serial Bus ports, which were faster and cheaper than Apple Desktop Bus and serial ports but were very new—the standard was not finalized until after the iMac's release—and unsupported by any third-party Mac peripheral. Jobs wagered USB would solve the problem of accessory makers abandoning the shrinking Mac market with its special connectors. The iMac does not officially have an expansion slot, but early versions include a PCI Mezzanine Card slot intended for internal use but for which a few third parties produced expansion cards, such as video card upgrades and SCSI ports. Early models have an IrDA infrared port that wirelessly connects personal digital assistants and other devices. Jobs was furious the initial iMac model came with a tray-loading CD-ROM drive rather than a more-modern slot-loading drive, and nearly canceled the product launch over it. Jobs continued with the launch after he was assured subsequent models would include a slot-loading CD-ROM drive as soon as possible.
In early 1998, representatives from the advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day were shown the new computer, codenamed "C1". Creative director Ken Segall said the agency's first impression was that the product might be too shocking to be successful. Jobs was proud to show off Apple's work, saying "the back of our computer looks better than the front of computers". Jobs informed Segall the internal name was "MacMan", contributed by Apple's marketing executive Phil Schiller, and solicited a study for a better name. Apple stipulated the name must contain "Mac", it must evoke easy Internet connectivity, and it must not sound portable or toy-like. TBWA spent a week developing other names; Segall's pick was "iMac"; it was short, it said the product was a Macintosh computer, and the i prefix suggested the internet. Jobs disliked all of the suggested names and gave the agency another week to generate more possibilities. At the next presentation, Segall once again ended with "iMac"; Jobs said he no longer hated the name but still preferred "MacMan". Segall thought he had failed, but the next day he learned Jobs had suggested the name to other employees and gotten a positive response. The product was thus named the iMac.