Beige, boring and a bit too complicated 鈥 in the 1990s, personal computers had about as much charisma as an underwhelming date. Compaq and IBM dominated the market, churning out homogenous boxy monitors, keyboards and modems.
But, out of the (Bondi) blue in August 1998, soon after its cofounder Steve Jobs had returned to a company in crisis, Apple introduced a bold new design that drastically shifted our relationship with technology. Twenty-five years ago today, the unusual jewel-toned line of iMac G3 desktops came onto the tech scene; shaped like an egg and with a 15-inch CRT display, the intricacies of its hardware visible beneath a translucent plastic shell.
鈥淐hic. Not Geek,鈥 one of its print ads proclaimed. Not only was the first line of iMacs meant to be easy to use at a time when home computers were still largely marketed to businesses and tech enthusiasts, the computers were easy on the eyes, too. In television commercials, the iMac slowly spun around 鈥 presented as an object to be objectified.
鈥淚t was the first machine that was pitched to ordinary people, ordinary consumers, to put in their homes,鈥 said Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of the blog . 鈥淎nd it looked like something from outer space, from 鈥楾he Jetsons鈥欌 Very futuristic, very exciting design.鈥
鈥淭he iMac G3 was all about the candy colours. It was all about having this desire,鈥 explained Paola Antonelli, senior curator of design and architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which has the G3 in its permanent collection. 鈥淵ou would not get disappointed when you got the object. From the campaign to the packaging, that was Jobs鈥 genius.鈥
Today, we鈥檙e well accustomed to signalling style and status with our devices. Centrepiece desktops; luminescent, ever-thinner smart phones; technicolour gaming setups. But the iMac G3 was arguably the first fashionable computer, becoming a late 鈥90s and Y2K staple, with around 6.5 million units sold before it was retired in 2003. It became entrenched in pop culture, with cameos in movies like 鈥淢en in Black,鈥 鈥淢ean Girls,鈥 and, of course, a supporting role in 鈥淶oolander.鈥 (鈥溾)
The iMac鈥檚 designer, Jony Ive, was a key figure in the curation of our personal devices during his tenure at Apple, which he left in 2019 to start his own design firm. Influenced by Dieter Rams, the German designer who prized clarity and simplicity of form, Ive 鈥 with input from Jobs 鈥 developed clean, striking silhouettes.
Ive鈥檚 designs for Apple later evolved to spotless white plastic computers, then grayscale aluminium, leaving bursts of color to small devices like iPod Minis. But the iMac G3 鈥 followed by its offshoots, the Clamshell iBook laptop and Power Mac G3 tower 鈥 ruled as a visual icon of 鈥90s tech, which saw everything from gaming consoles to point-and-shoot cameras become vividly hued exhibitionists.
鈥(Apple) recognized that fashion and design and aesthetics were some of the most important factors when the whole industry was ignoring those things,鈥 Kahney said. 鈥淭he funny thing is, I think (the G3) looks really dated today 鈥 it鈥檚 like, 鈥極h my God, look at that late 鈥90s computer.鈥
(Still, when asked if he owned one, Kahney replied enthusiastically, 鈥淥h hell yeah鈥 鈥 a Blueberry edition from 1999.)
PLAYFUL NEW DESIGNS
The iMac G3 as we know it, however, nearly wasn鈥檛 made.
Though Apple had been buoyed by the release of the original Macintosh computer in 1984, it was hindered by other flops 鈥 like the US$10,000 Lisa computer 鈥 and was barely cracking at behemoth IBM鈥檚 market share into the 鈥90s. Jobs was ousted from the company he co-founded in 1985 over boardroom drama with then-CEO John Sculley, and didn鈥檛 return for over a decade, launching the startup NeXT in the interim.
When he came back to lead in 1997, at first as a temporary CEO, 鈥渋t was the beginning of a long battle at Apple to change the culture of the company,鈥 said Kahney, who has authored biographies on both Jobs and Ive. They took it from 鈥渁n engineering- and marketing-driven company鈥 to a design-driven company.鈥
The iMac was originally code-named 鈥淐olumbus鈥 internally, because it was the start of a new world, according to Kahney. Still, as he wrote in his biography on Ive, Jobs at first rejected the egg-shaped model. But he warmed to its playfulness over time, and Ive continued down the path, designing its see-through exterior to make it feel accessible to consumers, as well as adding a handle on top (a detail later carried through for the much-lighter iBook laptop).
鈥淭he handle was ostensibly so that you could pick it up and carry it around鈥 the thing weighed 40 pounds 鈥 no one was picking up an iMac,鈥 Kahney said. 鈥淏ut the handle gave people permission to touch the machine. And it was a real stroke of genius鈥 (Ive鈥檚) designs are all very tactile. They鈥檙e designed to be held and touched.鈥
Jobs鈥 decisions in the name of simplicity included some gambles in the machine鈥檚 specs, from controversially ditching a floppy drive to relying on USB connections 鈥 then a nascent technology 鈥 over other standard ports.
But one of its biggest simplifications was key to its success: the ease of Internet access (hence the 鈥榠鈥 in the name iMac). As another of its famous commercials promised: 鈥淪tep one: Plug in. Step two: Get connected. Step three: There is no step three.鈥 The iMac came with everything a user needed to use the computer and get online, including an internal modem and stereo speakers, as well as a mouse and keyboard.
Other computers required a laundry list of choices, according to Jens Muller, author of the book 鈥淭he Computer,鈥 which traces a visual history of computing technology.
鈥淲hen the Internet became popular and widely available for end consumers in the second half of the 鈥90s, it was just perfect timing. It was a ready-to-use-computer, and it came with the Internet,鈥 he said. 鈥淎pple brought it down to one decision: Pick a colour.鈥
UNEXPECTED COMPANIONSHIP
After the iMac was first announced in May 1998, excitement mounted. Apple鈥檚 stock soared just ahead of the iMac鈥檚 release, and not even critical reviews about the lack of a floppy drive and its US$1,299 price tag (roughly US$2,400 today) halted momentum.
Having budgeted US$100 million just to market the iMac, the company鈥檚 influential campaigns of the era are burned into collective memory. Launched a year before the iMac鈥檚 debut, 鈥淭hink Different,鈥 a potent response to IBM鈥檚 tagline 鈥淭hink,鈥 celebrated renegade figures of history to drum up the appeal of the Apple brand. Then came the wave of ads celebrating the iMac鈥檚 elegance and ease 鈥 the MoMA鈥檚 Paola Antonelli draws attention in particular to one of the 鈥渂eautiful鈥 ads showing the computers from above, arranged like flower petals 鈥 positioning it as the panacea for the drab world of PCs.
The 鈥渕agic鈥 of Apple products, according to Antonelli, has always been 鈥渃onvincing you that it was worth it to pay more to get that type of quality. But not only quality, that type of interaction design,鈥 she explained.
How we communicate with our technology is a topic Antonelli has long explored, particularly through the 2011 MoMA exhibition 鈥淭alk to Me,鈥 which explored our evolving personal relationship with tech, and how devices like computers can cultivate emotional connections with their owners.
鈥淚n the digital age, we鈥檝e always had a rapport with objects鈥 we鈥檝e come to also expect more of a dialogue or more of a companionship, rather than just a presence,鈥 Antonelli said. 鈥淭hat idea of companionship with objects was (introduced) by Apple.鈥
When Apple released its first Macintosh computer 鈥 a simple box that evoked a robot鈥檚 head 鈥 in 1984, 鈥渋t was almost like a pet that you could have at home,鈥 she explained. With the introduction of the first iMacs, Apple had created 鈥渁 delightful and cuddly shape鈥 鈥 drawing comparisons in the press at the time to the beloved and personable 鈥淪tar Wars鈥 droid R2-D2. And three years later, the company rolled out a new, palm-sized musical friend, starting an era in which its products have never been far from reach.
Though, over the years, the visual language of the iMac G3 may have faded 鈥 today鈥檚 iMacs are closer descendants of the long-necked, streamlined G4 鈥 its legacy of vibrant colours have resurfaced in iPhones and iMacs, the latter in pastels, rather than fruit hues, in 2021. Rumors of colourful MacBook Airs also circulated last year, but have, as yet, failed to materialize. Still, with Y2K aesthetics back in the mix, younger generations becoming devotees of vintage tech, and new product lines feeling, well, repetitive, perhaps it鈥檚 time for the wonderful weirdness of the G3 to inspire once again.
