A flat statement of design

Apple's iMac 2 revolutionizes the desktop once again

You can love it or you can hate it, but one thing is certain, you can't ignore it because this is Apple.
They own only five percent of the market and they sell pricey computers. Their genius is that they build state-of-the-art products that even grandma can easily use. But most importantly, they don't use Windows. If there's a computer company out there that can leave people speechless, it's Apple.
There are many bets won and many lost in the history of the Cupertino-based company: from the launch of the Macintosh, to the introduction of the Newton, to the recent iMac.
It was 1998, and Apple had a less than optimal financial situation and faced the hard-to-break Windows monopoly; that's when the company came out with the iMac. It was something radically new, with its egg shape and its colours, so different from the beige boxes of the PC world.
The shape, however, was not the only difference: Apple had decided to abolish floppy drives and use only USB ports to connect the various peripherals, even though there were very few USB peripherals at the time. Many people thought that Apple's end was near, due to the "absurdity" of those choices, but the candy machine became a qualified success, and the six million units sold to date bear good witness to this.
Now, after over three years since the release of the original iMac, Apple wants to astonish us again with its innovative product design. Inspired by a sunflower, the iMac 2 design abandons the idea of compactness that the previous models had accustomed us to, giving an image of total independence to its components.
At first sight this new creation is reminiscent of a basketball post, or a table lamp. In fact, some people already call it Luxo Jr. (the computer-animated swing-arm lamp from a Pixar short movie).
The base of the computer is shaped like a white dome about the size of a chopped melon, not higher than a CD, and with a diameter of about 10 inches; it elegantly contains the CD tray.
The monitor, a 15" flat LCD display (1024x768 resolution), is "suspended" above the base thanks to a stainless-steel articulated "neck." It looks as if the monitor is floating in the air, and a simple touch can adjust its orientation and position to fit our needs.
LCD flat screen displays are nowadays the latest object of desire for any computer buyer; they take very little space and most of all they do not strain our eyesight like common CRT monitors do.
The system is powered by G4 processors with speed variable between 700 and 800 MHz (clock speed is not a performance measure for processors).
Other nice features are the presence of the Superdrive, allowing DVDs as well as CDs to be burned, and of GeForce2 MX as graphic card. The new iMac comes with five USB ports, two of which are on the keyboard itself; two Firewire ports; a modem and network port; an integral microphone; an optical mouse; and the Apple Pro Keyboard.
Three models of the new iMac will be hitting the market. The first one, powered by a 700 MHz processor with 128 MB RAM and 40 GB hard disk, will sell for $2049. This sum goes up to $2399 for those who wish to enjoy the DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive and 256 MB of RAM. The 800 MHz model sports the same characteristics but is equipped with the SuperDrive and will cost $2899. This will be available before the end of January, while the intermediate model will arrive in mid-February and the least expensive version in March. All the models are Airport ready. (Airport is the name of the Apple wireless solution.)
The new iMacs come with tons of software, including iTunes for managing musical files, iPhoto for handling libraries of digital pictures, iDVD to create professionally-looking DVDs, and iMovie to give free rein to your desire to make a movie.
It seems that Steve Jobs has taken another rabbit out of the hat. Whatever the public's response, a new leaf has been turned. So, as Apple says, "Five down, 95 to go," it's time to move on and the new iMac is a good start.

Publication Date: 2002-01-20
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=836