Steve Jobs and the unveiling of the original iMac G3

The original iMac was largely responsible from bringing Apple back from its ashes in the late nineties, after screwed-up CEOs such as Scully brought the once-mighty Apple to its knees in the 1994-1997 period. When Steve Jobs (all hail the God!!) came back he axed almost all the product lines and kept only the PowerBook and the Power Mac lines (bybye Newton!). However he needed a consumer desktop, and the original iMac was the answer.

The Original iMac G3

The original iMac signified the start of a brand new world for Apple, as such it was often referred as the first of the New World Macs, distinguished from the Old World Macs mainly through the splendid designs which Jobs demanded for all the Macs that created under his supreme reign. The original iMacs served their purpose and lasted through many years all the way until 2002, when the second generation iMac, nicknamed the Lampshade, debuted.

iMac G4 – The Lampshade

Fast forward to 2007. The current iMac is technically speaking, the 4th Generation iMac, if we were to classify the iMacs by the chips that power them. The original iMac was called the iMac G3, the Lampshade the iMac G4, then there will be the iMac G5, the third generation iMac, and then the current iMac, iMac Intel Core Duo/Core 2 Duo. However, during the transition from PPC chips to Intel chips, with the exception of the MacBooks, the other lines did not see much of a redesign in their form factors at all. Which is why generally though, the current iMac is still referred to as the third generation iMac.

The current iMac

While the current generation iMac is extremely pleasing to the eye and is indeed a wonder piece of art that still looks like it’s centuries ahead of its PC counterparts, to me it feels pretty dated already, probably because it really is dated. It has been out ever since 2004, which makes this its 3rd/4th year and in New World Macs land, 3 or 4 years is a long time.

Which is why I am really really excited at the rumored redesigned 20 and 24-inch iMacs. I have sold off my MacBook a while ago, and am currently only using my iBook G4 with a 19-inch widescreen LCD monitor through screen spanning (thanks SSD!). While I like the iBook (it is my first Mac), performance wise it is quite dated. It is a G4 after all. I have been planning to buy the next 24-inch iMac that comes along until I read about the upcoming redesigned iMacs. What perfect timing! I could not have asked for more from the great God Steve Jobs.

That said, I will still very much like to own a 3rd generation iMac. Perhaps I will buy one of those refurbished Core 2 Duo iMacs for my brother when their prices drop. Hehz.