In 2023 Macworld Editor David Price posted an article that you really should read: “The Mac’s slow descent into boredom shows how little fun Apple is having.”
And he’s right. The tech giant still makes great products, but the colorful 24-inch iMac is the only “fun” product the company sells. And the only one that captures the spirit of the original Bondi blue all-in-one.
Here’s some highlights from David’s article: The iMac celebrated its 25th birthday this weekend, and it was hard not to compare that joyous launch with the state of the Mac today. The very first iMac felt like a cultural event, and its appearance in colleges and home offices across the world was an inflection point in the development of consumer technology. Nowadays Apple struggles to generate anything like the same excitement for a Mac launch, and it’s hardly surprising that sales numbers are starting to flag.
Above all, it was groundbreaking aesthetically. The G3 iMac was arguably Jonny Ive’s finest hour, with a cute, colorful, translucent look that was like nothing we’d seen before but would go on to influence tech design for years to come. In a landscape of beige boxes, the iMac was eccentric and tactile, and a little silly. It was risky and different and certainly not perfect–that mouse, my goodness–but it was fun.
Compare that to the Mac range Apple is selling right now. Where’s the weirdness? Where’s the fun? The MacBook Air comes, not in Bondi Blue, Lime, and Tangerine, but in bluish-black, gray, silver, and the most muted gold in the world. The Mac mini is a sensible gray box. And the G3 iMac’s direct descendant, the 24-inch iMac, has replaced the bulbous blob shape with a rectangle and doesn’t even have the courage of its colors, hiding their full vibrancy around the back so the actual user sees only a faded facsimile.
Let’s see the all-in-one colors in their full glory on front of the iMac rather than the back. And let’s see some new colors.
Currently, the 24-inch iMac is available in blue (my favorite), green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and silver. How about a gold model? Red? Starlight (offered for some iPad models)? Midnight? (What hue would you like to see come to a 24-inch iMac?)
And let’s see some improvements that are more than eye candy while we’re at it. It’s time for Apple to give us an iMac with a height-adjustable stand. I also want a backlit keyboard and a Magic Mouse that doesn’t have to be plugged in at the bottom for recharging (really, Apple, that’s a horrible design choice). And is it just me or does anyone else wish that, if Apple is keeping the iMac’s chin, the Apple logo would once again appear on it?
And I hope Apple is brave enough to make the 24-inch iMac the first Mac with Face ID. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman thinks it might happen.
In a February 2022 “Power On” newsletter. On whether Face ID will ever come to the Mac, Gurman writes: Face ID was in the cards for the original M1 iMac. Naturally, the iMac is the thickest Mac with a built-in display since Apple’s laptops have fairly thin screens. At this point, the technology to embed Face ID into the thin MacBook displays doesn’t exist. So if Face ID comes to the Mac, I think it will be on an iMac or external monitor first. Apple has definitely been working on this, but time will tell if they launch it.
Dennis-
You forgot to mention the most obvious request for the ‘next’ iMac… It should offer a 27″ version.
Simple, obvious, and needed.
What nonsense! A computer is a tool, not a furbelow. I once called a dealer to purchase a Mac and the salesman immediately said, “What color?” At the time, I considered that an insult for asking for a Mac instead of a Windows Box, and a gross insult to my intelligence. It’s nice to have a choice of colors so you can match your computer to your decor, or your cats, but you won’t want to buy a new computer when you get new drapes.