How Steve Jobs saved Apple with the iMac 25 years ago

Posted By on May 7, 2023

Memories: We had two of them — The original iMac in 1998

On May 6, 1998, Steve Jobs announced the iMac, and we wouldn’t now have the iPhone, the Apple Store, or even Apple itself, if it hadn’t been such a success.

If there’s ever any doubt that the iMac is a phenomenal success, just try to think of any other computer — any other device — that is still being sold a quarter of a century after it was launched. The iMac of 2023 may be vastly different to the original one announced in 1998, but it’s not just that it has kept the name.

Today’s iMac is this slim, sleek design and 1998’s was fat and bulbous, but they are recognizably the same at heart. The iMac has always been an all-in-one computer, where a single unit houses the display and the actual computer part.

In the 1990s, existing computer users and the trade press all saw that this meant owners couldn’t mix and match different screens or other peripherals. They saw that you got what you got, and if you wanted something else, that was your problem.

“But the iMac (pronounced EYE-Mac — the ”i” stands for Internet) also departs from computer industry standards in other ways, and customers will have to decide whether different means better,” wrote the  in 1998. “The drawback of such a design is that people are locked into using the iMac’s 15-inch screen… [but] the iMac screen is one of the best 15-inch displays available.”

MORE of the article at AppleInsider

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