And why it was always the superior model.
Apple Computers Inc was founded on the 1st of April 1976. It was founded by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak with the vision that they were going to change the way people saw computers. Both Jobs and Wozniak first wanted to produce a computer that was small enough that it could be in people’s homes and not too complicated so a variety of people could use it.
The company started in a garage, where they first sold their computers without a monitor, keyboard or casing. This was something they would later develop in 1977, but they revolutionized the industry by introducing the first-ever color graphics and sales jumped from $7.8 million in 1978 to $117 million in 1980 which was the year that Apple finally went public.
Bypassing a lot of changes within the company between the years of 1983 and 1990 where both the founders left the company to pursue other passions of theirs. The decline of Apple started to show after 1990 which all of the plans that Steve Jobs had put in place were starting to wear off and they were not moving as fast as other companies like Microsoft to keep their credibility in the computing space.
In 1997, Apple bought out Steve Jobs’ other company NeXT software but not only that, but they also reached out to Jobs himself for help. So, Jobs became an interim CEO, or iCEO as he liked to call himself, he was not the official CEO until 2000. This is the industry-changing moment when Jobs formed an alliance with Microsoft to create a Mac version of the most popular office software.
Though the first iMac, the G3 version was actually released in 1998 and was known for its cheery pastel colors and difference to the other look of computer in the industry at the time. Specs included a 15-inch CRT and 5GB of a hard drive for the base model. The price tag was $1,299 for the 3.5-inch diskette, 233-Mhz IBM PowerPC.
It was four years, in the year 2002 when the next model was released, this was the G4. This was a great turning point for the company for mid-range desktops, but they had a hard time finding their place in the market because of its unique look that Apple prided itself on and also was more expensive than the model before (over $400) the 17-inch iMac was classed as too expensive for the general household and its limited upgradeability was a negative for use in offices.
The G5 model of the iMac was released on the 31st August 2004 but it made a bigger appearance when it was upgraded in 2005. Another big moment for the company was that this was valued back into the market where they wanted to be, providing computer services for the everyday man and woman but also being versatile enough to accommodate high-end offices and businesspeople.
The iMac G5 had a high-performance G5 processor and a stunning new design that was elegant, stylish and professional. It also packed a complete computer system into a mere two inches of depth and became the world’s thinnest desktop computer. The new line offered two options in their screen size which was 17 or 20 inches and had an active-matrix widescreen LCDs and G5 processor that would run up to 1.8GHz with a reasonable price tag of $1,200.
In 2006, Apple decided to switch over to the Intel Core line of microprocessors, which was new and exciting for the industry and was going to show why Apple was always ready for new changes in the industry and make the most out of its products to satisfy their customers. This new architecture would be able to offer substantial performance improvements to the iMac line, and Apple was solidifying their dominance in the computing space. Within one year, the iMac was refreshed again with the Core 2 Duo and now three different sizes of the monitor for the user, which was 17, 20 and 24-inch displays.
Since then, Apple has decided to remove the option of having a 17-inch screen and move into even large displays like 27 inches, which has been a fan favorite with creatives that enjoy the higher quality when editing photos, film or general design. The new iMac still uses unibody construction, but they have been revamped since 2007, they have adopted a much slimmer approach to their profile since Apple has dropped the optical drive for iMacs, the displays are now 5mm at the edges, but the back of the monitor still bulges out a little, but this is something that users have never seen to be a problem. But the functional reason for this is so that it can accommodate the stand, cooling and power connector.
All new iMacs also come with at least 6GB of DDR3 memory, the smaller displays max out at 16GB, but the 27-inch can handle up to 32GB.
After more than 30 years in the industry, it is undeniable that Apple has been able to adapt and innovate in the industry to keep up with the trends but also stand at the forefront of new technology that they can implement in not only their iMacs but across the range of products that they have.