‘A real stroke of genius.’ How Apple’s iMac G3 became an object of desire

The iMac G3 was arguably the first fashionable computer, becoming a late ’90s and Y2K staple, with around 6.5 million units sold before it was retired in 2003.

Beige, boring and a bit too complicated — in the 1990s, personal computers had about as much charisma as an underwhelming date. Compaq and IBM dominated the market, churning out homogenous boxy monitors, keyboards and modems.

But, out of the (Bondi) blue in August 1998, soon after its cofounder Steve Jobs had returned to a company in crisis, Apple introduced a bold new design that drastically shifted our relationship with technology. Twenty-five years ago today, the unusual jewel-toned line of iMac G3 desktops came onto the tech scene; shaped like an egg and with a 15-inch CRT display, the intricacies of its hardware visible beneath a translucent plastic shell.

“Chic. Not Geek,” one of its print ads proclaimed. Not only was the first line of iMacs meant to be easy to use at a time when home computers were still largely marketed to businesses and tech enthusiasts, the computers were easy on the eyes, too. In television commercials, the iMac slowly spun around — presented as an object to be objectified.

“It was the first machine that was pitched to ordinary people, ordinary consumers, to put in their homes,” said Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of the blog Cult of Mac. “And it looked like something from outer space, from ‘The Jetsons’… Very futuristic, very exciting design.”

“The iMac G3 was all about the candy colours. It was all about having this desire,” explained Paola Antonelli, senior curator of design and architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which has the G3 in its permanent collection. “You would not get disappointed when you got the object. From the campaign to the packaging, that was Jobs’ genius.”

Today, we’re well accustomed to signalling style and status with our devices. Centrepiece desktops; luminescent, ever-thinner smart phones; technicolour gaming setups. But the iMac G3 was arguably the first fashionable computer, becoming a late ’90s and Y2K staple, with around 6.5 million units sold before it was retired in 2003. It became entrenched in pop culture, with cameos in movies like “Men in Black,” “Mean Girls,” and, of course, a supporting role in “Zoolander.” (“The files are IN the computer!”)

The iMac’s designer, Jony Ive, was a key figure in the curation of our personal devices during his tenure at Apple, which he left in 2019 to start his own design firm. Influenced by Dieter Rams, the German designer who prized clarity and simplicity of form, Ive — with input from Jobs — developed clean, striking silhouettes.