Simple elegance
On the second day of Steve Jobs’ return to Apple Computer in 1997, he met with a select group of analysts to explain his vision for reviving the struggling company.
The key, Jobs explained, was industrial design. Such an approach would restore Apple’s youthful, nonconformist identity and differentiate it from the bland, beige PCs the Mac had come to resemble.
“We didn’t really have much of a response to him, other than, ‘That sounds intriguing,”’ recalled Creative Strategies President Tim Bajarin, who was invited to the briefing.
Jobs made clear his intentions in May 1998, when he unveiled the original iMac. The all-in-one computer, with its curved turquoise shell, represented a dramatic departure for an industry making cookie-cutter boxes. And it marked an abrupt reversal of fortunes for Apple.
Sexy yet understated industrial design has come to define Apple. The latest version of the iMac, which began appearing in stores recently, is perhaps the purest expression of Jobs’ modernist design sensibilities: a machine stripped of all ornamentation. The snow-white computer is distilled to its essence — a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse.
Everything else — the computer, the optical drive and the multiple device ports — is hidden behind the flat-panel screen. There’s not even a label identifying the computer as an iMac.
Apple’s ability to continue to produce technology-as-art is key to the company’s vitality. The design reflects Apple’s positioning of the iMac as something other than a tool for word processing, spreadsheets and other dull, utilitarian applications.
Like the iPod music player it resembles, the new iMac is a lifestyle accessory; a fashion statement to be made while enjoying music, movies and digital photos. The iPod’s simple yet lightning-fast scroll-wheel design — letting music lovers access thousands of songs with a brush of a finger — has made the music player a runaway best-seller. The iMac follows the same principles: a spare, button-free surface and speedy G5 processor, which provide immediate gratification for those looking to edit their digital photos, create home movies or compose songs using Apple’s iLife software.
The new iMac G5 is more than a technological lust object. With the more-muscular G5 processor, you click on an application and, presto, it appears on the screen almost instantaneously. The G5 noticeably accelerates even simple tasks, such as enhancing digital photographs.
The 17-inch flat-panel screen projects DVD movies with the kind of vivid color and image sharpness that nearly matches a pricier, high-definition television. But perhaps what’s most striking is what’s missing: noise. Unlike the airplane-engine revving of other desktops, this creature is silent.
In some ways, the new iMac evokes the Macintosh’s design roots.
“The Mac was originally cute and easy to carry around, not as intimidating as other computers,” said Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group in Fremont, Calif., a design firm. “Twenty years ago, it was thicker. It had that baby kind of feeling, a little baby fat. Now, of course, it’s very slim. It’s like a supermodel. It’s a grown-up.”