How the iMac saved Apple

The original iMac entered a computing world that was in desperate need of a shake-up.

After the wild early days of the personal computer revolution, things had become stagnant by the mid-1990s. Apple had spent a decade frittering away the Mac's advantages until most of them were gone, blown out of the water by the enormous splash of Windows 95. It was the era of beige desktop computers chained to big CRT displays and other peripherals.

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to an Apple that was at death's door, and in true Princess Bride style, he rapidly ran down a list of the company's assets and liabilities. Apple didn't have a wheelbarrow or a holocaust cloak, but it did have a young industrial designer who had been experimenting with colors and translucent plastic in Apple's otherwise boring hardware designs.

The original iMac is simply a delightful machine. I vividly remember that the reception and administrative workers at the orthodontic department at the hospital in Alkmaar used them, and teenage me would peek past the reception desk to catch glimpses of the colourful machines.

I still love the original iMac.