Beyond Bondi

Apple unleashed the iMac 266 in five fruity flavors last week. Besides yellow (lemon? banana?), the only significant color missing was Bondi Blue, the color of the original iMac.

Is the color we embraced last August already passé?

Personally, I don't consider Bondi Blue to be an eye-catching color like Strawberry, Lime, or Tangerine. It's attractive, but not in a glaring way like most of the new iMac colors.

In fact, it looks quite comfortable in the workplace, especially with the color scheme of our offices (off white and dark green).

So why the gloriously gaudy colors? Maybe to help keep the iMac out of the workplace and sell more Power Macs.

It's as good an explanation as any.

Three Steps Forward . . .

The iMac 266 offers more speed and a larger hard drive than the original. For the extra $150-200 over the Revision B, it's an exceptional value. And you finally have a choice of colors.

. . . Two Steps Back

Apple actually managed to offer more speed and storage space at a lower price by eliminating two features of the original iMac: infrared (IrDA) networking and the mezzanine slot.

IrDA might have caught on, especially since the PowerBooks already support it. Wireless networking at 40% the speed of 10Base-T ethernet is a very nice feature. But it's gone, and there's no uproar over its absence.

I wonder if there's a market for an add-on IrDA device for the iMac similar to Farallon's AirDock for LocalTalk devices.

IrDA was a neat thing, but never generated the interest that the mezzanine slot did. Thanks to that "unsupported" connector, it would be possible to add SCSI, LocalTalk, video, ADB, and other ports to the iMac without a USB adapter. And then came the Game Wizard Voodoo 2 graphics accelerator for game players.

Without the mezzanine slot, the potential market is limited to the size of the 233 MHz iMac's production run.

Recommendation: if the mezzanine slot is something you might use and you don't already own an iMac, seriously consider picking up the Bondi model while supplies last. Apple may never bring the mezzanine slot back.

But I hope there will be an outcry from the Macintosh community, a petition drive to bring back the iMac's one and only expansion slot.

Interesting that the first Macs had no expansion slots, then Apple added them, but with the iMac they had one, then removed it.

There may be other factors involved, such as the size of the power supply and cost of the connector, but I think most of us would gladly pay $50 more for a mezzanine equipped iMac.

Good-bye, Good Buy

The iMac 233's days are numbered. They have to be: Apple can only make so many computers. At the rate they built iMacs, that's about 2,000,000 per year, leaving just enough production capacity for about 1,000,000 PowerBooks and Power Macs. (These are just educated guesses, but they are in the ballpark.)

So unless Apple builds another factory or outsources manufacture, the current inventory of the Bondi iMac is all there's ever going to be.

Buy 'em while they're cheap.

Beyond Bondi

The people who have to be most frustrated with the new iMac color scheme have got to be the companies that have introduced Bondi-and-Ice iMac peripherals.

How good will they look with a Grape or Blueberry iMac?

They'll have to rethink marketing quickly. Offer peripherals in Bondi plus five new colors? Ignore the new colors and hope Bondi won't look too out of place? Pick one of the new colors and run with it?

Most likely, we'll see several trends. On small, relatively inexpensive items or products with large markets, we'll see them available in all the colors. On several of these items, its only one or two pieces of plastic that would have to be changed.

Some manufacturers will offer color upgrade kits, much as Kensington did with balls for its Turbo Mouse trackball. Buy the mouse, hub, or whatever, send in $15 with an enclosed coupon, and get replacement parts in colors to match your iMac.

And some manufacturers will get creative. Their iMac peripherals will abandon Bondi and Lime in favor of gray, ice, and black - or go the opposite extreme and incorporate several different colors in a manner designed to complement any iMac.

I'd hate to be the one who bet the company on Bondi peripherals, but I think peripheral manufacturers will respond quickly with new color schemes for the new iMacs.

And then there's the blue of the new Power Mac G3. . . . 

Recent Content on Low End Mac

• Looking for a Content Management System That's as Easy as Mac, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 08.29. Low End Mac needs to move to a content management system, but the few we've tried just don't cut it for people used to the simple elegance of the Mac.
• First 3 Million Mac Quarter, Skinny on Mac mini Pricing, Mac-like gOS, and More, Mac News Review, 08.29. More plan to buy Apple products than ever before, complete reset can fix MobileMac synch problems, Apple boosting computer and smartphone share, and more.
• New 'Books Likely in September, 17" PowerBook Display Fault Site, SSD Security, and More, The 'Book Review, 08.29. Also 6 ways to speed up your MacBook, next generation MacBook Air CPU, MacBook Air Update, LapStrap carrying solution, rise and fall of ultraportables, bargains from $220 to $2,699, and more.
• iPhone 3G Reception 'Completely Normal', AT&T International Data Plans for iPhone, and More, iNews Review, 08.29. Also longer life for iPod earbuds, an alternative to MobileMe, new cases and apps for iPhone, AppStoreGems website launched, and more.
• 10 Mac Browsers Compared, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 08.28. A look at Internet Explorer, Radon, Opera, Safari, Shiira, iCab, Firefox, Netscape Navigator, Flock, and Camino running in Leopard.
• Clone and Boot: Another Advantage of the Mac OS, Kev Kitchens, Kitchens Sync, 08.28. Unlike Windows, Apple makes it possible to clone a bootable drive (Classic Mac OS or OS X) and use it with another supported Mac.

Latest Deals on Low End Mac

• Best Power Mac G4 Deals, 08.29. Used 450 MHz AGP, $75; 500, $99; 800 QS, $199; 1.25 GHz MDD, $375; 450 MHz dual, $179; 867 dual, $300; 1 GHz dual, $395; 1.42 dual, $575.
• Best iBook G3 Deals, 08.29. Used 300 MHz clamshell, $150; 500 CD, $150; 800, $200; 600 CD-RW, $240; 900 Combo, $300; 14" 600, $360; 900, $400.
• Best iPod nano Deals, 08.29. Used 2 GB iPod nano, $89; refurb 3G 4 GB, $99; new, $140; refurb 8 GB, $149; new, $179.
• Best MacBook Deals, 08.28. Used 1.83 GHz, $799; 2.0 black, $875; refurb 2.1 GHz, $899; 2.4, $1,099; black, $1,299; new 2.1, $1,019 after rebate; 22, $1,094; 2.4, $1,219 a/r; black, $1,394 a/r.
• Best iMac G5 Deals, 08.28. Used 17" 1.6 GHz Combo, $499; 1.8 SuperDrive, $530; 2.0, $600; 1.9 iSight, $625; 20" 1.8 GHz, $580; 2.0, $650; 2.1 iSight, $700.
• Best classic Mac OS Deals, 08.28. System 6, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5.1, $4; Mac OS 7.6, $13; 8.0, $13; 8.1, $48; 8.5, $25; 8.6, $20; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $20; more.
• More links in our archive.

Go to the iMac channel home page.

Low End Mac was started on 1997.04.07. The iMac Channel est'd 1998.06.06. This page and the entire Low End Mac site copyright ©1997-2004 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. Copyright for individual articles resides with the author. All rights reserved.

Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Computers are like that. Please report errors to Dan Knight .

Letters sent to Low End Mac may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Email addresses will not be published unless the sender specifically requests it. If you prefer that your message not be published on Low End Mac, clearly mark your message "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.

LINK POLICY: This site allows and encourages links to any public page, so long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking the linked page.

PRIVACY POLICY: In brief, we don't collect any personal information unless you subscribe to one of our email lists, in which case you have to give us your email address.

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Computer, Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iMac, and iBook are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are hereby acknowledged.