From Steve Job's return to Apple in 1997 and the introduction of
the first iMac to the
latest G4 LCD iMac,
Apple has provided consumers with a uniquely designed
alternative-computing platform.
Apple ignited the idea of "colorful" electronics with the first
iMac. While it was not the first colorful piece of technology, the iMac
certainly caught the public's attention. Today, you can go into a store
and see Palms, mice, keyboards, monitors, radios, and even hairdryers
in blue, orange, raspberry, or some other translucent color.
About the only place you won't see any bright colors these days are
in Apple's Store. That's right, the company that ignited the "colorful
technology" trend has gone back to white, and although the white is not
the boring beige of PCs and older computers, it is far from 
colorful. With the G4 tower and Titanium PowerBooks, Apple
began slowly moving to a color scheme of silver or white. The G4 iMac,
introduced in January 2002, was also the end of the colorful "fruit
flavored" computers that saved Apple from its near demise in 1997.
There are reasons behind these "changing colors" at Apple, and I'd
like to give my own 2 cents here.
First, Apple makes expensive computers, and if people are going to
shell out that much money, they want something that looks elegant on
their desks, not something that looks like it belongs in Toys 'R' Us.
Second, a company has to change its image or it will not be able to
attract new customers (think the new "brawny man" campaign), which
Apple has succeeded in doing with the introduction of the iMac, the
"solid color" Apple logo, and now, more subtlety, with the white
computers.
These design and marketing ideas can lead to problems. At first,
Apple sold to a more professional market and to schools. By introducing
the iMac, a cheap computer that looked cool, they were able to attract
the average consumer to their product line. By removing color and
offering more expensive products (remember the $799 iMac, we all knew
that wouldn't last) such as Xserve and
dual G4 towers, Apple is going back into the professional and upscale
market, a move which can be good and bad.
Apple continues to cater to the average consumer's desires with
the eMac and iBook, but both these are
white. 
The "average" consumer who wants a white
computer will get a PC. Many people bought Macs because they wanted
something that stood out and made a statement. While I think that the
eMac and iBook are well designed and elegant, they are not the reason
that Apple sold millions of blue iMacs.
I'm just going to sit back at my Indigo iMac (I wouldn't mind a G4
iMac) and wait for black.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
