As many already know, last week during the MacWorld Expo Tokyo
keynote, Steve Jobs unveiled two new iMac colours - 
Blue Dalmatian and Flower Power. Someone at Apple
must have really liked the 70s. However, this is not the 70s, and
"Flower power" does not belong.
Blue Dalmatian looks sort of like the "Blue capsules" desktop
picture released with Mac OS 8.5. I had no idea what they were
thinking then - and I certainly would have never guessed that
someone would actually use that on the outside of a computer. I
didn't like that pattern then, and it looks even worse now.
Either Apple doesn't want to sell any more iMacs, or they want
to win an award for "ugliest computer of the year," which these two
iMacs would certainly win. No, wait, there has got to be something
worse - maybe one of those $500 PC'sÖ
Anyway, I have a feeling that the current iMac's form factor is
about due to be changed. Although Apple managed to keep the "compact" Mac form factor alive for
almost nine years, that isn't possible in today's computer market.
Things change quickly, and selling a computer for three years
straight with an almost unchanged form factor is almost impossible.
But Apple managed to do it - how much longer can they keep it
up?
First of all, you can't sell a 15" CRT display forever - just
like Apple couldn't sell the original Mac's 9" screen forever. The
15" monitor has to go at some point. I think it might be time for a
17" iMac, which I was hoping would come out of Cupertino this time,
or at least one with a 15" flat
panel display. Then, of course, Apple wouldn't be able to sell
them as inexpensively as they can while keeping the 15" CRT.
That means that many schools and first-time computer users won't
consider the iMac an option. On the other hand, keeping the 15" CRT
isn't good, either. People will be starting to upgrade from the
older 233 MHz iMacs soon, if they're not doing so already, and
don't necessarily want to buy another computer with a 15" CRT to
last them three or four more years. They might consider a 17" CRT
or 15" flat panel.
What would be ideal is if Apple could offer a 17" CRT or 15"
flat panel design as the top of the line model only - and still
keep the 15" CRT model as the base model. That may not be possible,
but if it could be done cheaply enough, it would be a good way for
Apple's iMac to appeal to more people.
The next thing that needs to be changed are those hideous new
colours. Who wants flowers on their computer? I certainly don't,
but I didn't mind the Indigo, Ruby, Sage, Graphite, and Snow. (OK,
I didn't care for sageÖ) As Chris Lawson mentioned in his
article, Flower What?, these new
colours make the iMac look like another colourful kids' toy. It was
bad enough with the fruit flavoured iMacs.
Apple was heading in the right direction with the Indigo, Ruby,
and Sage iMacs, but this time they took a wrong turn. Hopefully,
Apple will be able to turn back in the right direction again. While
Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian may coordinate with the MP3s that
they will be playing, they certainly don't go with most family
rooms. Apple needs to reenter the market with some "dark,
awe-inspiring, and professional looking" colours.
Also, Apple needs to know what market they are going to be
selling these machines to - and let the users know it as well. What
markets are these "70s style" iMacs designed for anyway? I can
picture them in a 12-year-old girl's room, but as a family
computer, it's pretty hard to envision them. The $100 price
increase makes the iMac less competitive with similarly equipped
PCs. It sort of makes me think of the title of a song by pop-star
Britney Spears; "Oops, I did it again." Apple has done it again -
released something that has no clearly defined market.
Apple needs to give the high-end model a 15" flat panel or 17"
CRT display, change the colours to ones that a wider range of
people will like, and possibly drop the base model back to $799.
Only then will the iMac be able to compete with other machines as
it should.
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