Roger Fingas
To help market its latest iMacs, Apple on Tuesday posted a "Then and Now" page on its website, showcasing how far the product has come from 1998's original "gumdrop" iMac.
Scrolling through the page, Apple claims that its 2015 hardware can display 14 million more pixels, with graphics running a whopping 62,000 times faster. It's also said to have 366 times more processing speed, 1,000 times more RAM, and 750 times the storage capacity.
The exact system specifications used in the comparison aren't mentioned, but the page is linked from a section on the main iMac site talking about Retina displays.
The stock configuration of the 21.5-inch 4K iMac sports a 3.1-gigahertz Core i5 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, a 1-terabyte hard drive, and an integrated Intel Iris Pro 6200 graphics chip. 27-inch 5K iMacs are even more powerful, with customization enabling things like a 4-gigahertz Core i7 CPU, up to 32 gigabytes of RAM, and a Radeon R9 M395X video card with 4 gigabytes of VRAM.
The original iMac had a 233MHz PowerPC 750 processor, 32 megabytes of RAM, a 4-gigabyte hard drive, and a 13.8-inch 1024x768 display, with graphics powered by an ATI Rage IIc sporting 2 megabytes of memory.
The major significance of the computer though was its Internet-oriented design, incorporating an Ethernet port and a 56K modem. It was also the first computer to adopt USB as standard, and it upset some earlier Mac owners by completely abandoning floppy drives in favor of CD-ROMs. It was moreover the first major Apple product released after the return of Steve Jobs, and helped reinvigorate the company financially.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
49 Comments
The similarities are still visible on the back... The Apple logo The power plug and button The vent grill
Bought the iMac G3/400 DV SE when it was first released. Have had several different powerbooks, MacBooks, iMacs, PowerMacs, and various Pads, Pods and Phones since. This first machine was truly different though, and was what made computing fun again. It had a heart and a character that was unique. Still miss it to this day.
Technologically the original iMac is a dinosaur, but that design still looks fresh modern and utterly unique to this day! I miss it too.
It's important to note that the target consumer is a different user now. The original iMac was priced at $1299. The current iMac is $1999 before upgrades, costing more than a PowerMac did back when it was introduced. Granted, it's a much more capable machine, but it's no longer the affordable machine it once was. For home users looking for an affordable machine, you have to look at the MacBook or MacBook Air line. The old quadrant layout of consumer/professional-portable/desktop is gone, and the current lineup can't be jammed into it well.
Crappy video card then, crappy video card now. Except the 27" top-of-thge-line that'll set you back $3,300 CDN. Nothing's really changed. (Not a hater, owned Apple exclusively since my Apple II.)