Mike Peterson
A pair of Apple executives talk Apple's new 24-inch iMac, its design elements, and the inclusion of the M1 chip in a recent podcast interview.
Apple worldwide senior produce marketing manager Colleen Novielli and engineering program manager Navpreet Kaloty recently appeared on Relay FM's "Upgrade" podcast to speak about the new M1 iMac refresh ahead of preorders opening on Friday.
On the fact that the iMacs now come in a bevy of bright new shades, Novielli explained that the colors "are designed to bring a sense of brightness, optimism, and joy." She added that "I think we can all agree that's something everyone needs at the moment."
The Apple Mac product manager also touched on the design elements of the 24-inch iMac, including the controversial chin and bezels on the front side of the device.
"The borders are meant to complement the typical home design, for one, and blend into the background. The light gray borders are awesome. The lack of the stark contrast provides a more seamless experience for the user," Novielli said.
As for the chin, Novielli explains that Apple was able to fit the iMac's internal components within that space. She says the chin makes the iMac's color "shine," while also allowing Apple to reduce the device's thickness by a significant amount.
When asked about whether Apple would sell the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID separately, Novielli declined to comment. However, she added that the keyboard would work with any M1-equipped Mac.
On the overall design, hardware manager Kaloty said that the inclusion of the Apple Silicon chip affected every aspect of the new iMac's design. That includes the I/O on the rear of the device, which now exclusively consists of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports.
The full interview contains other tidbits about the iMac's design and features, and is available to listen on Relay FM.
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24 Comments
Worldwide Senior Product Marketing Manager
People complain about the design as if the old design was better.
My gripe is no OPTION for dark colors. I get the complimented a bright home but what if you want one in a dark studio?
Dark options should have reversed the front and back colors. Someone made a model of this and it looked good.
I love the new iMac.. the design, the colors, the color matched accessories, the TouchID on the keyboard.. and even the chin, which I was hoping would be gone, I'm glad to see is still there, and I hope they keep it. However, white borders..? I read through this just to see Apple's justification for white borders, and I'm even more disappointed now than before. Apple should at least own up to wanting their computers to look 'cute' with the white borders, instead of some nonsense about 'complimenting the typical home design', whatever that means (hopefully I'm just missing context here by reading vs listening to the podcast), with a bizarre motivation to 'bring a sense of optimism and joy', which is actually just condescending to its users. And how does apple just ignore simple facets of human perception.. ie justifying the white borders as being 'light grey,' when to the human eye, that light grey looks white next to any adjacent black areas (including the thin black border that goes around the *entire screen*). I hope this is only a misstep. And if they're going to go with white borders, why not make a full 'Apple White' iMac? That's the only thing I can think of that would justify the white borders.