iMac Circa 1988
Couldn’t resist this one, since the iMac has had a special place in my heart for so long. They were cheap and powerful, and I used them in my multimedia business for years. Heck we even bragged that our web site and content management system ran with months of uptime on a lowly Grape-Ape iMac.
The machine that saved Apple was a gimpy little thing by today’s computing standards, but it really had a big influence not only on the computer industry, but also on consumer product design for years to follow. Heck, even the George Foreman Grill riffed on the candy-colored plastic motif :D.
The look was so radical that it sent the competition back to the drawing boards. The iconic design of Jonathan Ive would prove to be just the shot in the arm that Apple needed. In the decade since then, Apple has gone from near bankruptcy to the market leader with $24 Billion in the bank.
Just goes to show…design counts.
[ via Tuaw ]