On this day 26 years ago, Apple released the revolutionary iMac G3

Apple’s Mac devices are a major part of the computing landscape today, but things were radically different in the 1990s. Following a string of unsuccessful devices and strong competition from its lifelong rival Microsoft, the company was pushed to the brink of insolvency, and it was the release of the first-ever iMac that finally turned the tide in Apple’s favor.

Following its debut on August 15, 1998, the colorful desktop popularized the concept of all-in-one systems and introduced a handful of new interfaces to the world of PCs. The developments that led to the conception of the iMac G3 are just as interesting as its design. With today marking the 26th anniversary of the iMac G3, it’s time to look at how the PC not only restored Apple’s standing in the computing market but also revolutionized the computing industry.

Apple’s circumstances were pretty grim in the 1990s

The tech giant needed nothing short of a miracle to make a comeback

Despite a decent run in the early 1980s, things started to go downhill for Apple in the 1990s. Microsoft was dominating the computer market, and Mac OS, the operating system powering the Apple desktops of yore, was in dire need of an overhaul. The tech giant’s new products like the Newton PDA weren’t faring particularly well, and by 1997, the company’s sales of Macintosh systems had significantly slowed down.

Luckily for Apple, the company managed to acquire NeXTSTEP, a powerful GUI operating system that it planned to merge with the classical Mac OS. The NeXT takeover deal also brought Steve Jobs back to the very firm he helped establish. And his unorthodox ideas were all that Apple needed to pull itself out of the grave.

Back in the day, the average desktop consisted of a bulky chassis, with most systems bearing the same uninspired design. Besides requiring multiple separate components, these computers were far from beginner-friendly, and Jobs wanted to change that. His ideas were brought to life by Jonathan “Jony” Ive’s designs, and the iMac G3 was the culmination of their efforts.

Jobs’ unique ideas and Ive’s design philosophy created a ground-breaking system

The iMac G3 was a one-of-a-kind system

The iMac G3’s major draw was that, unlike the computers of yore, it was a standalone system, and instead of an ugly chassis, the entire computer was built into the monitor. This included everything from the processor, GPU, and memory to speakers, and the only additional physical accessories required were a keyboard and a mouse.

But the built-in modem was the real game-changing feature as it simplified the process of connecting to the Internet. The system also did away with the classic Macintosh branding and was instead called iMac, with the i standing for Internet. And all this was fitted inside a 15-inch CRT display!

Not only was the iMac G3 a technical marvel, but its unique translucent appearance was purposely designed to attract new users. Compared to the boring beige-colored systems, Apple’s all-in-one PC was a breath of fresh air, and the greenish-blue (or Bondi Blue, as Apple called it back in the day) chassis made it stand out from its competitors.

The iMac G3 served was the panacea to Apple’s financial woes

Though it had some controversial design choices

Despite the attractive looks, Jobs took some risky bets with the iMac G3, and the lack of legacy hardware support was easily the most controversial aspect of the system. Floppy disks were still the norm, and computers featured separate standards for connecting peripherals, ranging from SCSI sockets to serial ports. The iMac G3 did things differently: it featured a CD-ROM drive and used the universal USB standard, which, at the time, was still in its early stages.

Ultimately, Jobs’ gambit paid off and public interest in the device soared once it was revealed on May 6, 1998. Although it had its fair share of critics, the iMac G3 was adopted en-masse by new users after it hit the stores three months later. The tremendous success of the all-in-one computer not only saved the company from bankruptcy but also triggered Apple’s comeback into the tech space.

The iMac: Then and Now

Following the massive sale of the first-ever iMac desktop, Apple released the second version of the system in October 1999. Besides upgrading the processor, memory, and graphics chip, the second generation of the iMac G3 shipped with a slot-loading optical drive instead of the tray-loaded counterpart in its predecessor, a feature that Jobs vehemently pushed for even in the first-gen systems.

With iMacs selling like hotcakes, Apple spent the next couple of years improving the PC, both in terms of hardware and software. The original Mac OS was soon replaced by the feature-laden OS X (which was later rebranded as macOS). In 2006, Apple ditched the PowerPC processor and transitioned to Intel CPUs before moving to ARM-based Silicon chips in 2021. Meanwhile, the i branding of the iMac was used in future devices like the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, with all three being just as, if not more, successful than the all-in-one PC.

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