"What we have here is our first flat panel iMac. And as you can see by the screen, it seems to defy gravity."
Apple's senior director of hardware product marketing Greg Joswiak. The computer is contained in a white semi-sphere that sits on your desk... and the flat screen is supported by a moveable stainless steel arm. Not everyone likes the design. I do... and the thing I like most about Apple is that it is still the only PC company out there paying much attention to design at all, with the exception, perhaps of Sony...
"We spent two years on this design. A lot of going into what concept we wanted to bring to life. The solutions that have been brought to market before as far as a flat panel all in one just haven't done it. They haven't really brought a solution to the customer. So we went through numerous sketches. The best of the sketches turned to foam models. The best of the foam models turned to hard models until we got a design that when you see it you said... this is it."
There is already a backlog of orders for the high end eighteen hundred dollar model that will be first to ship. Apple has launched an ad campaign to try to convince Windows users to make the switch. With Dell selling Pentium 4 systems for under nine hundred dollars, that won't be easy. Both may be pretty cool computers... .but Apple looks the part...
"We've always been about how form and function work together. I think somebody said it best... it's like the union of fashion and technology."
Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.