By the time the summer of 2001 rolled around, Apple was well into the OS X transition. Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah had shipped, and Puma was right around the corner.
The company itself was just a few months away from shipping the iPod, but was already on the road to recovery. The Digital Hub Strategy was taking shape. Apple’s notebook line was maturing, but of course, a lot of this success was built on the back of iMac G3.
At Macworld New York 2001, Steve Jobs took the wraps off the fastest-ever lineup of iMac G3s:
| $999 | $1299 | $1499 |
|---|---|---|
| 500 MHz | 600 MHz | 700 MHz |
| 128 MB RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| 20 GB HDD | 40 GB | 60 GB |
| CD-RW | CD-RW | CD-RW |
The low-end iMac available in Indigo and Snow, with the 600 and 700 MHz models for sale in Snow and Graphite.
These machines were on sale from July 2001 until January 2002, when Jobs announced the iMac G4.
The iMac G4 was a huge break from the CRT-based design of the G3, and is one of my all-time favorite iMacs.
The G3 did survive this announcement, though. The 600 MHz model, was available in either Snow or Graphite for $999, while a 500 MHz Indigo could be picked up for $799.
Eventually, the Graphite and Indigo were silently dropped from the lineup, leaving just the Snow.
This machine stayed on sale until March 2003.
2003!
That’s five years after the original Bondi machines showed up. It’s really incredible how much better the iMac became using that original design. Apple iterated on them, making them better and cheaper over time. The original machines ran Mac OS 8.1, while the last ones are capable of running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. The iMac carried the Macintosh platform into the 21st century on its curved, colorful Mac.
It’s the computer that really did help save Apple.
For that, we should all be grateful to these machines.