Some don’t remember and many others don’t, but The iMac G3 marked a before-and-after period between Apple in the early and mid-1990s, with respect to today’s giant. Today, as everyone knows, it is one of the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. However, the company at that time lost its way some time ago and, as unbelievable as it may seem today, it was only a few steps away from the precipice of bankruptcy and possibly extinction. Yes, it’s hard to imagine now, but for a while, in the 1990s, Apple’s survival seemed impossible.

The first step to his recovery was the return of Steve Jobs to the company. Eleven years have passed since his forced retirement in 1985 and his return to the company in 1996. Initially, the reason for his return was to contribute intellectual property to NeXT, the company he created and managed at the time, which Apple would use to create its long-awaited new operating system. However, Jobs did not return to Apple, still led by Gil Amelio, until about a year after Amelio left the board and Jobs was named interim CEO (“interim” disappeared from the position three years later, during 2000). . The return of Jobs breathed excitement, but it did not improve sales or financing, it was only the first step that would have to materialize into something that would really take off. And while something was coming, Jobs had to knock on every door, including Microsoft.

The great project, the reason Steve Jobs returned to Apple, was to unlock the already eternal project of a new and revolutionary operating system in the first place. But if there was one thing the new CEO lacked, it was commercial vision. At a time when Apple’s system design had lost appeal to much of the market, a new operating system would not be enough. Furthermore, while both his vision and the intellectual property he carried under his arm were huge advances, there was still a lot of work ahead of them and they couldn’t wait that long.

The iMac G3, with its fresh design and vibrant colors, was like Jennifer and David coming to Pleasantville to the computer world.

In the first period of Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple, we can clearly distinguish between two periods, pre-Macintosh and post-Macintosh. It’s true that the company gained a lot of popularity from its early years, but it was the launch of the revolutionary all-in-one, decades before the concept was defined and popularized, that elevated the company to the zenith of its popularity. . And if anyone was capable of repeating history, it was undoubtedly Jobs.

So, On May 7, 1998, exactly 25 years ago, Apple introduced the iMac G3, a computer that completely inherited the paradigm of the successful Macintosh.. And, although few know it, the team that also marked Jobs’ first collaboration with Jony Ive, who became his reference designer, who later also signed many of the iconic designs of Apple devices during the first two years. , until his departure from the company in 2019.

So the iMac G3 meant the first in a series of very lucky moves Steve Jobs to save Apple from bankruptcy. Then would come the launch of Mac OS X, back in 2001, the launch of the first iPod that same year… and you probably know the rest of the story well. And yes, it is true that many today believe that the big change in trend for Apple came with the iPod, but it is not true. The iPod made the new Apple visible, but that Apple began to take shape with the return of Jobs four years earlier and the introduction of the iMac G3 and Mac OS X, both products that renewed the illusion of many users (and especially ex-users) of the company.

The two images are separated by fourteen years, but we see a proud (rightly so) Steve Jobs showing his two most iconic creations up to that time.

And what did the letter i at the beginning of the iMac G3 name mean? The successful initial of the name of many of the company’s most recognized facilities and services. from iPod and iPhone to iCloud, it debuted on this computer, and although the most general interpretation is that it was used as a link to the Internet (remember, in 1998, the network of networks was the big news of the time) . However, if we look at the presentation of the iMac G3 found in the article we dedicated to his 20th birthday, Steve Jobs claimed that it is actually a prefix with multiple meanings, such as individual, instruct, inform and inspire.

What is not so well known is that in reality Jobs’ original intention was to call him MacMan (genius sometimes had bad ideas too). As luck would have it, two circumstances coincided. The first is that the name was already trademarked by a company called Midiman, who used it for a serial port to MIDI adapter. Apple’s offer was rejected, and today we can say that fortunately.

The second circumstance was a conversation between Steve Jobs and Ken Segall, who worked for advertising agency TBWA Chiat/Day. And it was the latter who suggested the name iMac. However, Jobs didn’t like the name at first and preferred to keep trying it with MacMan. Fortunately, Segall was persistent in his proposal and managed to convince the CEO to go for the i, which is now an iconic element of the brand.

Personally, and since it’s only a few days away from Star Wars Day (May 4th), it reminds me of George Lucas’ initial plans to cast good old Luke as Starkiller. Can you imagine? Luke “star killer” or “star killer”? I don’t know which is worse, Starkiller or MacMan, but luckily we had Luke Skywalker in 1977 and the iMac G3 in 1998.

Left to right: iMac G3 (the computer that changed everything), iMac G4 (creative but not so stuffy design), and the iMac G5, the system that set the standard for today’s iMacs.

And what did the first iMac G3 have? Aside from its truly innovative design (although the company has certainly explored the all-in-one format several times before), the iMac G3 was innovative in many ways, such as USB adoption as an expansion port and peripheral connection, but also to begin to mark the company’s farewell to one of the most popular storage media of the time, the now historic 3.5-inch floppy disk.

The entire computer was presided over by a screen (of course a tube, CRT). 15 inches with a resolution of 1024 x 768 points. It may seem small (and it is nowadays), but let’s remember that at that time it was still common to find 14-inch monitors and that having a 17-inch was an absolute privilege.

Once inside, and as its name suggests, the device was powered by a processor 233 MHz IBM PowerPC G3 supplemented with a graphics card ATI Rage IIc, 32 MB RAM and 4 GB IDE hard drive. Seen this way, today it seems that we are talking about a device that could not move practically anything, but the truth is that without achieving the advantages of the later “smurf” PowerMac G3, it was more than enough to undertake such ambitious projects and interesting how to start the creation of Wikipedia .

Later came the iMac G4, a design that didn’t catch on as much, and then the iMac G5 design, which has since remained, more or less, as we know it today, which again was a huge success with many manufacturers taking it up a notch. consciousness and try to replicate them in their own systems. Introduced on this day 25 years ago today, the system thus once again made its mark in Apple’s history before and after, as the Macintosh did in 1984, but on this occasion also it served to save the company from a very likely bankruptcy and inspired the rest of the industry put aside the boring beige that has long since become the standard in PC design.