Photo Source: Jon Prosser
The main thing that made Apple stand out from the rest of the personal computing market during the early parts of the company’s recovery and rise in the late 90s and early 2000s was design. We saw it in their first big hit after the return of Steve Jobs with the original iMac. Those machines brought a style and sense of fun that no other computer company could match for years.
The Apple we know today is quite different in terms of design. Jony Ive did everything he could to remove all fun from the equation in the years leading up to his departure, instead moving forward with a spartan design language that has remained with us for the most parts. Other than some exceptions like Apple Watch bands, minimalist designs are still what we expect to see through most of the company’s product lines.
However, since Ive’s departure, a few departures from the norm have started popping up across different products. Two notable examples from last year were the pastel color choices available for the new iPad Air and AirPods Studio. Now we see that some of the same color options may be coming to the 2021’s redesigned fully iMac.
Jon Prosser leaked the render photo shown above on Twitter a couple of days ago, announcing that Apple is bringing a little bit of the 90s back.
Hello, 1998.
iMacs.
Colors.They’re back. 😳https://t.co/Rho9SmK9I6 pic.twitter.com/YkKgoEFYCa
— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) February 24, 2021
His track record on bigger leaks like this is pretty solid, so I have to think there’s something to this one.
Looking at the new iMacs from the back, we see that the computer still holds to a minimalist overall design approach. However, the light color options do freshen things up a bit and add a little flare to the proceedings. And again, this is a smart nod to the early generations of the iMac that changed the way people thought about Apple and what we expected from them. Color choices were such a HUGE part of the appeal of those machines.
If Apple delivers on the new design and improves on their already successful M-series processors even more, then I could see this year’s iMacs being the most popular Apple desktops in a LONG time. Even though I’m a Windows user, I can’t help but be intrigued.
