Random Apple Memory

In 1998, nobody knew if Apple was on its way up or down — until the Bondi Blue iMac landed, remembers Adam Banks

Looking back at the Bondi Blue iMac reveal.

Until the return of Steve Jobs as interim CEO, Apple in the 1990s hadn’t been particularly secretive. It would invite journalists to see new products before they were launched, and discuss its plans confidentially with distributors and retailers. But when invitations arrived for a special event at Cupertino’s Flint Center in May 1998 — outside the regular summer and winter Expo slots — nobody knew quite what to expect. A new kind of Mac was surely a statement Jobs himself would want to make, and a few leaked details suggested an all–in– one machine with an advanced and unusual specification.

Wearing a businesslike buttoned–up white shirt and blazer, not yet the artistic blue jeans and turtleneck, Steve began his presentation with corporate and performance details to convince investors Apple was back on track. What he went on to announce, however, was radical and risky. Literally unveiling the machine by removing a black cloth, he drew extended applause mixed with incredulous laughter. With a crazily powerful G3 processor, but no floppy drive, and no ports except the new and unfamiliar USB, attendees were left wondering: was it really a computer at all? The question would linger, but the translucent Bondi Blue, white and clear plastics, the unstriped Apple logos, and the sheer exuberance of the bulbous carry–handle shape were irresistible — especially to those who remembered 1984’s original Macintosh.

“It’s so cool,” Steve insisted. “The back of this thing looks better than the front of the other guy’s. It looks like it’s from another planet… a planet with better designers.” The designer, of course, was Jony Ive. Then 31 and newly promoted by Jobs to SVP of industrial design, he’d only recently been talked out of quitting by hardware chief Jon Rubinstein, who told him Apple would ‘make history’. At that moment, it did.