It’s just a tad early to be crowning the “greatest gadget” of this century, don’t you think CNet?
Before the iMac, computers were beige. Beige. That might have been fine in the early ’80s, but so were corduroy trousers and sandals with socks and you wouldn’t want to see them in your living room now. And that’s what’s important about the iMac: it’s the machine that made the world at large realise you can have a computer and not have to hide it. It was — and still is — the only computer that’s genuinely sexy.
You’ll get no arguments from me there. But perhaps the iMac is the greatest of the last century, since it was released in the late ’90s?
And as much as I love me some iMac, it’s hard not to think of the iPod or iPhone as the gadget of the 2000s. What sold more? Which had the bigger impact on the industry it landed in? What wiped the slate clean and truly innovated?
The iMac is still a Mac. Internally, and software-wise, it’s no different than a Mac Mini, Mac Pro, or Macbook. For that matter, the original iMac was little different from the Mac SEs before it other than tech specs and software. All-in-ones, even stylish ones, were nothing new in 1998.
Instead of winning some arbitrary contest, the iMac should be known as the Mac that launched Apple’s resurrection. After the original Bondi Blue, everything changed. It was Apple’s first big hit after Steve Jobs returned. For that, it deserves a lot of praise – but certainly not some goofy, arbitrary award from CNet.