Although Apple has the reputation of delivering cutting-edge designs, particularly when it comes to the iPod and iPhone, they’ve been extremely conservative with their personal computers.<\/p>\n
The most radical styling exercise was probably the first flat-panel iMac, with its flower-pot base and articulated swinging arm. In retrospect, it wasn’t a barn burner when it came to sales, particularly when you compare it to the original pear-shaped iMacs.<\/p>\n
Today’s iMac, though elegant in its aluminum clad fittings, is actually pretty conservative. It’s basically a stylish computer display with the guts carefully inserted in a way that doesn’t add significantly to its bulk. Aside from moving from plastic to aluminum, however, recent styling exercises for the iMac have been minimal.<\/p>\n
The always-forgotten Mac mini was a neat variant on the PC theme, using basic note-book parts in a case that struck some as half a Cube. I suppose Steve Jobs can’t get away from that design, since it’s been duplicated in large part with the Apple TV, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule.<\/p>\n
In fact, a recent suggestion for a mid-range expandable Mac desktop calls for a thicker version of the Mac mini. But doesn’t that simply get you a Cube all over again?<\/p>\n
Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although Apple has the reputation of delivering cutting-edge designs, particularly when it comes to the iPod and iPhone, they’ve been extremely conservative with their personal computers. The most radical styling exercise was probably the first flat-panel iMac, with its flower-pot base and articulated swinging arm. In retrospect, it wasn’t a barn burner when it came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8366,8365,202,639,8142,8363,5569,8199,26,205,2122,3083,1110,2341,25,529,693,8364,248,47],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airport","tag-aluminum","tag-apple","tag-apple-tv","tag-computer","tag-cube","tag-flower-pot","tag-imac","tag-iphone","tag-ipod","tag-mac","tag-mac-desktop","tag-mac-mini","tag-mid-range","tag-night-owl","tag-notebook","tag-personal-computers","tag-preview","tag-steve-jobs","tag-time-capsule"],"yoast_head":"\n