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 Mac users, 6 million of whom have purchased the old iMac, have been speculating for weeks what the company was planning to introduce at the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco. With a spate of new products and software released by the company in recent weeks, some industry watchers were hypothesising that a new handheld computer or an update to the Mac OS X would be unveiled.
The new iMac bears little resemblance to its predecessor, or to any other computer on the market. It includes a 38-centimeter liquid crystal display attached by a chrome bar to a curved white base that holds the computer itself. "This is the best thing I think we've ever done," claimed Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive. "The new iMac ushers in the age of flat-screen computing for everyone. The CRT display is now officially dead," Jobs also said.
The basic model, which will hit the US market at a cost of USD1,299 in March, comes with a 700 megahertz G4 processor and 128 megabytes of memory. Additionally the system includes a 40 gigabyte hard drive, a rewritable CD drive and an Nvidia GeForce 2MX graphics chips.
The next most expensive model, available in February, has double the memory of the basic model and includes a combination rewritable CD drive and DVD player. It will be sold for USD1,499.
But the top of the line iMac, which goes on sale this month, comes with an 800 MHz G4 processor, 256 megabytes of memory, a 60 gigabyte hard drive and a combination CD/DVD drive can write both CDs and DVDs.
The release date for the computers in the UK and Ireland is expected to be similar to the release of the products in the US. Prices for UK consumers are STG1149 for the basic model, STG1299 for the middle range iMac and STG 1,599 for the SuperDrive. Prices for the Irish market were not yet available, but the company said they should be in line with its US and UK prices.
Other notable aspects of the computer include its weight (some 9.7 kg), which keeps the screen from falling over, as well as the compact design of its wires, all of which emerge come from a central location at the base of the unit.
The company claims it spent around two years developing and designing the new iMac, which will be the heart of the company's new digital hub strategy, announced last year. That strategy has seen the company release a number of new products in the year, including the iPod music player and iTunes music software, which are Mac-only units. With that strategy in mind, Apple unveiled another component on Monday: iPhoto, an application designed to run with digital cameras for the storing, editing and sharing of digital photographs.
Also on Monday the company enhanced its iBook line of laptops, replacing the current 12-inch screen with a 14-inch screen.
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