This week’s header came from a lucky burst of inspiration so it didn’t take too long to put together. Normally when I get started, I do a Google-based search for the year and see which images appear. Often it’s nothing very solid: class photos, random magazine covers, cars, who knows. Somehow 1998 pulled up the original iMac within the first page. Perfect! While 1983 and 1988 had back-to-school themes and 1993 went with the breakout characters responsible for a million imitators (me included), 1998 has an underlying mood about my return to Austin. I owe a sizable debt to the iMac for making it possible. Kris is owed a much larger portion yet this “affordable” Mac paved the beginning of Apple’s comeback.
When the iMac was announced in May 1998, my future employer was willing to forgive those of us who defected to PowerComputing, Dell and elsewhere since our experience was vital to making the product launch smooth. Apple got burned with the Consumer market pretty badly through the Performa line. Never heard of them? Exactly. After retreating from Best Buy, Circuit City and other retailers for a year, the iMac was the return. It was a pretty successful product too: the price, the configuration and its ease-of-use, I recall there was an infomercial with a race between a college graduate (standard PC) v. a boy and his dog (iMac). Price wise, the iMac was still more expensive than the common PC in 1998 but c’mon, Windows 95 or 98? The missing floppy drive wasn’t a deal breaker, it many ways Intel was grateful because iMacs spurred their floundering USB technology the Windows eco-system kept putting off.
So while I was saving up money, counting down the days to quit my dead-end job at PSW/Nortel I received an opportunity to be a temp again at Apple. Mainly to get ready for the spike in calls the new iMac would generate. Hence the banner. Thanks iMac.
Would I ever own one? I have owned a couple. My Indigo model gave up the ghost in 2005 (first), I gave away the Blueberry to Toby my mechanic (can’t remember when) and the Barbie iMac keeps on going as our alarm clock. We’ve considered the latest due to their American-made DNA. Jose purchased one through me recently, we should all ask him now it’s doing.
This concludes the varying headers week/month thing. Maybe I’ll try again in the near future. October promises to be more stationary with Italian Heritage Month. Bella!