Chapter 43 Section 2 Color Revolution

After the return of Jobs, the Jedi counterattack around the personal computer began with the colorful and transparent iMac. Before the iMac, the development of personal computers was basically a performance competition. The CPU is constantly upgraded, the hard disk and memory are getting bigger and bigger, and the display and network performance are getting stronger and stronger. The comparison between computers is based on numbers and performance indicators.Except for the "stupid" Apple, no one cares whether the computer case is beautiful or the color of the keyboard is beautiful.

The first-generation Macintosh also used its brains on the design.The integrated fuselage that Jobs insisted on and the "forehead" design protruding from the front are both unique to the Macintosh.But in that era, users paid more attention to whether the computer could handle complex official documents and reports, and play high-resolution games, rather than the appearance of the computer. For a long time, everyone believed that a computer was nothing more than a high-performance computing tool—until Jobs discovered the colorful, transparent, fruity-candy iMac from hundreds of design models of Aviana.

On May 6, 1998, Jobs unveiled the iMac at the same venue where the Macintosh was released 14 years earlier.Those who witnessed the iMac in person couldn't believe their eyes.People who have lost all their aesthetic tastes due to the monotonous black and white chassis every day suddenly find that computers can be designed so eye-catching.Such an interesting fruit candy design really came from the hands of earthlings? In addition to the creative appearance, the iMac was also tightly integrated with the increasingly popular Internet at the time.When the user turns on the computer, he can connect to the Internet to surf. In the iMac name, the letter "i" at the beginning stands for the internet.

From the release of the iMac on May 6 to the official sale in the United States on August 15, Apple received 150,000 orders in three months.A total of 278,000 iMacs were sold in North America, Japan, and Europe in the first six weeks after launch.By the end of 1998, in just half a year, a total of 800,000 iMacs had been sold! You know, Sculley and Jobs were so optimistic about the first generation of Macintosh that the market forecast that led to the inventory disaster was only selling 80,000 units per month! A media reporter recalled: "The release day of the iMac was the best day we've seen for a certain model of computer."

“We designed the iMac to give customers what they care about most—exciting Internet capabilities and easy-to-use features,” said Jobs. “The iMac is a $1,299 computer a year ahead, not a year behind. year, $999 stuff." Interestingly, after the release of the iMac, Bill Gates, an old friend of Apple's friend and foe, sarcastically told the media: "Now, Apple is only ahead of the color, and it won't take long for us to catch up." Ci's implication is, isn't your iMac unique?But you are only unique in color.What's so great about that.Users choose computers, not oil paints. Is color so important?And, even if color is important, won't others imitate it quickly?Such a simple thing.snort!

If you can't eat grapes, you say grapes are sour.Whether Gates sees the excellence of the iMac's color design or not, it's there, no more or no less. Never underestimate the color revolution led by the iMac. Lu Jian, the former chief engineer of Apple and currently the dean of Shanda Multimedia Innovation Institute, told the author a vivid metaphor: "Westerners in the Middle Ages and Chinese for a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of China were extremely monotonous in the color of their clothes. But today, whether it is Westerners or Chinese, their clothes are colorful. If someone says, isn’t it just a change in color, is it so difficult? These people actually don’t know that behind the change in the color of clothes, it reflects Changes in social customs, life concepts, and humanistic concepts. The colorful clothes we take for granted today were not accepted by the mainstream society in the West in the Middle Ages and in China before. The West experienced the Renaissance, and China experienced reform and opening up. It becomes colorful. The same is true in the computer field. Those who follow the innovators and say how easy it is to innovate don’t understand that the real innovation lies in changing the status quo that we are used to.”

Form and color are two core design elements that Ive has always emphasized. The iMac pioneered Apple's relentless pursuit of color perfection. The iBook released later also followed the colorful and transparent design of the iMac, and the later iPodmini series interpreted different styles of music trends with dazzling colors such as gold, silver, pink, green, and blue.Even the black and white colors of the iPhone and iPad continue to prove to us that the master Ivy has already reached the point of perfection in grasping the perceptual design element of color. What's more interesting is that in 1998, with the release of the iMac, when Apple's products began to become colorful, Apple's own trademark quietly changed from a colorful apple to a monochrome apple.Today, inside the box of every Apple product, we can find two white Apple logo stickers.

White is the most ethereal, pure, inclusive, clear and bright color.While Apple's own products are becoming more and more dazzling and charming, Apple's own logo has become more restrained and dignified because of the white color—this may be the Zen machine that Jobs has been pursuing for many years, "Everything is false" Coincidentally.