From a 1979 idea to the Mac Book Neo, how Apple made color a computing advantage | Tech Radar

Overview

1979 was the year Apple dreamed of multi-colored Macs, but it had to wait nearly 20 years before the release of the iconic i Mac G3

The Mac Book Neo is the continuation of an idea Apple dreamed up nearly 50 years ago

Details

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With its new $599 Mac Book Neo, Apple is pushing into a more competitive part of the laptop market, taking on budget Windows machines and Chromebooks.

It’s a clever move intended to attract buyers who want something different without breaking the bank in these uncertain times.

While a truly affordable Mac Book is new ground for Apple, the tech giant is leaning on a familiar trick, one that has worked well for it before. The Mac Book Neo arrives in Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo, turning a laptop into something you pick based on personal taste as much as specs.

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Walk into any electronics store and you’ll see rows of gray, black, and silver laptops, all blending together. With the colorful Neo, Apple is selling buyers a simple idea — that your laptop doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s.

While there are plenty of laptops in different colors, most come in safe, neutral finishes. Last year, Lenovo surprised buyers with a Think Pad that moved away from its traditional black, but not into a rainbow world - with its revolutionary move a White version.

Computers have a lot in common with cars in this respect. Henry Ford famously said customers could have their motor vehicle any color they wanted, as long as it was black, and for decades, computers have followed a similar path (although for desktops, the color of choice was mostly beige).

Apple has long been one of the few companies to consistently push against that, most notably in 1998 with the launch of the i Mac G3, or just the i Mac as it was first called. It arrived not long after Steve Jobs returned to the company, with Apple struggling and in need of a clear direction. The i Mac was one of the first major products of that new era, built to simplify computing and make it feel more approachable.

With its launch, Apple didn’t just introduce a new computer, it rejected everything that had come before it visually. Next to the usual beige PCs, it looked like something from a different era.

The translucent Bondi Blue design made the machine feel approachable and personal. It wasn’t trying to hide what it was, it was putting it on display.

Reactions were inevitably mixed at first, and not just because of the color or the unusual shape, but because it was so different from everything else out there. It didn’t even have a floppy drive, something that was viewed as essential back then.

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People didn’t know what to make of it, but the simplicity, the focus on getting online quickly, and the bold design helped it stand out in a crowded market.

That shift paid off, with strong sales and a wave of new users. Apple sold nearly two million i Macs in its first year, and it became the best-selling computer in America and one of the fastest-selling computers in history.

Buoyed by the success, Apple expanded the G3 into a full palette of “fruit” colors, including tangerine, grape, lime, strawberry, and blueberry.

Over time, the lineup grew even further, with shades like graphite, indigo, ruby, and patterns like Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian. Apple turned color into a defining feature, not just a cosmetic option.

You can see that carried through in later products, from i Pods to i Phones, where color became a way to differentiate models and appeal to different tastes. Even today, Apple remains one of the few major companies offering multiple color options across nearly its entire lineup.

Interestingly, the idea of colored Apple computers dates back even further than the i Mac G3. Two decades earlier, a 1979 Computerworld article covering Apple’s planned move into education includes a small but telling line. It notes that certain Apple systems “will come in colors and be tamper-proof,” a statement that turned out to be very ahead of its time.

Color existed before Apple gave us the computer that turned around its fortunes, but it wasn’t mainstream. In the early 1990s, Silicon Graphics introduced machines like the Indigo and Indy in bold indigo and bright teal finishes, but those were high-end systems aimed at specialists rather than everyday users. The color of their casings didn’t define the products, and it didn’t influence buying decisions in a meaningful way.

The Mac Book Neo fits directly into that history. It’s not just a cheaper laptop, it’s a continuation of a colorful idea that started nearly half a century ago.

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Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for Tech Radar Pro. He has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for 30 years. In that time he wrote for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a number of them too.

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Key Takeaways

• 1979 was the year Apple dreamed of multi-colored Macs, but it had to wait nearly 20 years before the release of the iconic i Mac G3

• The Mac Book Neo is the continuation of an idea Apple dreamed up nearly 50 years ago

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• With its new $599 Mac Book Neo, Apple is pushing into a more competitive part of the laptop market, taking on budget Windows machines and Chromebooks

• It’s a clever move intended to attract buyers who want something different without breaking the bank in these uncertain times