The iMac in 2007

WWDC 2007 brought us a new design for the iMac: keeping the same form factor but with a slimmer profile and an all new aluminum and glass look. This new design brought the iMac in line with the new design standard that Apple seems to be pushing: moving away from the white plastic aesthetic and into the black and metal motif first seen in the iPhone.

The new design saw the death of the 17" version of the iMac, keeping only the 20" and 24" models available and a screen change to a glossy display. This glossy display is precisely the reason I haven't upgraded to the aluminum/glass iMac and have kept my matte finish white iMac. While glossy displays lead to deeper perceived colours, having grown up in a print shop means I personally can't stand reflections on my monitor, and my eyes have grown entirely too accustomed to how things look on matte displays. The fact is, glossy displays require you to look at them head on, with perfect lighting, or you'll get glare on the display.

Sure, you'll have "richer colours" but what good does that do you if you can't see it behind the glare of your lamp, or the sun streaming in through your window? So why did Apple choose to go with the more annoying glossy screen with their new design? I think the reasons are two fold:

1. It's cheaper
2. It fits the design they want.

#1 is a conjecture posed by John Siracusa of Ars Technica:

"If the entire PC laptop market has moved to glossy displays, it may be difficult for Apple to find anyone to sell them matte-finish displays at all, let alone sell them at competitive prices."

A hypothesis that I agree with. Every single PC laptop I've seen in the past couple of years has had a glossy display on it. They're shiny, they're attractive, they encourage an impulse buy when sitting on a shelf next to a "boring" matte finish screen. This on-the-shelf shiny screen penis contest has led to a de facto glossy screen standard, to the detriment of eye strain sufferers everywhere. With a glossy de facto standard in place, it is entirely conceivable that Apple is able to get glossy displays at a cheaper price than the now rarer matte finish displays, and therefore switching was a cost cutting measure.

In reality; however, I think Steve Jobs gets what Steve Jobs wants, and what a design obsessed controlling CEO like Steve loves more than anything is a consistent look, and that's where reason #2 comes in: glossy screens fit the design aesthetic that is becoming the new standard for Apple.

With the release of the iPhone, Apple revealed a new design theme built around the concepts of shiny metal, black, and glass surfaces. All these elements add up to quite a sophisticated and high-end looking package that is attractive to consumers and a great new direction for Apple.

Unfortunately, matte finish screens don't quite fit that aesthetic; in fact, they're quite the opposite. They're not shiny, they're not eye-catching, they're "boring." The decision to go with a glossy display could simply have been a conscious design choice in order to advance this new aesthetic across Apple's product lines for a consistent "Apple look."

The new iMac design also brought with it the new aluminum flat key keyboard. I personally haven't had a chance to play with it for extended periods, so I can't vouch for its usability, but many friends have exclaimed it's "cool" and so probably succeeds at its goal of being unique and eyecatching, like the iMac itself. Some have even reported better typing with the new keyboard.

The internals of the iMac received the expected new architecture changes and speed bumps as usual, nothing really remarkable hardware wise except for the contested choice of graphics cards that some feel are under powered.

The Mac Mini in 2007

Oh, the Mac Mini, the neglected low end child of the Apple line-up. 2007 saw some speed bumps for the Mac Mini, the last one having taken place in August.

In some ways I feel that the Mac Mini was merely Apple's half attempted answer to criticism that they did not have a low end Macintosh option available for entry level customers. Since its release, the Mac Mini has received comparatively little attention and mention by Steve Jobs. In the end, I have to question whether it actually is succeeding in its goal of pulling in new Macintosh users.

I think the iPod/iPhone one-two punch is much more successful at getting users to consider Macintoshes. Amongst my own group of friends, when they've decided to make the Apple leap, none of them have chosen to go with the Mac Mini and instead go with the much more attractive and feature packed iMac.

It's this lack of function in Apple's product line that leads me to believe the Mac Mini is a side project that may be on its way out in 2008. Without some kind of dramatic redesign and reprioritisation from Apple, that Mac Mini will sink further and further into irrelevance.

The Mac Pro and Xserve in 2007

I lump the Mac Pro and the Xserve together because they both represent the professional line of hardware from Apple. Both lines have maintained the same aluminum enclosures throughout the year, and recently saw new speed bumps and the integration of Intel's new Penryn architecture.

Asides from the speed bumps, nothing really new and exciting happened to either product line. No new hardware features, no case redesigns.

In that vein, there was one expected change that was conspicuously absent from the new Mac Pros: Blu-ray drives were not added to the line. Apple sits on the Blu-ray board and had been expected to announce the inclusion of Blu-ray drives in the Mac Pros at the very least, but the update came and went this week with no mention of Blu-ray being added in. It seems Apple is hedging its bets and waiting until the HD Format War is completely finished before committing hardware to the cause.

The announcement of updates to the Mac Pros and Xserves does eliminate them as subjects of Steve Jobs's keynote, and clears the way for other types of hardware announcements to take place. In other words, it makes the keynote expectation even more exciting.

The Macbook and Macbook Pro in 2007

And now we come to the portables. 2007 brought us new speed bumps, glossy displays as standard to the Macbook line, and the addition of a glossy screen option in the Macbook Pro line.

The Macbook remained largely unchanged, except for the new glossy screens, and continues to spearhead Apple's soaring computer sales. The Macbook has almost become the undisputed king of the laptop consumer market and its dominance combined with the halo effect from the iPod/iPhone has contributed highly to Apple's great financial results for the year.

The Macbook last saw an update in November, so it's expected to remain the same through early 2008 with no big changes coming in the pipeline.

The Macbook Pro saw some speed bumps but no new design or features, and hasn't received any updates in over half a year. This means that we can expect big things to come for the Macbook Pro line, most likely in the keynote.

What can we expect? You'll have to wait until Monday's edition of The State of the Mac Nation 2008 to find out, when I'll be reviewing the keynote rumours and making my own predictions of what's to come.

Conclusion:

With that, we come to the conclusion of Part 1 of The State of the Mac Nation 2008. We've seen how the computer lines in Apple's core business have evolved or decayed in the background through 2007. Tune in tomorrow when I'll be discussing how the iPod and iPhone fared in 2007.