Which Mac had the most Awe Factor at the time of release?

[miloblithe]

I'd vote for the iMac G4 as being one of the least awesome macs ever released. I'm someone who's more interested in substance over style. The iLamp was all style, no substance.

For awesome, the first G4 PowerBook was pretty cool. The first 128k Mac is pretty hard to top. I was also extremely excited by the first i(ce)Book.

 

[SkyBell]

I agree with John, the original was pretty awesome.

For more recent times, the iMac G3. The computer that saved the company.

Now bow down on your knees and beg forgivness from these two mighty machines, for you are not worthy.

 

[Leareth]

iMac G5, the screen is the computer...arghh....

for me personally it was the iBook.
Finally an apple laptop I can afford and it looks good.

 

[xsedrinam]

There may not have been as much shock and awe, but the Feb 2000 release of the PowerBook Firewire G3/500 (pismo) was, substance-wise, one of the finest powerbooks Apple made. Its sound still surpasses the PB g4s, imo.

 

[mustard]

I think that the G4 iMac was the cat's meow for mac users, but for PC/Windows users the Mac Mini was awe inspiring due to cost and size compared to the smallest offerings from Shuttle (mini PC manufacturer - for those not in the know).

 

[noaccess]

iMac G4 - best design ever
Cried myself to sleep when they discontinued it (well, not really), then absolutely hated the G5 design for a long while. But now I've grown to like it.

 

[Cybergypsy]

g4 all the way

 

[roland.g]

At first I'd have to say iMac G4. The lamp was revolutionary. But I'm not one of the ones who loves it. I think they are outdated and never did like the arm that much. It was great at the time, but.

The G5/Intel iMac, which I think is unfairly referred to as the pizza box, is really groundbreaking. Just last weekend I was visiting family and took my mom to the Apple Store and showed her a 24" iMac.

"That's a really nice screen. $2000! for a screen. That's a bit much. Where's the computer.... what do you mean that is the computer?!?"

With the lamp it was obvious. Not with the current iMac. I don't know how many times I have heard that. People in the PC world just can't separate themselves from the idea that there has to be a tall ugly box too.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Couple of Macs for different reasons (hard to pick a clear winner...)

iMac Rev. A
Well, obviously because of its looks and courage... no more SCSI, no more floppies...

G3 B&W
Outrageously superb and brilliant upgrade from the old beige G3! Gr8 design, and had all the major new technologies on board (super fast G3 {@ 400 MHz!!}, 100 Mb ethernet, USB, FireWire, PC 100 RAM, etc.)

G5
After all those freakin' speed issues with Motorola (G4 @ max 500 Mhz for far too long, then this crappy 167 MHz FSB) the (final) PPC came back with a bang.

Xserve G4
Had the most "WTF??" factor. Very cool looking nice server... made by Apple..? Huh...? Apple making a real 19" rack-mountable server..?
Yep.

 

[Kashchei]

I wasn't born yet then but it seems like the original Macintosh would have been since it was so different from anything else that had previously been available.

I was born (long) before 1984 and I actually bought one of the original 128K Macs. Compare it to the Apple IIe or the IBM machines available then and you can imagine the impact it made back in the day. This machine represented a sea change in computing history the likes of which I doubt I'll see again in my lifetime.

 

[paddy]

iMac g4 without a doubt!

 

[thedude110]

No one seems to be mentioning TangerineBooks and such. Now, I don't know how popular they were, but that sure was different than any other laptop ever made...

I think the OP asks a pretty personal question that perhaps we're trying to answer objectively. Did the g3 iMac "save the company?" Mmm ... maybe, but I dunno if that gives it "awe factor."

For me, like for KD7IWP, the machine that awed me was the clamshell iBook. I love my blueberry still, and it brought me out of the malaise that was my Windows existence. In what it's done for my computing life -- and for bringing me to these forums and so decidedly impacting my life life -- well, no doubt that's an awesome clamshell (or, as my friends called it when I first bought it, an awesome Hello Kitty purse).

 

[Vidd]

I haven't been following Apple long enough to really have much material for comparison but when I saw the G5 iMac in person for the first time, I couldn't believe it. It was just so different to the tower+monitor set-ups that I had become used to seeing.
I have a soft spot for the iMac G4, though.

 

[mperkins37]

I vote B&W G3

First Mac I Was Able to work on & Not Go Crazy! The form & Factor, The curves,
The Power @ The time, & You could access the inside & Change a HD Out or add ram in minutes.
First Mac I Owned.

I Have a G4 I-Mac also, But It's all looks. Just Try To Change a hd in anything less than an hour!

 

[hulugu]

Maybe it's just because I'm old enough to distinctly remember computing (from a student/hobbyist/professional use POV) for about ten years by that time, but the original 128K Mac was not just an awe factor, but a HOLY FREAKING S**T! factor.

Keep in mind, we'd been staring at nothing but command line (which was a HUGE improvement over binary displays) on green or amber displays to that point. To see an all-in-one design in a form factor that nobody had imagined (with the case interior autographed, for cripes sake!), a greyscale display, the first practical GUI (up to then, X-Tree Gold was da bomb!), 3-1/2 inch floppies (which we all declared would doom the new machine, who on earth published on anything but 5-1/4 or cassette, anyway?), this funky little mouse, MacWrite, MacPaint, free OS, and more.

This was a revolutionary machine, that defined everything else to follow. As great as they've gotten and as they will be, since then they're "still" just better Macs. Nothing as earth-shaking as that little putty-colored cube. That's why I still mourn the Newton, love the iPod, and can't wait for the iPhone.

I have to agree with John, the original Mac was completely different from any other computer out there at the time was and was completely revolutionary.

With that said, the Titanium G4 Powerbook and the G3 iMac were easily 'wow' machines for their time. While every PC laptop was brick-thick and black, the Titanium looked so 'futuristic' and contained so many cool little features that the new MacBook Pro carries on. And the G3 iMac (and the later G3 B&W towers) meant that a PC tower could be 'designed' to be beautiful.
The G4 iMac could also get my vote, but while the 'lamp' or 'sunflower' design was beautiful lots of people also disliked the bottom half-sphere.

Someone mentioned the G5 towers, and while those were cool, they were essentially upgraded Quicksilver towers.

 

[intendedaccel]

Gotta be the iMac.

 

[RacerX]

For me, I'd say the Quadra 900 back in 1991.

At the time of it's release it stood apart from all previous Macs and PCs on the market in it's raw abilities and expandability. With the 68040 processor it was as fast as mid-range Unix workstations (it matched the speed of similarly priced NeXT, Sun and SGI systems of the time). With 256 MB of memory capacity (at a time when most Macs were running with between 4 to 8 MB) it was hard to imagine what could be done with all that memory (specially considering that it generally came with an 80 MB hard drive). There was room enough for 4 internal drives and the system had two SCSI buses (allowing for up to 14 SCSI devices). It also came with 6 expansion slots (5 NuBus and 1 PDS) along with built-in video with dedicated video memory (1 MB standard, expandable to 2 MB).

The effect was a system that seemed like it was designed to last forever back then.



And considering that I still use a Quadra 950 today, I'd say that my initial impression of the Quadra 900 when it was released wasn't too far off.

My Quadra 950 has 136 MB of memory, 2 MB of onboard video memory along with two additional video cards (driving three 21" displays), an Apple PowerPC 601/66 upgrade card (with 1 MB of L2 cache), a 500 MB and a 9.1 GB internal drive, an internal and external CD-ROM, and a NuBus AV card.

While dated by most standards, it still is quite useful even today. But back when the Mac IIci and IIfx were the dream machines, the Quadra was an insane jump up in just about every respect... and was not just aw worthy, it was truly drool worthy back then!

 

[netdog]

Another vote for the original Mac. This machine changed the world and in 1984 defined the computer paradigm (at least in the mind of the public) that we are still using today. The next machine to be received with such awe will have to once again redefine how we approach computing and so far we have been waiting 23 years for that to happen. Now that's awesome.

 

[siurpeeman]

Definately the cube, it was soo small, it had no fan (perfectly quiet).

small for its time, sure. it was bigger than i expected, though, and it always looked better in pictures than it did in person. the first thing i did was get rid of the packaged speakers and hide the brick power supply.

 

[Chaszmyr]

I'm surprised how much people disagree in this thread. There's no question about it, iMac G3 changed the industry. That wasn't really from a computing standpoint though. As far as leapfrog performance goes, it was all about the PowerMac G4.

 

[PCMacUser]

I wasn't born yet then but it seems like the original Macintosh would have been since it was so different from anything else that had previously been available.

Oh great, now I feel old. But I do feel privileged to have experienced life before computers were in nearly every home, the Internet, and mobile phones.

 

[Abstract]

iMac Rev. A
Well, obviously because of its looks and courage... no more SCSI, no more floppies...

This answer hasn't come up often enough.

After the release of the colourful G3 iMacs, Apple got back in the computer game for good. A compact, all-in-one system that had a colourful look rather than beige? At the time, it was insane, and yet people started to (very slowly) trickle back into the Apple camp.


Also, the Ti PowerBook. That thing was a stunner when compared to the 2" laptops other companies were releasing. We're talking about a 1" thick laptop with a slot-loading DVD/CD drive! Even 3-4 years after its release, other companies were still releasing 1.5-2" high-end laptops. It's only now that other companies have started catching up in the design department.

 

[Erasmus]

I feel like such a minority...

I hate the bloody lamp! It's fugly!!!

 

[King Crimson]

The PB Duo 230

A perfectly stylish product with a vcr-like slot-in for the PBs docking station was cool like hell

 

[dextertangocci]

I love every mac released after 1997