Peeve Farm

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Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

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Thursday, January 17, 2002
02:05 - A Random iMac Thought...	(top)
It just occurred to me that one of the things that made the original iMac so outrageous-- and drew so much ridicule from the Wintel crowd and even from the Mac faithful-- was that it had no floppy drive. It was the first computer that strode up and confidently said "Hey, I don't need a floppy. The floppy is dead and useless. I'm a Net citizen." I remember spoofs like the "iCar" ad, showing the iMac's contemporary icon of cutesy industrial design-- the VW New Beetle-- in translucent Bondi Blue over white plastics, and touting its lack of a fuel tank as a "feature". And my classmates reacted in shock and horror when I expressed approval of the bizarre new machine. Wasn't I supposed to, like, be smart and stuff? How could I back such a monumentally stupid piece of equipment? Well, time has told the tale of the iMac, and it's a success story. It certainly hasn't suffered from the lack of a floppy drive, even in the obscure ways that the Apple-community naysayers said it would. In fact, the rest of the Apple line has ditched floppies as well since then, and we haven't missed them a bit. Even the Wintel weenies can't deny now that after six million units sold, the iMac gamble has paid off big-time. But what I'm wondering all of a sudden is this: Was the iMac's lack of a till-then-considered-fundamental feature in fact the secret of its success? Would it have had the same impact and acceptance if it did have a floppy? I don't think it would have. And not because of the Jobsian gamble in favor of simplicity. I think it's purely because the lack of a floppy was such an outlandish idea that the idea itself was what sold the iMac. It's what got people talking. It's what got it into people's brains. It's what made it so different from the rest of the computer world. If it had had a floppy drive, people would have looked at it and said "Eh, okay, an all-in-one with a translucent shell. Big whoop." But because it was missing a feature that everybody had until then considered indispensable, it forced everyone suddenly to question the foundations of their understanding of computers. We had to re-examine our beliefs and our values. Whatever decision each of us eventually made, the iMac challenged our preconceptions and made us think about it, whether we wanted to or not. And that's what made it famous. "Any publicity is good publicity," as they say. So what about the new iMac? This is what I'm curious about. It isn't missing any big fundamental features like an optical drive or a mouse. Its big selling points are enhancements to existing features and a funky design-- the things the original iMac had without its lack of a floppy. Compared to the previous iMac, this one is more squarely in the realm of evoking a reaction of "Eh, okay, an all-in-one with a desk-lamp base and an LCD. Big whoop." It doesn't challenge us the same way. Granted, its design is a bit more radical than the first iMac's was for its time. And yet fewer people hate it than hated the original. I worry that this will translate into protracted, simmering admiration-- but not challenged fundamental beliefs, not a rethinking of what computers are for, not a "stupid-ass Apple thing that's so insane that I can't get it the hell out of my head" like the original was. We'll get used to the new iMac very quickly, and while people will like it, it won't rule our thoughts this time. What am I saying? Am I suggesting the new iMac should have been designed without USB ports or a hard drive? Nah, I don't think there's anything in the current hardware landscape that's as dispensable as the floppy was three years ago. But I do think that a big part of what made the iMac magic was that it represented a big psychological gamble and a sacrifice of deadwood that most people thought was part of the trunk. The dynamic is different today-- the "iMac" name is not new, the concept is not new, Apple is continuing a tradition of design rather than forging new ground. But I'm simply worried that the new iMac won't make as many waves as the first one did, purely because it's not radical enough. It doesn't get in people's faces and make half of its beholders hate it, and so those beholders will forget about it rather than writing angry articles about it, and that's that much less valuable press. The fact that it was "bad" press doesn't make it any less valuable, because where the iMac lives or dies is in its visibility, whether for good or ill. Let's just hope the desk-lamp design is controversial enough to take up the mantle of the lost floppy drive as the iMac's new big news-making feature.