The iMac G4, the first iMac with a flat panel screen

The iMac G4 was a computer that was produced by Apple from the beginning of 2002 to mid 2004. It replaced the aging iMac G3. The computer had a new design compared to older Macs. It had a 15-inch LCD which was mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading optical drive and a fourth-generation CPU (the PPC 74xx-series). This LCD computer was known and sold as The New iMac throughout its production life, while existing egg-shaped iMac was renamed the iMac G3 and continued to be sold for a few months. After the New iMac was discontinued, it was retroactively labeled iMac G4 to distinguish itself from the succeeding iMac G5.

Apple advertised it as having the flexibility of a desk lamp and it was nicknamed the "iLamp", similar to "Luxo Jr.", who was featured in a short film produced by Pixar, another venture of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. It was featured in an ad, sitting in a store window and it "reacts" to every move that the street passer-by does to it. At the end, when a man sticks out his tongue, the iMac responds by opening its optical drive.

The iMac G4 was incrementally upgraded. They were made available with 17-inch (43 cm) and then 20-inch (51 cm) widescreen LCDs over the following two years. By then, Apple had all but eliminated the CRT machines from its product line. However, the LCD iMacs were unable to match the low price point of the previous iMac G3s, largely because of the higher cost of the LCD technology at the time.

The iMac G3 was, by this point, obsolete and low-cost machines were particularly important for the education market. It was still being sold for a while after the iMac G4 debuted, until the G3 found a permanent replacement in April 2002 with the eMac. The eMac is a G4-powered Macintosh that resembles the original iMac G3 with the egg-shape encasing a flat 17-inch CRT in an all-in-one design. It was initially sold only to the educational market (the "e" stands for "education"), but Apple started selling it to the general public a month later. The eMac was essentially the 17-inch iMac that consumers had been requesting a few years earlier. By 2005 Apple had returned to selling the eMac exclusively to the educational market, presumably because of the introduction of the low-cost Mac mini, targeted at the same market.

The iMac G4 was replaced by the iMac G5 on August 31, 2004. Reaction to the iMac G5 was mixed, though it was a more powerful computer, reviewers commented that it was less aesthetic since it did not retain the flexible adjustable arm.

Technical Specifications

iMac G4 (iMac Flat Panel)

The iMac G4 was one of the biggest improvements and advancements in Apple Inc's growing empire of Mac desktops. The computer was considered completely separate from the previous, half egg shaped G3 models. Some new features included a flat-panel LCD screen, with diagonal measurements up to 20 inches; tray loading DVD+CD drive; and many more features. Critics and consumers took to the new Mac style nicely, but many missed the slot loading drive that were available in earlier models. The floating monitor was easily adjustable, and stood at any angle around the dome-shaped bottom. Unlike previous iMac models, the iMac G4 came only in white, and was not translucent like the iMac G3s.

The Gateway Profile attempted to compete with the iMac G4 in the all-in-one LCD computer market. A reviewer noted that the Profile had better processing power, due to its Intel Pentium 4, whereas the iMac was hampered because its G4 chip lacked the 1MB L3 cache that the Intel chips had. The iMac had clear advantages in LCD screen quality (it uses a digital LCD as opposed to an analog LCD), aesthetics (particularly the flexible monitor arm), and multimedia. Ending up, the reviewer concluded that the iMac was good for introducing users to a Macintosh, but he noted that their (relatively) expensive prices were approaching that of laptops, which are actually portable and have higher resolution LCD screens. The Profile would also be undercut by numerous OEM offerings (including one from Gateway) that bundled an LCD screen with the box containing a Pentium 4.iMac versus Gateway Profile

• January 7, 2002 — Apple introduces a new iMac line with three models. It has a new futuristic form factor and contains a 700 or an 800 MHz G4 processor, and is only available in white. The display is now a 15-inch LCD, easily positioned by the "swing arm" attaching it to the base. (15-inch, 800 MHz model is M8535LL/A)
• July 17, 2002 — A new 800 MHz model with a 17-inch screen and an updated GPU is added to the line. (M8812LL/A)
• February 4, 2003 — The line is slimmed down to two models, one with a 15-inch LCD and a new 1.0 GHz model with a 17-inch LCD (M8935LL/A). AirPort Extreme as well as Bluetooth are available on the 17-inch model. The 15-inch model is largely identical to the January 2002 models.
• August 2003 — The iMac 15-inch and 17-inch models are upgraded to a 1.0 GHz and 1.25 GHz G4 processors, respectively (M9285LL/A, M9168LL/A). New features are USB 2.0 and DDR memory, and they both now support AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth.
• November 18, 2003 — 20-inch screen model (M9290LL/A) is added that is capable of a 1680 × 1050 pixel screen resolution, and features a 1.25 GHz G4 processor.

On-screen appearances

• There are many iMac G4s in the office of Matthew McConaughey's character in the 2002 film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
• In an episode of the sitcom Scrubs, Dr. Kelso is seen using an iMac G4 and being excited by how easy it is to move the screen.
• In season 2-3 of the school survival sitcom Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide Ned, Moze, and Cookie have a new teacher named iTeacher who is teaching via webcam and is seen teaching classes on an iMac G4.
• In the movie School of Rock, two iMac G4s can be seen in the corner of the classroom. The students later use the iMacs for their security cameras.
• In the television show George Lopez the family owns an iMac G4.
• In the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, the family has an iMac G4 in the kitchen, which in one episode, Edina uses it to join a conference at her office through the connected webcam.
• In the the drama The O.C., Seth Cohen owned an iMac G4 which was constantly seen in his room.
• In What I Like About You, the sisters own two.

Timeline of iMac models