Apple Declares Luxo-Lamp iMacs “Obsolete”

Leander Kahney ()

obsolete_imac

Apple has declared the iMac Flat Panel as obsolete. CC-licensed photo by Windell H. Oskay, www.evilmadscientist.com

Apple has officially declared the iconic “Luxo lamp” iMac as an “obsolete” computer.

Several models of the iconic machine, which won as many enemies as fans for its unusual lamp-like design, will be declared obsolete on September 15, according to HardMac.com.

The obsolete designation means that Apple service centers will no longer stock parts for the machines –and will no longer repair them — though third-party repair shops likely will.

The Luxo-lamp iMac caused a huge stir when it was introduced in 2002. It made the cover of Time magazine and is now exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.

The machine was the first iMac to feature a flat-panel display, which floated above its CPU, housed in a white plastic dome. The screen was attached by a double-jointed chrome arm, which realigned the screen with the slightest touch of a fingertip, but then kept it in place — no mean feat of design.

The machine was a bear to design, according to Apple’s head designer, Jonathan Ive. At first Ive tried to glom the guts of the computer onto the back of a flat panel display, but the early prototypes were inelegant. Then, during a walk in Steve Jobs’s back garden, Jobs told Ive that each element had to be “true to itself,” which led the designer to look at sunflowers as inspiration, and seperate the screen from the body.

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A few years later, Ive was able to marry the guts to the screen, and newer iMacs are much closer to Ive’s original conception, but the freaky-looking Luxo-lamp iMac remains a firm favorite of many.

20 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, Hardware, Macintosh, News |

  • gerald miller

    Joining a long long list…

    of dead Macs

    ger

  • http://www.sullysrants.com Sully

    I will always fondly remember my beloved lamp. It was a GREAT machine. A work of art!

  • Andy M

    RIP

  • Gazoobee

    Probably the best Mac design ever IMO.

    At least from the usability standpoint of the end user. Horrible to service though and all the models that were made are so slow by today’s standards they are hardly useful for anything.

    Still, today’s iMacs are ugly compared to this thing though and every time someone comes into my office I have to swing the whole computer around whereas before I just had to swivel the screen.

  • Stephanie

    sad, sad, sad!!!!!!! I still have mine & it was my first love… ((sigh))

  • http://ochyming.wodpress.com Deocliciano Okssipin Vieira

    Best computer design EVER.

    I’ll Never put mine in the trash EVER!

  • djscott
  • Kevin Wright

    I’ve just bought one of these (AU$103.00) and put an Airport card in it. It sits in my kitchen to use for the internet, radio, and, best of all, a digital photo frame. Even with the Airport card it cost me much less than a similar sized photo frame – even assuming you can get a 15″ photo frame. It looks really good and does the jobs I want it to do.

  • http://code81.net Stuart Bainbridge

    This is one Mac I will not be parting with ever! I really miss not being able to move the screen around when both my wife and I are sitting at the Mac.

  • Bill

    Running fine, on OS 10.4.11
    Added memory.
    Syncs with new iPHone.

  • nthn

    This is my favourite Mac ever. I will always love the design of this.

  • king

    3 months ago this was still my main computer(and most powerful)
    It is still on my desk.
    It was bought by the end of 2002.
    Is it really that old ?

    really great computer, my first mac, my older PC’s couldn’t survive a week longer than four years.

    Will it die on me? Some important info is on that thing

  • Nicole

    I’ll always have fond memories of this Mac :) When I entered high school, these were first installed as a brand new “Mac Lab” with our walkathon funds.

    These were the first experience I had with OS X and would eventually lead me to purchase a macbook in college. Too bad they’re going to be considered obsolete. They were great machines.

  • firesign

    still have a g4/700 imac like that that i use as a music box in the bedroom. there it will stay until it dies.

  • dbg

    – King:
    You have lots of ways to save that important info. If it has a CD or DVD burner, that’s a good option for long-term archival storage. Or you can use a USB key, or use the Internet. Most on-line accounts (including Internet providers, aka Comcast or AT&T, etc.) have some free storage space.

  • Darin

    Still use mine. It is running Leopard just fine.

  • davy

    @Gazoobee: Hardly useful for anything!? I still use mine productively (admittedly the last and most powerful model built) for everything from word processing to internet to photo editing, all at the same time. Runs fine on Leopard if you cram enough RAM into it (2 GB ceiling). I’ll keep it as my main machine until Apple finally wakes up and offers another iMac with a matte screen.

  • Alexis

    I was using one up until a couple months ago…when I switched to a mac mini but I adored it…it was my media hub running Leopard and doing it well

    I gave it to my sister and I miss it…but she loves it…

    great machine…and beautiful to boot

    I do miss moving the screen around to my needs or to show someone something…it was so convienent

    and a work of art…I’m sure it has a few years left in it…

    yeah G4 iMac

  • http://www.RandallLittleton.com randall

    i agree… a great machine. truly a work of art.

    I got my hands a couple of gutted ones and turned them into lamps.

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/randall180

  • Matt

    I found a 700Mhz 15 In. sitting on the curb, grabbed it and it fired right up. I had a bunch of PC parts hanging around from different builds. I installed a 120 GB harddrive, a samsung DVD burner, 1 GB of RAM. I added a blue LED fan in the base replacing the original fan so it shines out the holes in the dome. I installed 10.4 and a few other programs. it really runs great for a basic computer internet browsing and so forth. I fell in love with the design. Oh and another tip Mr. Clean magic erasors are fantastic at cleaning years of grime away this thing looks brand new. I have an airport card on order from Ebay for 10 bucks. I also own a 2010 mac mini I have hooked up to my tv. a macbook core duo and an Iphone 3G. I would like to figure out a way to add LEDs in the globe speakers (amazing little speakers).