A new iMac concept design offers good suggestions for where Apple should be taking this Mac desktop. But also included is a small-but-genius improvement: make the base of the iMac an iPhone charger.

Daniel Bautista, a freelance graphic designer, drew up this iMac concept. “The iMac’s design, despite of being iconic, needs to be refreshed to be consistent with Apple’s new products,” points out Bautista. “Many users want a design with an edge-to-edge screen.” There were unconfirmed reports that Apple would produce exactly that this summer, but the iMac that debuted Tuesday has the same thick bezels as its predecessors.

And Bautista would also like to see Face ID built into this Mac. The wait might not be long. Code buried in macOS Big Sur suggests facial recognition is a feature that might be part of future Apple models.

iMac concept includes iPhone charger

Concept designs sometimes include features that are well beyond current technology. But this iMac design suggests a change that Apple should have thought of years ago.

In the design Apple has used for years, the base of the computer is a “foot” that points toward the user. The top of this is currently not doing anything, aside from offering a space to put the keyboard when not in use.

Bautista’s suggestion is simple and brilliant: make this area into an iPhone wireless charger. Every iOS handset for years has offered wireless charging, so most iMac users would benefit from this design change.

And it wouldn’t require a radical redesign of the computer, like an edge-to-edge screen would.

iMac