- published: 04 Sep 2015
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The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc.. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through five distinct forms.
In its original form, the iMac G3 had a gum-drop or egg-shaped look, with a CRT monitor, mainly enclosed by a colored, translucent plastic case, which was refreshed early on with a sleeker design notable for its slot-loaded optical drive. The second major revision, the iMac G4, moved the design to a hemispherical base containing all the main components and an LCD monitor on a freely moving arm attached to it. The third/fourth major revision, the iMac G5 and the Intel iMac placed all the components immediately behind the display, creating a slim unified design that tilts only up and down on a simple metal base. The current iMac shares the same form as the previous model, but is thinner and uses anodized aluminum and a glass panel over the entire front. It also adds an SDXC slot directly under the slot-loading SuperDrive. The newest version features quad-core Intel processors across the line, 1 (on 21.5″) or 2 (on 27″) Thunderbolt ports, and a FaceTime HD camera, features introduced on the early 2011 MacBook Pro updates.