iMac G4

iMac G4

The iMac G4 with a 15" screen
Developer	Apple Computer
Product family	iMac
Type	All-in-one
Release date	January 7, 2002 (2002-01-07)
Lifespan	January 7, 2002-August 31, 2004 (2 years and 237 days)
Discontinued	August 31, 2004 (2004-08-31)
Media	Up to 4× SuperDrive
Operating system	Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X
CPU	700 MHz to 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4
Memory	128 MB to 256 MB SDRAM
Storage	Up to 80 GB
Display	15", 17" or 20" LCD
Graphics	Up to nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 32 MB of DDR SDRAM
Input	3× USB 1.1 (USB 2.0 on later editions) 2× FireWire 400 Apple Pro Speakers mini-jack
Connectivity	Optional 54 Mbit/s AirPort Extreme 802.11b (b/g on later models) 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet 56k V.92 modem Optional Bluetooth 1.1 on later models
Predecessor	iMac G3
Successor	iMac G5

The iMac G4 is an all-in-one personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from January 2002 to August 2004. It replaced the iMac G3 and was succeeded by the iMac G5.

Design and marketing

15 inch, 17 inch, and 20 inch versions of the iMac G4.

The iMac G4 featured an LCD mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading optical drive and a fourth-generation PowerPC G4 74xx-series processor. The internals such as the hard drive and motherboard were placed in the "dome" instead of the LCD panel as it would be too heavy. The arm allowed the display to hold almost any angle around the dome-shaped bottom. The iMac G4 was sold only in white, and was not translucent like the iMac G3. The machine was sold with the ice-white Apple Pro Keyboard and Apple Pro Mouse, which were later redesigned and renamed the Apple Keyboard and Apple Mouse, respectively. Optional Apple Pro Speakers, which were better quality than the internal speakers, were also available. The Apple Pro Speakers used a unique adapter, designed to work only with a select few Apple Macintosh models.

The iMac G4 originally included both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, due to the machine being released in the year Mac OS 9 was discontinued. When running newer versions of Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard), the iMac G4's GeForce4 MX GPU was not capable of Core Image rendering. This causes some minor graphical issues. One such issue would be the lack of the Dashboard ripple effect when a widget is introduced. Another would be an opaque menu bar in Mac OS X Leopard.

It was originally known as the New iMac, while the existing iMac G3 continued to be sold for several months. During this time, Apple had all but eliminated CRT displays from its product line. However, the LCD iMacs were unable to match the low price point of the iMac G3, largely due to the higher cost of the LCD technology at the time. The iMac G3 was obsolete by this point, but low-cost machines were particularly important for the education market. Because of this affordability issue, Apple created the eMac in April 2002 and ended production of the iMac G3. The iMac G4 was then marketed as the "iMac" until its discontinuation, then was retroactively labeled iMac G4 to distinguish itself from the succeeding iMac G5 in August 2004.

Apple advertised the iMac G4 as having the adjustability of a desk lamp. One of the advertisements for the machine featured it sitting in a store window "reacting" to every move made by a passer-by on the street. At the end, when the man sticks out his tongue, the iMac responds by opening its optical drive.

The internal components are housed in a 10.6" half-sphere, ice white case with a chromed stainless steel neck that supports a 15" TFT active matrix LCD display. Unlike some earlier iMac models that are convection-cooled, the iMac "Flat Panel" series is cooled by a quiet internal fan. The original model from 2002 shipped with Mac OS X 10.1 and Mac OS 9.2.2 preinstalled with Mac OS X selected as the default OS.

The Gateway Profile was one of the few Wintel competitors to 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 1 MB L2 cache found on the higher-end Power Mac. The iMac had clear advantages in LCD screen quality (it uses a digital LCD as opposed to an analog LCD), ergonomics (particularly the flexible monitor arm), and multimedia. The reviewer concluded that the iMac worked well as an introduction to the Macintosh ecosystem, but noted that their relatively high prices were approaching that of laptops, which were portable and had higher resolution LCD screens.

Revision history

All Obsolete

Model	Flat Panel			Mac OS X Only Flat Panel	1.0 GHz Flat Panel	Flat Panel USB 2.0
Release date	January 7, 2002		July 17, 2002	February 4, 2003		September 8, 2003		November 18, 2003
Discontinued date	February 4, 2003			September 8, 2003		July 1, 2004
Model Identifier	PowerMac4,2		PowerMac4,5	PowerMac4,2	PowerMac6,1	PowerMac6,3
Apple Order No.	M8672	M8535	M8812	M9105	M8935	M9285	M9168	M9290
Display	15" TFT LCD 1024×768		17" TFT Widescreen LCD 1440×900	15" TFT LCD 1024×768	17" TFT Widescreen LCD 1440×900	15" TFT LCD 1024×768	17" TFT Widescreen LCD 1440×900	20" TFT Widescreen LCD 1680 x 1050
Processor	700 MHz PowerPC G4 (7450)	800 MHz PowerPC G4 (7450)			1.0 GHz PowerPC G4 (7445)		1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 (7445)
Cache	64 KB L1, 256 KB L2 (1:1)
Front Side Bus	100 MHz				133 MHz	167 MHz
Memory	128 or 256 MB of PC133 SDRAM Expandable up to 1 GB via one factory installed memory module in a 168-pin DIMM slot and one 144-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot.			256 MB of PC133 SDRAM Expandable up to 1 GB via one factory installed memory module in a 168-pin DIMM slot and one 144-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot.	256 MB of PC2100 (266 MHz) DDR SDRAM Expandable up to 2 GB via one factory installed memory module in a 184-pin DIMM slot and one 200-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot (officially only 1 GB is supported)	256 MB of PC2700 (333 MHz) DDR SDRAM Expandable up to 2 GB via one factory installed memory module in a 184-pin DIMM slot and one 200-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot. (officially only 1 GB is supported)
Graphics	nVidia GeForce 2 MX 32 MB of DDR SDRAM		nVidia GeForce 4 MX 32 MB of DDR SDRAM	nVidia GeForce 2 MX 32 MB of DDR SDRAM	nVidia GeForce 4 MX 64 MB of DDR SDRAM	nVidia GeForce 4 MX 32 MB of DDR SDRAM	nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 64 MB of DDR SDRAM
Hard drive	40 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB			60 GB	80 GB
Optical drive	8x DVD and 32x CD read Combo drive or 32x CD-R and 10x CD-RW write CD-RW Drive	6x DVD and 24x CD read; 2x DVD-R, 8x CD-R, and 4x CD-RW write SuperDrive		32x Combo drive	4x SuperDrive	32x Combo drive	4x SuperDrive
Connectivity	10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet 56k V.90 modem Optional 11 Mbit/s AirPort 802.11b			10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet 56k V.92 modem Optional 11 Mbit/s AirPort 802.11b	10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet 56k V.92 modem Optional Bluetooth 1.1 Optional 54 Mbit/s AirPort Extreme 802.11b/g
Peripherals	3x USB 1.1 2x FireWire 400 Built-in microphone Audio out Apple Pro Speakers mini-jack					3x USB 2.0 2x FireWire 400 Built-in microphone Audio out Apple Pro Speakers mini-jack
Video out	Mini-VGA
Maximum Operating System	Mac OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger" and Mac OS 9.2.2			Mac OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger" or Mac OS 9.2.2 (With a patched image only)	Mac OS X 10.5.8 "Leopard", or Mac OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger" with Mac OS 9.2.2 (Classic Mode only)	Mac OS X 10.5.8 "Leopard"
Weight	21.3 lb. / 9.7 kg		22.8 lb. / 10.4 kg	21.3 lbs. / 9.7 kg	22.8 lbs. / 10.4 kg	21.3 lb. / 9.7 kg	22.8 lb. / 10.4 kg	40.1 lb. / 18.2 kg

Timeline of iMac models

Timeline of iMac and eMac models (sorted by screen sizes)
See also: List of Mac models

External links

• Apple Support Page
• Profile: 15" iMac G4/700, 800
• Video of Jobs launching the iMac G4 at Macworld 2002 (starts at 59 minutes)
• Overclocking guide for the Apple iMac G4 main logic board