maybe the anti-NeXT.
The "Before"?
I think it's a moderately ugly design, but I asked
my employer to get
me one as I'm curious (though I'm not curious enough to get one for
home). They're happy to oblige, so I'll get a chance to see how durably
the critter is constructed. It does seem like it'd be likely to get
broken.
I don't think it will be any more prone to breakage than any other LCD
display. The base should be just as durable as any other computer, and
the swing arm should be no less fragile than the thousands of lamps that
have a similar arm on them. If anything, I would think it is MORE durable
than many computers, being that apple has done a good job making very
durable iBooks.
BUT... like all LCD display's, that portion will be prone to cracking if
abused. That shouldn't be much of a problem for the standard home user,
but for the K-12 market... I have never thought an LCD display (of any
kind, from any maker) was a smart idea. Good old heavy glass CRTs take a
much better licking than LCD could ever hope to (in testing, it took me a
number of swings with the base of a rolling chair to break thru the glass
of a VGA monitor, but my laptop LCD cracked with only mild weight placed
on it when I stepped on it)
In the long run, it is probably unlikely that too many people from this
list will "get it" with the new iMac. The reason being is, the new design
is going after the market of people that want a computer to fit around
their life style. So they are trying to go after the "its furniture"
market. The nature of most of the people on THIS list are ones that like
a computer to BE a computer... a nice traditional, boxy, blinking light,
noisy COMPUTER. Apple has been moving farther and farther away from that
kind of market. This list is full of people who's life works around the
computer, and apple wants the market where the computer works around
life. I mean really, the target market for the new iMac is certainly not
a group of people that tend to rent storage garages just to store their
extra PDPs (You aren't going to get a new iMac user group where the
people discuss staying warm in their storage shed by sitting on top of a
mini while writing code on an old portable and its 5" screen!)
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>