On Friday, Jun 27, 2003, at 18:38 Europe/London, Julian O'Connor wrote:
Well hell - I don't see any other cases out there that look REMOTELY like it.The all
aluminium construction and solid blocky appearance suggests industrial, heavy
duty,
POWERR!!
Well hell - I do! The market is stuffed full of all aluminium, solid, blocky
PC cases that
closely resemble the G5.
Huh? let's see now - non have handles, non have a full face grille at the front, non are totally aluminium faced (they have to allow for crappy plastic drives), non anve a *totally* full face grille that allows for superior ventilation and air through-flow, non have 9 carefully placed low-speed-low-noise fans that accelerate ventilation while reducing noise (OK maybe some do but i bet you �1 to a rusty bucket it doesn't work as well as the G5), non have the Apple logo on the side and, ahem, non cost �1600 and have a 64-bit CPU in them, well at least not until September anyway... OH not forgetting that the non have hinge open side panels on them, although I'm sad to see Apple has stopped mounting the logic board on the door :(
If I just wanted POWERR!! I'd buy a PC with multiple
top spec Pentiums in it. I don't just want that, I want what Apple have been able to
provide in the past - power, ease of use and style.
It provides both! It runs the same excellent, easy to use OS as other Apple machines, and it comprehensively whipped the ass of multi-cpu Pentium systems (although I'm not always willing to trust Apple benchmarks they did at least use a proper one rather than relying on Photoshop 6.0 :) ). Plus a board with 4 32-bit Intel Xeon CPUs on i hopelessly under used in all but specialist OS and software environments AND generates more heat than most central heating boilers and is not as future-proof.
If you had asked someone to design a computer case for you, would you be happy
if they spent 2 minutes with a set square doing it and excuse it just because its
made of aluminium? I would hope not. Simplicity can be the most beautiful thing but laziness is
just pathetic.
You don't have any idea how many design sketches, consultations, focus groups, revisions and material analysis sessions Apple go through to design a computer. Just because you don't appear to like it doesn't mean 1000s of other people *do* like it and *do* think it's a really nice case.
The designer of the G5 is laughing at you, Apple and anyone else who is
willing to accept this awful thing. I find it shocking how both designers and customers
will lower their standards this much.
People are expected to pay so much money for this computer - why shouldn't the
customer have it all?
Apple's designs are always minimalist, design to reduce clutter and increase work, that thing we all hate but have to do and may as well make easier on ourselves. This embodies that idea. The CPU unit of a computer shouldn't be that main focus of the desktop. It should look tidy and respectable and be well designed so as not to detract from everything else.
This is what the machine is supposed to stand for. Think about this - you'd
never mistake a ford transit or a Volvo FH12 truck for anything else, yet they don't
exactly ooze charm ans sophistication, yet they are ever popular and get the damn job done
without looking butt ugly in the process.
Think about this - Why are the Transit and FH12 ever popular? Because their
companies don't mess with the formula that works. Why do they get the job done without
looking butt ugly? Because function dictates their form and it so happens that that form is
not entirely unattractive.
Apple have deliberately chosen this form for the G5 and it is a mistake. The
shock value of it's ugliness will not last long. Power Macs have always been the most
difficult to sell and splitting the audience is a good way to reduce sales further.
The original G4 case was
A) badly ventilated - hence why it had so many fans and sounded like a vacuum cleaner in the last revisions
B) Designed to accomodate the G3, which is a 4-year old design that didn't produce much heat or require nearly as much room.
C) the MDD version looked AWEFUL
D) The whole case design was getting long in the tooth, and desperately needed revising.
E) It's innovative features had 'worn off'
I just hope, as it must be, that this is a one off. Can you imagine the rest
of the lineup being changed in this way? The iMac would look like an upside down colander.
Makes me wonder wether you have ever been into an expensive designer furniture shop like Habitat. They sell enough stuff in this kinda Aluminium and mesh design to start a small scale aluminium mesh shortage, and why? Because it's simple and it looks good. I don't see 1000s of Habitat customers going by the shelves and picking up a pencil holder and saying "It looks like some bloke made it with a set square in 5 minutes." They buy it instead, that makes money. Get my drift?
-- Mark Benson
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