Apple Announced the 24-Inch iMac Three Years Ago Today

2024.04.20 2 min read

Today marks the three-year anniversary of Apple’s announcement of the 24-inch iMac, a transformative redesign featuring the first integration of Apple silicon in the product line.

Apple unveiled the new 24-inch ‌iMac‌ on April 20, 2021, almost nine years after the previous ‌iMac‌ redesign debuted. It replaced both the 21.5-inch and the 27-inch Intel iMacs, and represented a recommitment to the long-standing desktop product line.

The highly anticipated redesign offers a much thinner and more compact body compared to its predecessors, available in an array of vibrant colors reminiscent of the original iMacs released in the late 1990s. The 24-inch 4.5K Retina display boasts 11.3 million pixels and support for 1 billion colors.

The new model was not only notable for its updated design but also as the inaugural ‌iMac‌ to incorporate Apple silicon, one of the last Macs to make the transition away from Intel. Apple claimed that the M1 chip delivered up to 85% faster CPU performance and up to two-times faster GPU performance compared to the previous 21.5-inch ‌iMac‌ models. The new ‌iMac‌ also offered a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, studio-quality microphones, and a six-speaker sound system, as well as a color-matched Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.

Apple refreshed the 24-inch ‌iMac‌ with the M3 chip, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3 in November 2023. Rumors suggest that a larger-screened ‌iMac‌ that could be positioned as an ‌iMac‌ Pro will launch in 2025. In June 2023, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman said that the high-end ‌iMac‌ was a year or two away from launching as work on the device was still in the early stages.

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