The new bold colors of iMacs are for Apple, not you

 I must admit that when I first saw Apple's new iMacs and the bold colors that Apple assigned to them, I was puzzled. Why would anyone want those iMacs?

Not that the colors are unappealing. They are, in fact, quite nice.

But why put such colors on iMacs? That is, why put such colors on computers that are not portable?

I understand the reasoning for colors on laptops. Bright or bold colors (and the Apple logo) on laptops makes sense. Macbook owners identify with their laptops. In an earlier age, when Macbooks were white, their owners festooned them with stickers and artwork. Today, carrying around a Macbook lets everyone else know that one is in the club of Cool Apple Kids.

But that logic doesn't work for iMacs. People don't (as a general rule) carry their iMacs from home to the office, or use them at the local coffee shop.

And why, of all places, did Apple decide to put the colors on the back of the display? That is the one place that the user isn't looking. Users of iMacs -- at least the users who I know -- look at the display and rarely look at the back of the unit. Most folks position the iMac on a desk up against a wall, where no one can see the back of the iMac.

After a bit of puzzling, I arrived at an answer.

The colors on the iMac are not for the user.

The colors on the iMac are for Apple.

Apple's positioning of colors on the back of an iMac, and the use of bold colors, makes sense from a certain point of view -- advertising. Specifically, advertising in the corporate environment.

It's true that iMacs used in a home will be positioned on desks against a wall. But that doesn't hold for the corporate environment, with its open office plans where people sit around desks that are little more than flat tables.

In those offices, people do see the backs of computers (or displays, if the CPU is on the desk or below on the floor).

By using bold colors, Apple lets everyone in an office quickly see that a new computer has arrived. All of the other computers are black; the new Apple iMacs are red, or blue, or green, or yellow. A new iMac in an office shouts out to the entire office "I'm an Apple iMac!" -- no, better than that, it shouts "I'm a new Apple iMac!".

This is advertising, and I think it will be effective. Once one person gets a new iMac, many other folks in the office will want new iMacs. "If Sam can get a new iMac, why can't I?" will be the thinking.

Notice that this advertising is targeted for offices. It doesn't work in the home. (Although in the home, with everyone knowing what everyone else has, bold colors are not necessary to generate demand.) This advertising works in offices, especially those offices where equipment is associated with status. iMacs are the Cool New Thing, and the Very Cool People always have the Cool New Thing.

Apple is leveraging its brand well.