The Mac That Saved Apple

I remember covering that crowded midnight rollout at a Palo Alto, California, store, and talking with then Apple hardware-engineering honcho Jon Rubenstein, who was beaming like a proud papa. An exhausted proud papa, to be sure, but grinning ear-to-ear nonetheless as he watched a long line of purchasers plop down $1,299 for the latest shiny-shiny, and lug their big boxes out of the store, smiling as broadly as Rubenstein himself.

Rubenstein told me that the iMac was going to redefine consumer computing. He was right.

Reminds me a lot of the iPad announcement and launch. But this time Apple doesn’t need to be saved.