Other Power Macs

Power Mac G4 Cube (also known as Power Macintosh G4 Cube) was a quiet, fanless, compact Macintosh personal computer from Apple Computer. It was sold from 2000 to 2001. Apple marketed it under the slogan "Honey, I shrunk the supercomputer". more...

Home
Apple Components
Apple Desktops
68K, Mac
Apple eMac
Apple iMac
Apple Mac Mini
Apple Power Mac
Other Power Macs
Power Mac G3
Power Mac G4
1.0GHz & Higher
350-466MHz
500-933MHz
Power Mac G5
Apple Servers, Xserve
Apple Drives, Media
Apple Input Devices
Apple Laptops, Notebooks
Apple Monitors/Displays
Apple Networking
Apple Parts & Accessories
Other Apple Products
Printers, Scanners & Ink
Vintage Apple/Macintosh
Wholesale Lots

Features

This diminutive 8" x 8" x 8" cube suspended in a 10" tall Lucite enclosure, housed a PowerPC G4 processor running at 450 or 500 megahertz, and had an unconventional vertical slot loading DVD-ROM drive. A separate monitor — either digital or VGA — is required for the Cube, in contrast to the all-in-one iMac series. Also unlike the iMacs, it had an upgradeable video card in a standard AGP slot. However, there is not enough space for full-length cards. The Cube also featured two FireWire ports, and two USB ports for connecting peripherals. Sound was provided by an external USB amplifier and a pair of Harman Kardon speakers. Although the USB amplifier had a standard mini-plug headphone output, it lacked any audio input. The Cube also used a silent, fanless, convection-based cooling system like the iMacs of the time.

Design

Apple Designer Jonathan Ive won several international awards for the cube's design. The cube can be found in many publications related to design and some technology museums. It was also featured as Drew Carey's computer on The Drew Carey Show as well as in the kitchen of the design-conscious Eddy on "Absolutely Fabulous".

History & Sales

Apple targeted the Cube at the market between the iMac G3 and the Power Macintosh G4. Despite its innovative design, critics complained that it was too expensive. It was initially priced $200 higher than the comparably-equipped and more-expandable base Power Mac G4 of the time (450 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive) and did not include a monitor, thus leading to slow sales. Additionally, early Cubes suffered from a manufacturing defect that led to faint lines in the clear plastic case. After seeing low profits, Apple attempted to increase sales by bundling more software with the cube, lowering the price of the base model, incorporating a CD-RW drive standard for the 500 MHz version, and offering an improved NVIDIA graphics card as an option. These efforts could not offset the earlier perception of reduced value compared to the iMac and Power Mac G4 lineup. In July 2001 Apple issued a short and slightly unusual press release announcing the product was to be put "on ice". Although not "officially discontinued", this was seen as a way to quietly terminate the Cube product line. As a result of the failure of the G4 Cube, Apple Computer's stock (which had risen to a high based on the success of the iMac G3) had dropped back to the low levels from before the iMac was released. It was not until the introduction of the iPod MP3 player that Apple shares would recover.

Read more at Wikipedia.org