The new iMac is here

It's bulbless, it's quieter than a whisper, and, according to Apple execs, you're going to wonder where the computer went. The new iMac is here.

With over 7.5 million Macs sold in the last six years, the Mac Mafia have been crying out for a new generation of desktop. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior VP of worldwide product marketing, unveiled the highly anticipated iMac at the Apple Expo in Paris today.

Indicating what seems to be an image makeover at Cupertino, the company that once made an MP3 player on the side is now plugging the new iMac as a desktop 'from the creators of the iPod', according to the ads for the new machine.

"What would the creators of the iPod do for their next computer?" was the rationale behind the latest addition to the Mac family, Schiller said.

The new Mac itself has undergone something of an image makeover too. The plastic 'bulb' that supported the monitor has gone, to be replaced by a 45-ish degree aluminium foot. It's been on something of a diet too, with the 17-inch version less than two inches thick.

Tangible speakers have been done away with in favour of invisible, integrated speakers on the underside of the machine that bounce sound off the user's desk.

And what else has gone? Well, most of it. "Everyone is going to be asking 'where did the computer go?'… The entire computer [now] floats in the air," said Schiller. Apple is aiming for a machine users will be "proud to have in their den, their living room or in the front of small business".

And, in a reflection of the full-size iPods, the new iMac has shed its pastel ice cube look for all white.

But what's inside the box? Faster system architecture. The 17-inch iMac will be based on the G5 chip, with processing speeds of up to 1.8GHz. It will come with 400MHz DDRRAM memory, as well as three USB and two FireWire ports and a 600MHz frontside bus.

The 17-inch 'mini-Mac' version will ship for £919, $1299 or €1399, or, for those with a bigger budget, Apple is doing another version with a faster processor and a SuperDrive (a CD/DVD burner) for £1049, $1499 or €1629.

For Mac devotees who really want to splash the cash, the 20-inch, 2.2-inch thick version will be on sale for £1349, $1899 or €2059.

The new machine will begin shipping worldwide from mid-September, Schiller confirmed.