Back in 1997, Jony Ive was “Senior Director, Apple Design Group” (and he sported hair!) and was talking about the design of the new, limited edition 20th Anniversary Mac. This was a Mac that was premium priced (and delivered by limo and set up by a white-gloved concierge) and had some design features that, well, still look good now (cable management!).

While the 20th Anniversary Mac only lasted a year, was mind-blowingly over priced, it could be considered the grandfather of todays iMac.

For those who don’t know, the 20th Anniversary Mac was a limited edition Mac priced at a whopping $7499. It was one of the first all-in-one computers to have an LCD display, and at the time was about as cool as a computer could be. Looking back, it’s easy to see how the design and thought of the 20th Anniversary Mac influenced the design of future Macs, especially iMacs.

Via OSXDaily

Watch and listen to Jony Ive talk about the machine in this video:

http://youtu.be/GIFdBp8rbtA

A lot has changed in the intervening 15 years, but Jony has risen through the ranks at Apple to be leading the charge of all Apple designs and UI. Maybe Apple needs a few more of these crazy prototypes. Woz had one….

For more on this very interesting Mac from the past, check out the Wikipedia entry.

Hat tip MacRumors