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After making a big splash in Paris last month, Apple Computer's iMac G5 launch remained true to form in Hong Kong and wowed computer connoisseurs last week.

That has convinced Apple Hong Kong executives and local Macintosh retailers that computer mall shoppers and online Apple store visitors will find truth in the iMac's advertising.

Its marketing campaign prominently points out: 'The display is the computer.'

The stunning new design packs the central processing unit, hard drive, memory, optical drive, power supply, modem, speakers, microphone and ports into the liquid-crystal display (LCD) monitor and rests on a sleek aluminium foot.

The result of that integration shows a system with a mere 5.08cm of depth, making it the world's thinnest desktop computer to date, according to Apple.

This new line offers 17- or 20-inch active matrix widescreen LCDs and IBM's 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor running up to 1.8 gigahertz. Prices start from $10,300 and units are available this week.

Apple Asia-Pacific marketing director Tony Li  said: 'You can see the LCD is perfectly balanced. This is because it connects to the stand at the centre of gravity of the entire machine. Getting that just right was a major concern and a great effort.'

Mr Li said the thin-profile iMac was developed by industrial designer Jonathan Ive  and his team, which was also responsible for designing Apple's hugely successful iPod digital music players.

With this iMac line, Mr Li plans to drive sales in Hong Kong's education market, where Apple has recently lost ground to Dell.

The iMac G5 desktop offers a total of five Universal Serial Bus ports and two FireWire 400 ports for easy plug-and-play connections to popular peripherals such as the iPod, digital video camcorders, digital still cameras and printers. The Panther operating system, more formally known as Mac OSX version 10.3, comes pre-installed.

The iMac G5 also comes with a built-in antenna and card slot to support an optional AirPort Extreme Card for 54 megabit per second, 802.11g-standard wireless networking.

Other options are an internal Bluetooth module, AirPort Extreme Base Station and Apple Wireless Keyboard.



Slim iMac big on 'wow' factor