Contributed by Gary Rogers | osViews This article was syndicated under osViews' Open Content License. December 8, 2003 9:20 AM

"When Apple first unveiled the G4 cube in early 2001, few argued that the computer was destined for great success, at least that's what people thought until they saw the price for what you got. Now that Apple is shipping computers utilizing IBM's speedy G5, more and more consumers are asking Apple to bring back the cube -- this time using IBM's speedy new chip. Editorial contributor Gary Rogers sent the following opinion column to osViews, describing how he believes Apple can capitalize on this emerging trend."

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There's a buzz in the Apple Zealot underground. It's a buzz I think I've heard before, or at least identify with. It's the same kind of buzz that I felt a few months before the arrival of the 12" PowerBook. This time the buzz buzzes for the return of the Mac Cube.

Hip To Be Square

The original Mac cube (I'm not going back to the NeXT cube, thought [sic] perhaps I should) was positioned perhaps a bit aggressively in it's market segment. Okay, Apple was insane with it's marketing segment.

It was too expensive for the casual user, but underpowered for the professional user. However, I think a bigger issue that led to the demise of the cube was the lack of a 'cool' OS to run on it.

The G4 Cube debuted when Mac OS X was in it's infancy. It died before the 'cool' OS even got to it's 10.1 release, widely regarded as the first consumer usable release of OS X. Mac OS X really started generating a desire in geek users following 10.1 and has remained strong to this day.

It has been the coupling of this new 'cool' OS with 'cool' hardware such as the Titanium PowerBook , the 'snow' iBook, and now the G5 PowerMac that have generated buzz in the geek community around Apple's products.

The Cool Tools

It may be unsightly to older computer aficionados to equate computer-marketing concepts in the same vein as teen clothing, but the meme is in the wild. Apple is cool. iPods are very cool, and the Macintoshes that maximize the iPod are riding the wave of popularity that was started by the iPod and all of it's implications. They're also riding the wave that was started among the UberGeeks when OS X became a viable alternative UNIX-like operating system.

People want gadgets that are smaller, hipper, flashier than what other people have. The iPod is a perfect example of this, so is the iBook and the new 12" PowerBook. In the land of gadgets bigger is most certainly not better.

So, poised as they are on the tall ridge of 'cool' from the youth and geek cultures why hasn't Apple re-produced the epitome of 'cool', small, hip, flashy, in it's desktop product line?

The new G5 PowerMac makes a bold statement. It is one serious chuck of aluminum, a heavy bold statement that the owner of this equipment is serious about computing. While it's sexy, it's not sexy the way most other Apple products are. It's Hummer sexy, not Miata sexy.

Keep It Up

Apple has a unique opportunity here to continue it's buzz setting trail that has led to outstanding sales of iPods and iBooks. We want a Cube. We want something that doesn't look like just another beige box from HP or Dell.

Apple has begun to convert the geeks of the world into the brotherhood of style, a brotherhood that appreciates the looks of a computer as well as its functionality. We want something stylish that says 'I compute smarter'. The 12" PowerBook was the perfect personification of this meme, and the Cube will be too.