Dina Bader: Apple execs talk iMac design and Apple's ecosystem in new interview

"This is a new era for the Mac and we're just getting started."

What you need to know

Apple executives sat down with CNN for an interview about the new iMac.
The execs talked about bringing M1 to the iMac and its new colors.

Apple executives have a lot to say about the new iMac.

Apple's Stephen Tonna, of Platform Product Marketing, and Laura Metz, from Mac Product Marketing, sat down for an interview with CNN ahead of the new iMac's official launch later this month.

One of the exciting things about bringing the new M1 processor to the iMac is that, as developers enable support, iPhone and iPad apps can run on the Mac. The effort, originally called Project Catalyst, was rocky to start but Apple has continuously improved the performance across devices.

Tonna summed up the ethos of this: "I'll start something on my phone and I want to finish it on my Mac, [the] dock icon pops up, I click on it." The app opens in the same fashion as it was on the original device and Handoff is triggered intelligently by knowing how close your devices are to one another.

"It's exactly our philosophy with how we build the hardware and the software, which is all about unique capabilities of the devices, but having them work seamlessly together," says Tonna.

One of the biggest changes to the new iMac is that it comes in seven vibrant colors as opposed to the traditional silver aluminum design. Metz said that the team was "literally giddy" when they saw the computers in the new colors for the first time.

The new M1-powered iMac is built around Apple's vision of its desktop computer: "has always been to make the computer disappear and just have it be what you need it to be in the home," Metz described. It's how Apple delivered this ultra-thin all-in-one Mac that still delivers strong performance, and in a very 2021 way, how it can be the centerpiece of your work from home setup.

"It is fun to see these pops of color. As we were just starting to have iMacs roll in and we're just seeing the color for the first time in person, like on a bigger scale. I mean, you just see the natural smile on my face. We were all cool, literally giddy, it was like truly this is happiness."

With M1 now in the iMac and Apple's notebooks, Metz says that it is "awesome to have a range of devices that do meet your needs, whether you know you need to be moving around and you want this portable device or you need something in a small compact space or this wonderful all in one experience with the large display."

You can read the full interview at CNN.