(SGI)
Indigo workstation; SGI was one of the first post-1981 computer vendors to successfully embrace color for their case design. One of the first companies of the post–IBM PC era to successfully embrace the use color in the cases of their desktop computer systems was
Silicon Graphics (SGI), who hired the design firm
IDEO to render the cases for their
workstations in a variety of vivid colors and textures starting in the early 1990s. While never sold to the general public on account of their high price point, SGI's workstations were embraced by
creative professionals and
research and development firms, with the company intentionally designing their workstations in various colors in order to stand out other workstation vendors, whose designs were more utilitarian in keeping with a more bureaucratic clientele. The start-up company
Panda Project copied SGI's approach to color with their IBM PC–compatible
Archistrat workstation, released in 1995, which came in an assortment of bright colors. In 1995,
Acer Inc. of Taiwan introduced the
Aspire line of desktop computers, featuring either a green or charcoal-grey finish, with a case rendered by
Frog Design. The Aspire was a massive commercial success, making Acer a household name in the United States and convincing other manufacturers to experiment with the design of their computers, including
Sony who launched the stylish, purple-hued
Vaio line of computers in 1996. Earlier in 1994, Frog was hired by
Packard Bell to redesign their desktop computers; while still primarily beige, they featured user-replaceable, accented trim panels, featuring wavy contours and assorted colors. According to
John C. Dvorak in early 1996, advancements in plastic engineering in Taiwan, where many computer vendors had their PCs manufactured, led to Taiwanese
OEMs experimenting with colorful computer case designs, albeit with resistance from the buying public in the United States. in 1998 is broadly credited for the demise of beige boxes. Technology analysts generally credit the release of Apple's
iMac G3 in 1998 as marking the decline of the use of beige in desktop computers. Released in August 1998, the iMac G3 was designed by
Jony Ive based on an initiative from Jobs, who had recently re-entered Apple after his exodus from the company in 1985. The iMac G3 was an
all-in-one computer featuring a plastic chassis constructed from colored translucent
polycarbonate. Originally only offered in a blue-and-white color scheme, Apple later released a number of different models of the iMac G3 in numerous other colors and patterns. By November 1999,
ZDNET reported that the state of product design at that year's
COMDEX/Fall supported the notion that "[p]ersonal computers that come in the form of a large beige box are an endangered species". In April 2002, while noting that some vendors still sold beige desktops,
The New York Times called the beige box "headed toward extinction". ==Resurgence==