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The following is a list of product colors designed and / or marketed by Apple:
History[]
Early models (1970s to 1990s)[]
- Apple Beige, also known as "putty", used by the early Apple II series, Apple III, Apple Lisa, through the Macintosh Plus.[1]
- Snow White design language:
- Fog, used only by the Apple IIc as an early part of the Snow White design language.
- Platinum, the predominant color of the Snow White design language for desktop models from the Macintosh SE and II through the original Power Macintosh G3.
- Smoke, a dark gray color adopted by the Snow White design language with the launch of the PowerBook line in 1991.[2]
- Special black, used on Macs with audiovisual capabilities, such as the Macintosh TV and Performa 5400 "Director's Edition".[2]
Aqua era (1990s to early 2000s)[]
- Bondi Blue, color used by the first iMac G3 in 1998.[3]
- Fruit flavors:
- Indigo, used on the iMac G3 and iBook G3.
- Graphite, a dark counterpart to Apple's "fruit flavors", often used on "Special Edition" releases.[4]
- Snow, a light counterpart to Graphite.
iPod era (early 2000s)[]
In keeping with their "brand renaissance", Apple only offered the first renditions of the iPod in gloss white. The debut of the iPod mini line, though, would see the introduction of color to the iPod family, with the anodized aluminum shell offered in silver, gold, cotton-candy pink, mint green, and powder blue. A few months later, iPod took its first step away from the traditional white by arriving in a U2 special edition jet-black with red touch wheel.
The iPod mini underwent a further alteration, updating the storage capacity and firmware, as well as a "vibrancy lift" to its color palette. Gold was dropped from the line, silver remained unchanged, while cotton-candy pink became hot pink, mint green became a deeper meadow green, and powder blue became a more intense cyan.
Taking notice of the feedback regarding the U2 Special Edition, Apple introduced the 5th Generation iPods in a gloss stiletto-black body and touch wheel variant to accompany the traditional white offering. The new iPod nano received similar treatment.
The iPod mini's retirement saw the temporary end of color variation in the iPod line, with, at the time, no immediate plans to offer iPods in further color varieties. Color expression would have to rely upon the myriad of accessories, such as cases and skins, offered by third-party vendors.
One such third-party vendor has taken color expression to an entirely new level by offering to custom color any Apple product, including iPods. Color Ware, Inc. takes sent-in units, colors them to utmost quality, and then returns them for a nominal fee. With regards to the iPods, they are able to do both the shell and the touch wheel — even in different color combinations.
Modern colors (present)[]
- Silver, the default color of most anodized aluminum Apple products.
- Slate, a dark blue successor to Graphite
- Slate was only released on the iPhone 5, the first iPad mini, and iPod devices released in 2012.[4]
- Gold, an anodized yellow color option
- Gold was first offered with the iPhone 5S and MacBook with Retina display.
- The color was overhauled with a darker shade in 2018 with the iPhone XS.
- The color would return to a paler shade in 2020 with the iPhone 12 Pro.
- Rose Gold, an anodized color option
- Rose gold was only offered the iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, MacBook with Retina display, and 1st-generation iPad Pro.
- Product (RED), a standard red color, re-debuted with the iPod touch (5th generation).
- Jet Black, a glossy black option offered only with the iPhone 7 / 7 Plus.
- Space Gray, succeeded Slate as the dark color option for most aluminum Apple products from 2013 to 2021.[4]
- Midnight Green, a dark green color found only on the iPhone 11 Pro.
- Graphite, debuted with the Apple Watch Series 6 and iPhone 12 Pro in 2020.
- Pacific Blue, a dark blue color found only on the iPhone 12 Pro.
- Sierra Blue, a light blue color found only on the iPhone 13 Pro.
- Clover, a dark green color found only on the Apple Watch Series 7.
- Starlight, a warmer alternative to the classic silver finish for Apple products introduced in 2021.[5]
- Midnight, succeeded Space Gray as a darker finish for Apple products introduced in 2021.[5]
- Alpine Green, found only on the iPhone 13 Pro.
- Deep Purple, found only on the iPhone 14 Pro.
References[]
- ↑ What color was “Apple Beige”? by Ben Zotto, Medium. 2021-01-19.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Color of a Mac 128k? by snuci, 68k Macintosh Liberation Army. 2016-03-14.
- ↑ The Mac that saved Apple (and Steve Jobs) by Rik Myslewski, The Register. 2010-11-29.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Mapping Apple’s vast universe of space gray shades by Michael Steeber, 9to5Mac. 2018-04-16.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 How Apple’s new starlight and midnight colors compare to the classic silver and space gray by Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac. 2021-09-16.
External links[]
- The colors of Apple by Linus Edwards at Vintagezen (2013-08-28)