eOne

eOne is an all-in-one desktop computer produced by eMachines in 1999 that bore a clear resemblance to the design of Apple's iMac.^[1] It targeted buyers who liked the iMac style but it uses the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The eOne came with a translucent "cool blue" case, while the original iMac had a two-toned case with "Bondi Blue" accents. At US$799, the eOne was also cheaper than the US$1,199 iMac. eMachines hoped to avoid legal trouble because the shape of the computer was different from the iMac; however, Apple still sued eMachines over trade dress violations.^[1] Ultimately, eMachines settled with Apple^[2] and later redesigned the eOne to incorporate non-infringing trade dress.

The eOne had a 433 MHz Intel Celeron microprocessor, 64 megabytes of PC-100 SDRAM RAM, a 15-inch CRT monitor, a 10BASE-T Ethernet port, a floppy drive, an 8 MB ATI video card, a 56k modem, and a CD-ROM drive, along with the ability to use PC cards, which were commonly used to expand the capabilities of laptops. The eOne ran Windows 98 or Windows Me, as opposed to the iMac running Mac OS 9.

The eOne was available at Circuit City^[3] and Micro Center, but it did not sell well in the few months when it was available due to a lawsuit from Apple which eventually caused the eOne to be widely considered a failure for eMachines. The eOne is no longer in production as it was discontinued in 2002 and became quite rare to come by nowadays.

In 2007, three years after acquiring eMachines, Gateway released the One,^[4] an all-in-one desktop computer which is similar to the eOne but is flatscreen instead of CRT and is black instead of blue.

References