Apple's 15-Inch iMac G3 Had a 3D Touch Screen Option in 1999

pcmag.com:

Apple has never officially released a Mac with a touch screen, but it turns out you could acquire a 15-inch Mac with a 3D touch screen back in 1999.

As IGN reports, the Mac in question is the 15-inch iMac G3 and it was discovered by vintage computer enthusiast (and YouTube channel) Michael MJD. Michael found the iMac listed on eBay in Canada, and after a bit of research decided to purchase this very rare "bizarre iMac" for $1,765.50 CAN (roughly US$1,300).

He documented his find and shows the touch screen in action in the video below:

This iMac G3 is actually an engineering prototype offered by Elo Touch Solutions and discontinued in Dec. 2001. Elo is listed as a "Value Added Reseller" for Apple and offered these modified iMac G3 computers to act as interactive kiosk machines.

Thanks to Elo's iTouch touch screen technology, which relies upon acoustic sound waves and two sets of transducers, users could interact directly with the CRT to register touch input. No overlay was required to make this technology work, and it could also register how hard someone was pressing on the display.

24 years later and we still haven't seen Apple embrace touch screens officially for any of its Mac models. However, that could change soon as Apple is expected to add a touch screen to the MacBook Pro in 2025. In the meantime, Aple would much rather you purchase any of its existing Macs and focus on the new features to be found on macOS Sonoma.

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