Apple USB Keyboard (1998)
The original iMac's keyboard: black keys on Bondi blue translucent plastic, USB connection, a built-in two-port hub for the mouse, and the last power button on an Apple keyboard.
© All About Apple Museum · CC BY-SA 2.5-it ↗ Resized, no crop or retouching.
Specs
| Connectivity | USB · built-in 2-port hub |
| Price | bundled with the iMac ($1,299 the computer) |
| Key feature | M2452 · last Apple desktop keyboard with a power button |
Launch
Apple announced it on May 6, 1998 at the Flint Center on the De Anza College campus in Cupertino, as part of the iMac introduction: the official press release listed the Apple USB keyboard and mouse among the iMac's specifications. It reached stores on August 15, 1998 alongside the iMac, whose Bondi blue translucent plastic it shared. It was Apple's first keyboard with a USB connector instead of the long-standing ADB port, and it doubled as a hub: two rear ports, one for the mouse and one free for another peripheral. Excerpts of the event survive in an archival copy on the Internet Archive.
Marketing
No dedicated ad campaign is on record: it was announced within the iMac's campaign, Apple's biggest until then, with an estimated spend of around $100 million in 1998. With the five-color iMacs of January 1999 it was offered in the same fruit tones, and a translucent graphite version also exists, according to collector documentation with photographed examples.
Flaws and fixes
It was smaller than the extended keyboards of its day and dropped the navigation block, though it kept the numeric keypad. Salon wrote in August 1998 that its typing feel was poor compared to Apple's old solid keyboards like the Extended Keyboard II, and critics grouped it with the mouse as an example of style over substance. Apple corrected course in July 2000: the Apple Pro Keyboard brought back the full size and replaced it as standard on every desktop.