The Big Brown shipping box
This is the big brown shipping box with iMac in it. Delivered by FedEx. Weighs 36.19lb, which is 16.41kg. That, of course, is heavier than a typical laptop box (but lighter than two heavy boxes – one for cpu and one for monitor – you get for a typical desktop computer).
Figure 1. The big brown shipping box with a 24-inch iMac in it

Is iMac manufactured in the USA?
The shipping sticker on the iMac delivery box says: “Computer Assembled in USA”. That was a little bit surprising, because other Apple products like iPod and iPhone bear the inscription “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.” The label here also says “Other Items as Marked Thereon”. The keyboard, mouse, and remote are made in China and Malaysia.
Figure 2. iMac Assembled in USA

From Elk Grove, CA
The iMac is shipped from 2811 Laguna Blvd, Elk Grove, which is in Northern California (near Sacramento, CA).
Figure 3. iMac shipped from Elk Grove, California (Google Maps)

Following are a couple of photos I took of Apple’s site at Elk Grove, CA. This is a four-building (large buildings) leafy and beautiful Apple campus in Elk Grove (different from the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, which is in San Francisco bay area).
Figure 4. Apple site in Elk Grove (Building D)

Figure 5. Apple site in Elk Grove (Another view of Building D)

Figure 6. Apple site in Elk Grove (Building C)

Figure 7. Apple site in Elk Grove (the leafy neighborhood of Laguna Blvd)

The Apple iMac box
This is the real iMac box. If you get the iMac from Apple store, you would carry this box out. The Apple stores typically won’t keep custom iMacs with custom configurations like 4GB RAM and 1TB disk.
Figure 8. The Apple iMac in its white box

Top of the iMac box
Figure 9. Top of the iMac box

iMac – Intel Inside
This iMac features a 24-inch widescreen monitor. It uses an intel Core 2 Duo CPU (it’s a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme processor). This iMac includes a standard set of programs called iLife (includes iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, iDVD, GarageBand, etc.)
Figure 10. Intel inside iMac

iMac – the hardware
This is the high-level hardware diagram of Apple iMac shown on the box. It contains:
- Built-in iSight camera
- SuperDrive
- Keyboard
- Mighty Mouse
- Apple Remote
Figure 11. The iMac Hardware

The Contents of iMac box
The figure below shows the ENTIRE contents of the iMac box. There are just 7 (seven) pieces of stuff in the box – that’s it!!:
- iMac
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Remote
- Power Chord
- Batteries
- Software and Documentation
Figure 12. Various items shipped with iMac

A typical desktop PC would ship with a gazillion things (separate speakers, perhaps a separate camera, wires/chords everywhere, a zillion CDs, of course, the monitor and CPU would be two pieces, etc.) This one is clean and simple. Nice!
Figure 13. Various items shipped with iMac (annotated)

The Final iMac Setup
Additional pictures and setup of iMac is in the following article:
Setting up a brand new iMac
The price of iMac
This iMac (with 24-inch monitor, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, 4GB RAM, 1TB hard disk, both keyboard and mouse wireless and one additional program iWork) was US$3,022.13. That price includes taxes and an $8 recycling fee. Without taxes and recycling fee, the price is US$2,778.00.
Following is the exact configuration:
- PROCESSOR 065-7741 3.06GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO
- MEMORY 065-7651 4GB 800MHZ DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
- GRAPHICS 065-7738 NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GS W/512MB
- HARD DRIVE 065-7655 1TB SERIAL ATA DRIVE
- APPLE SOFTWARE - IWORK 08 065-8185 IWORK 08 PREINSTALLED.
- MOUSE (FOR AOS) 065-7660 APPLE WIRELESSS MIGHTY MOUSE
- APPLE KEYBOARD & USERS GUIDE 065-7667 WL KYBD & USERS GUIDE
This iMac was bought in August, 2008. Knowing Apple, the price for same configuration might go down by a “few” bucks in a few months (weeks?) :-). But, of course, it’s worth it!
Related Articles
Opening a brand new 24-inch iMac
Setting up a brand new iMac
Comparing 24-inch iMac Monitor with another 24-inch Monitor