eOne

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The eOne desktop computer

The eOne was an all-in-one desktop computer produced by eMachines in 1999 that bore a clear resemblance to the design of Apple's iMac. It targeted buyers who liked the iMac style but wanted to use 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 successfully.^[1]

The eOne had a 433 MHz Intel Celeron, 64 megabytes PC-100 SDRAM of memory, and 15-inch monitor, a 10baseT ethernet port, floppy drive, 8 MB ATI video card, 56k modem, and a CD-ROM drive, along with the ability to use PC cards, which were commonly used to expand the capabilities of notebooks. The iMac did not feature such slots, but as with many computers, their capabilities could be added to with the use of Universal Serial Bus peripherals. However, the eOne lacked the PowerPC G3 RISC processor, which was considerably more powerful than the CISC-based Celeron. The eOne ran Windows 98 or Windows ME, as opposed to the iMac running Mac OS 9.

The eOne was available exclusively at Circuit City^[2] and did not sell well in the few months it was available; it was widely considered a failure for eMachines. In 2004 Gateway acquired eMachines for US$30 million and 50 million shares of Gateway common stock.^[3] The eOne is no longer in production.

In 2007, three years after acquiring eMachines, Gateway released the One,^[4] an all-in-one desktop computer bearing a resemblance to Apple's 2007 line of iMacs.