Greg Stigers writes:

> Speaking of Macs and VWs, I have to wonder if the pretty Macs were predated
> by the pretty VW Beetles.

Yes.  The weekly online Mac-oriented newsletter TidBITS noted in May 1998,
about a week after the announcement of the iMac (and well before the August
ship date; the announcement was necessitated because, IIRC, someone sent
the iMac ad to publications ahead of schedule)

   Volkswagen is advertising its new Beetle as being reverse-engineered
   from UFOs, but it may have to give up that claim in the face of
   Apple's new PowerBook G3 line.

> IIRC, the first iMac had a blue panel in its shell.

The colour was named Bondi Blue, and pronounced like "bonday" rather than
"bondee" as its namesake was a beach down under.


Goetz Neumann follows with:

> AFAIK, Apple actually hired VW's chief beetle marketing guy,
> so my guess is that VW is the 'chicken' and Apple the 'egg'
> in this case.

The San Jose Mercury News wrote in April 1999:

   Eager to build on the success of the iMac, Apple Computer Inc. has
   hired the man credited with revitalizing Volkswagen's fortunes in
   the United States as its new marketing chief.

   Steve Wilhite, who left his post as chief American marketing executive
   for the German automaker earlier this year....

--Glenn