I think when people can talk about how fun computers and devices used to look 20 or so years ago, I think a lot of it is:
- We didn't have the miniaturisation, materials and manufacturing tech we do today.
- Nostalgia talking.
When you had a bulky LCD bezel, chunky drives and active cooling, you had to make your bulk eye-catching or aesthetic. You were gonna use plastic anyway for the outer shell, so why not make it in fun colours?
With large, flat LCD panels, really small and energy-efficient chips and PCBs, your computers and devices naturally start to look boxy and have less areas for expressiveness; especially on the user-facing side. But the thing is, you can trade that off if you want - if you want a bulky cute case for your phone, it's there.
There are lots of ways to express yourself with your devices, but it's something you have to bring to the table instead of buy off the shelf, and I think that's a good thing.
There are elements of design trends in this too - like the iMac from 2005 - 2019 didn't come in light or fun colours, but at the same time, the surface area with which to create that expression or tone has shrunk dramatically. You're not going to see odd or curvy designs because there's simply nothing to fill that space with anymore.
Going back to what I said yesterday about nostalgia...
I think now that Apple is okay with doing colour again, the iMac G3 and the iMac M4 look spiritually very similar; it's just that the G3 is built around a CRT and various bulky computer parts whereas the M4's largest component by far is the LCD panel.
(Also, the iMac M4 didn't spark a culture-consuming design fad)
(Also also - the G3 is built around plastic shell components that get really brittle and aren't recyclable while the M4's shell is more durable and eminently recyclable.)
