White got dirty pretty quick. Why would they chose that color? And why MAC still keep it but other manufacturers do not.

closed as primarily opinion-based by Raffzahn, lvd, Wilson, wizzwizz4 Sep 19 '18 at 16:47


  • 1
    Changing fashions, is basically all there is to this, I believe. And while the majority of computers of any given era may have had a single colour, there have always been dissenters (eg Sinclair machines were black from the beginning of the 80s until after Amstrad bought them; and the less said about the iMac the better...). – Jules Sep 19 '18 at 13:08
  • 1
    The all black NeXT Cube was released in 1990. Most PC design "fashion" can be traced to Steve Jobs, with a 5 to 10 year lag. – Brian H Sep 19 '18 at 16:53
  • 1
    One reason for not using white is that bromine fire retardant would cause severe yellowing with age. – amI Sep 20 '18 at 8:27
  • 1
    "Follow the leader." It's largely 3 eras, with IBM's dominance in the middle. Pre-IBM, there was a huge variety of colors in the microcomputer market. Then when the IBM PC was introduced, many tried to copy various aspects of it -- not just the color but also size, shape, ports, even chips -- hoping to ride the wave of IBM's success. Hence the nickname "beige box". By the late 1990s, the yellowing effect @amI noted made people rethink lightly-colored cases. Apple's resurgence in the 2000s made it the new target for others to follow. – DrSheldon Sep 20 '18 at 16:40
  • 2
    I am not sure it's opinion based. If you bother to ask a plastics manufacturer they'll tell you one reason straight off. In the 1990s you needed a much better quality (ie very expensive) mould to make a nice shiny black case. A beige plastic case covers many moulding sins. – Alan Cox Sep 21 '18 at 14:26