Why Did Jony Ive Put a Handle on the First iMac?

David Senra, reading Leander Kahney, says Jony Ive put a handle on the first iMac so a person would touch the machine and form a bond with it. The handle was not for carrying the computer.

Apple was running out of money, and the iMac had to be on the market in a matter of months or Apple would go out of business. Before the iMac, hardware engineering and mechanical engineering drove design. They set the enclosure size from engineering constraints, and Jony Ive's team only developed skins to wrap around it. On the return to Apple, that order was turned on its head. People were not comfortable with technology. If someone is scared of a machine, they will not touch it. Jony Ive could see his mom being scared to touch it, so a handle made a relationship possible. It was approachable and intuitive. It gave permission to touch and a sense of deference to the person in front of it. Manufacturing a recessed handle cost a lot of money. At the old Apple, he would have lost the argument. Steve Jobs saw the handle, called it cool, and took it as part of the iMac's friendliness and playfulness. Senior management had not fought for the designs. The partnership worked because someone finally did.