Net Results: Apple - a company once almost given up for dead but now consistently a frontrunner in technology coolness - has done it again.

Its new G5 iMac, revealed on Tuesday in Paris, is an astonishing marriage of engineering and design.

As with its predecessor iMac - the one with the flat monitor on a stalk and a circular central processing unit (CPU) base, reminiscent of an anglepoise lamp - Apple has again totally rethought both the shape and concept of the computer. This time, the entire device looks like little more than the flatscreen monitor on a graceful stand.

Look closely and you realise the whole CPU is right there. It fits behind the monitor, making the entire computer little more than two inches thick. That includes a side slot for CDs and DVDs, and all the various ports for adding peripherals.

The computer, in the same style of white plastic casing featured on the previous iMac model, balances and tilts on an 8mm aluminium stand. Coming in either a 17 or 20-inch-screen model, the maximum depth of the whole unit is just barely over seven inches for the larger iMac. Now, that's what I call de-cluttering the desktop.

As with so many Apple products, from the iPod to the first translucent iMac to its graceful, be-handled white desktop machines and smooth, brushed aluminium laptops, this iMac is mouth-wateringly desirable - so much so that no doubt many will rush to put their order in for the first mid-September shipments, not caring to wait for the reviews. The design is clearly aimed at cashing in, literally, on the runaway popularity of the iPod, which in Apple's advertising bumf is shown alongside the iMac, a tiny little sister device echoing the silhouette of the iMac.

This is clearly computer as lifestyle, though Apple has pretty much always targeted its computers at a niche audience wanting a statement computer. Apple consumers - famously some of the most brand-loyal on the planet - will generally buy with design (of the device and the software interface) in mind first, and tech specifications second.

With the latest G-series computers, Apple has worked to push its tech standards as well, with speed and power an emphasis. Not that design goes astray with the innards of the computer, though.

Recent ads for Apple's high-end G5 desktop models have shown the side of the CPU box cut away, the better for the punters to admire the exquisitely ordered layout of heatsinks, fans and chipsets - not exactly an aesthetic element of the average PC.

If you've ever pulled the side off a typical PC, it looks little better than that no-go zone most of us have on the floor behind the computer, a dizzying mix of wires, objects, empty spaces and balls of dust. By contrast, the G5 looks as delicately ordered and precisely balanced as a Zen garden inside.

Apple's challenge will be to keep sales rolling along for the new flat-screen model. After a robust start, sales eventually flattened out for the lamp-style iMac, perhaps because the generally well-reviewed unit remained pricey.

With that first flatscreen iMac, Apple took a big risk in making the flat panel standard on what is essentially a somewhat costly entry-level desktop unit. In so doing, the company also drove a revolution in flatscreen popularity, with many manufacturers such as Gateway, HP and Dell offering flatscreen monitors in bundled low-end PC packages as a "free" upgrade.

My guess is that consumers are increasingly ready to pay a premium for a flat screen - and that the idea of getting the whole computer fitted in behind the monitor will be very attractive indeed. That makes the iMac a relatively lightweight entertainment centre that can easily be moved around the house, for listening to music, watching films, or going online.

To my mind, we're finally at the real start of a long-predicted computer evolution, a redefinition of the PC, where it isn't primarily computer first, with some fun entertainment features an added second. Sure, there have been some attempts at the software level to accomplish this, by Microsoft and others, but hardware has really been the missing link.

Significantly, this iMac practically banishes the notion of the PC as PC. It is more like a portable flatscreen television, DVD film player and surround-sound stereo system that also incorporates a computer. Whether the market is ready for something this unique remains to be seen.

On the other hand, who'd have thought the market was ready to fork over for the iPod's brand of high end, high-cost music portability? And rumours abound that the iPod will shortly incorporate a video display, making them more like teeny tiny iMacs, perhaps.

Convergence, here we come.