[fckgw]

They literally can't. They moved the headphone jack from the back to the side because it was too long.

Now you could argue if it needs to be that thin but for the current configuration, there's nothing you can cram behind the screen.

[phs2501]

For something that's literally designed to sit on a desk, yes... it's ridiculous to make it thinner in a dimension you never see vs one that you see all the time.

[aabhay]

Aesthetics is also for the environment of the object rather than the primary user. That’s the reason the logo is on the back

[ahmeneeroe-v2]

One more vote for aesthetics here. I put a lot of effort into making my home beautiful. iMacs respect/complement that effort for me.

[stu2b50]

Many of these are customer service desks which are visible from the side.

[hengheng]

iMac has always been a device to be seen with, if not for the user then for the manufacturer.

[porphyra]

From the ifixit teardown of the previous M1 model [1], it seems that all the compute is going in the chin.

They can't put the compute in the back of the display itself, while maintaining the same thickness like an iPad (which has the same CPU), because the room behind the displays is dominated by the speaker system, allowing the iMac to have surprisingly good audio quality despite being so thin.

[1] https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+M1+24-Inch+Teardown/142...