PC vendors are looking to ape Apple's fruit-coloured iMacs, as they rush to release machines in various colours and designs.

Dell, IBM and other PC manufacturers are vowing to hit retailers' shelves in time for Christmas with the revamped product design for their PCs.

Rob Enderle, analyst at Giga Information, said: "IBM and Dell have announced colourful notebooks and Hewlett-Packard will follow. On the desktop, HP and Sony are getting creative, and e-Machines is already selling an iMac lookalike. Colours will be a good deal of the buzz this Christmas," he said.

Dell recently touted its first cosmetically enhanced computers to depart radically from the industry standard beige box look. The notebooks come in Tahoe Blue or Storm Grey, but Dell has promised to add two more colours next year.

Dell also plans to release a small, curved Pentium III computer, codenamed the Webster, later this autumn.

IBM's Thinkpad consumer notebooks will come with cheap, snap-on coloured covers to enable users to personalise their notebooks. Seven colours, including silver, metallic green, red and blue, will be available initially, with more shades to come.

Compaq will launch two products, the Presario 3500 slimline PC and an ultra-portable Presario 305 notebook, which emphasise colour and design.

Even chip maker AMD is in on the act, claiming it has commissioned an oval-shaped machine which will be sold by an unnamed vendor.