The bad news is that Apple's iMac sales are slumping. Reportedly Fred Anderson, Cupertino's very own treasurer himself, has plainly admitted this to various Wall Street analysts, who have subsequently downgraded Apple's stock and/or reduced their estimates for Apple's quarterly earnings. (As usual, Apple's stock is skyrocketing on the bad news. Go figure.) The good news, though, is that sales of all other Apple systems are apparently hanging tough. MacNN got a hold of PC Data's latest report, and it seems that Apple's share of the retail pie climbed to 9.6% in April. That puts our hero in fourth place, just behind Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and eMachines. Not bad, right?

But now there's more bad news: while Apple continues to show year-over-year unit growth, PC Data claims that Apple's growth has slipped below average. The reason? Well, iBook, PowerBook, and G4 sales are still strong, so it's got to be those darned declining iMac sales. And PC Data's Steve Baker has his own theory about why the iMac's numbers are dropping like a stone: cheaper or similarly-priced PCs come with "better" gear. Apparently these days fewer and fewer PCs are shipping with a monitor smaller than 17", and of course the iMac still has a 15" integrated display. There's also the fact that many PCs now ship with CD-RW drives, whereas the iMac has either a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM instead. Now, say what you will about the iMac display's strikingly high quality, or the fact that the average shmoe doesn't need (or doesn't think he needs) a CD-RW drive; when all's said and done, buyers are generally not considering semi-intangibles like the elegance of the Mac OS, the blissful silence of a fanless design, or the capability to add wireless networking at a low cost. They're looking at two things: the listed specs and the bottom line. And in that contest, right now the iMac's not looking so hot.

So what's the solution? More advertising? Apple seems to think so, since we've been seeing plenty of iMac ads over the course of the past month (and after seeing the sales figures, we now know why), but we doubt that a barrage of Goldblum voiceovers during Must-See TV is really going to make a big difference at this point. The obvious answer is for Apple to ship a new iMac. The current model is eight months old, which is "Model-T-old" in an industry that refreshes products on average every four months. Unquestionably, the iMac is in dire need of a sprucing up. How about that mythical 17" iMac we've heard so much about? Okay, so it's not a very likely addition to Apple's line-up. We'll settle for a revamped Kihei with a faster G3, more disk space, and a lower price instead. But if Apple's really planning to hold out until Macworld Expo to refresh the iMac, we might be in for some seriously worrisome numbers to come...

Heads up, people-- the producers of Redmond Justice have added a pair of new episodes to the schedule prior to the big season finale. Evidently Judge Jackson's got a flair for sustaining suspense, because rather than issuing his final judgment this week as many had expected, he's decided to let both sides air a few more grievances first. The story so far: in recent weeks, we saw the government submit a remedy proposal, Microsoft submit a response to that proposal, and the government file a revised breakup plan-- its response to Microsoft's response. And most recently, in what was to be the final filing of the case, Microsoft cranked out a 42-page response to the response to the response. (Confused? You won't be, after this episode of Soap.)

After that fun little bout of Duelling Briefs, the case was to be pretty much over, bar the shouting. (And the judgment. And the inevitable appeal. And... well, okay, we've got a ways to go yet.) But the judgment is on hold, since neither side seems to want to let the other get the last word in. The government has understandably taken umbrage at Microsoft's description of the revised breakup plan as "defective," "vague," and "ambiguous," and is a mite alarmed at what appears to be Jackson's willingness to consider several of Microsoft's suggestions; for instance, Microsoft wants a whole year to come up with a formal breakup plan, as opposed to the government's four-month timeline. Therefore, Boies and company have asked the judge for the opportunity to file... yes, a response to Microsoft's response to the government's response to Microsoft's response to the government's original breakup proposal. According to a CNET article, the judge, never one to stand in the way of a sure ratings-getter, said okay. The government's got until Monday to file.

However, it's only fair to let the defendant, er, defend itself. And so, in his infinite wisdom, Jackson has also given Microsoft until Wednesday to file a response to the government's response to Microsoft's second response to the government's resp... Hang on, we lost count. Oh, forget it-- you catch our drift. The point is, we can all look forward to two more shows before Jackson swings the axe and "Redmond Justice" moves into the appeals phase after the summer hiatus. All we can say is, we hope Microsoft's next brief is at least as entertaining as its last one.

We'd like to call for a moment of silence, please, for Victoria-- AtAT's primary production system, a much-beloved PowerTower Pro that apparently kicked the bucket between 4:30 and 7:00 AM on Friday, June 2nd, 2000. May she rest in peace, at least temporarily; since all signs point to a dead power supply, we can probably resurrect her for a couple hundred clams, assuming we can find the part. You'll recall that the climax of the Clone Wars involved Apple buying back Power Computing's clone license and the first Mac cloner thus fading into history-- which means we may have a tough time getting a part for this three-and-a-half-year-old workhorse. (Just in case this turns out to be more trouble than we thought: Thanks, Steve.)

Right about now, most of you are probably wondering why we wouldn't take this as a perfect excuse to run out and buy a shiny new G4. Believe us, we're considering it. But from a practical perspective, considering we've got a ton of important data on her two internal SCSI drives, a slew of external SCSI removable drives, a couple of PCI cards we'd need to move into the new G4, a cable modem connection that would have to be reassigned to a new Ethernet address, etc., it'd be a whole lot easier to migrate slowly with both systems alive and networked together. We had planned to wait on a new pro desktop until Mac OS X came pre-installed. Besides, Victoria holds a special place in our hearts. AtAT was designed on her, and we poured a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears into her over the years. (Sometimes literally; there's still a drop of my blood on the motherboard from the first time I had to install RAM into her ill-designed cheap clone case. Damn sharp metal edges...)

Anyway, expect a little rockiness in the near future while we mourn the loss of a dear friend and figure out whether to repair her or replace her. Fear not, we've got plenty of other Macs on which to produce the show in the meantime, so AtAT should remain on the air. At 4:30 PM on Friday we're catching a flight to Texas to root through Power Computing's rubble in search of an appropriate power supply. (Oh, and we may as well attend a friend's wedding while we're in the state.) Wish us luck. Condolences (and suggestions of good sources for a PowerTower Pro power supply) can be sent via Feedback.