Sure, it may be focusing primarily on the effect that Windows 98's release had on the personal computer market, and it may contain the classic negative spin as far as the Apple part of the news goes, but nevertheless, a CNET article notes that Apple's slice of the retail pie grew again in June. Whereas Apple captured 9% of the total retail computer sales in May, they rose slightly to 9.4% in June. It's a baby step, to be sure, but growth is growth, right?

Wrong, says analyst Stephen Baker. Predictably, he trots out the usual assertion that Apple's recent share growth is meaningless because it represents only increased business from the elimination of the Mac OS clone market last summer. But unless we missed something big, the Mac clone market (or lack thereof) hasn't changed much in the past few months. (Is there some particular reason for thinking that significantly more Mac clones were sold in May than in June?) And yet, Apple's share of the retail PC market rose slightly in June-- a month characterized by increased overall sales growth in the industry due to the Windows 98 release, as the article itself states. So in a month in which Windows 98 machines accounted for 29% of all the computers sold, and contributed to a whopping 37% increase in overall market sales, Apple's share still increased-- despite the fact that Windows 98 didn't increase Mac sales. (Not right away, at least-- although after some of the more heinous bugs surfaced, we wouldn't be surprised if Apple captured at least a few converts...)

What this all means, we assume, is that Apple's jump from 9% to 9.4% is smaller that it would have been if Windows 98 hadn't inflated the Wintel side of things, so the increase is even better news than it sounds-- not worse, as Baker and the rest of the "analysts" state. We could certainly be letting our persistently rosy view of things color our perspective; presumably the July and August numbers will show if we're way off the mark. But at this rate, if Apple's retail share hits 25% in three years' time, it seems like these same analysts will still be saying it's all just regained business from Power Computing's ex-customers. Hey, whatever gets you through the night.

It's official; the CompUSA promotion for iMac preorders has begun. Regular viewers will recall a recent episode in which we discussed CompUSA's announcement that, for a $250 minimum deposit, CompUSA customers could reserve an iMac for release on August 15th, and receive a booklet stuffed with $800 worth of coupon-y goodness. Unfortunately, at the time, CompUSA made no mention of specifically on which products iMac customers could expect to save money; they were simply described as "peripherals and software." But now that the promotion is underway and the coupon books have arrived, a MacInTouch reader fills us all in on the list of price-reduced products.

But here's the weirdness: a quick glance at the list of offers reveals that a sizeable number of the coupons are for reduced prices and rebates on hardware that's not even iMac-compatible: SCSI Syquest drives, instead of the translucent red USB SparQ. External SCSI CD-ROM drives, when the iMac has a 24x drive built in. RAM upgrades-- for non-iMac G3 desktops only. Internal Zip drives for PowerBooks (!) instead of the translucent blue USB model suitable for the iMac. There are even joysticks and gamepads-- exactly the right kind of product to include in a promotion for a consumer machine like the iMac-- that are ADB-based, and therefore not iMac compatible. And how about the final kick in the head? $5 off a 50-pack of Mac-formatted floppy disks. Now that's real useful for an iMac.

We at AtAT, who definitely plan to add an iMac to the office, were originally considering placing a CompUSA preorder in the hopes of receiving coupons offering discounts on a USB Zip drive, or better yet, the USB Imation Superdisk. But instead of including coupons for useful equipment like that, CompUSA's seen fit to include rebates for SCSI-based drives and ADB peripherals. Not a very iMac-centric promotion, is it? We mean, obviously this coupon book was designed to be used for promotions on standard Power Macs and PowerBooks as well, but after the CompUSA press release, we really expected to see discounts on real iMac hardware. We're sorry to say, this seems like another shining example of CompUSA's typically half-assed way of doing things. (And if this coupon booklet came out of Cupertino, instead, then we're a little concerned about Apple's lack of focus.)

As the world awaits the iMac's advent with bated breath, genetically-engineered design geniuses are locked deep in secret underground labs winding their twisty way beneath the unknowing city of Cupertino, hard at work on squishing the cuddly blue iMac into slightly more portable form. (At under forty pounds and with a cool translucent carrying handle on top, the iMac is already somewhat portable-- okay, luggable-- but that's not what we're talking about.) We've all been told for months now that Apple plans to release a consumer-level portable Mac sometime next year, and in recent weeks, we've received more clues that this new "eMac" will possibly resemble the iMac little growth-stunted brother. For instance, a short article in InfoWorld Electric seems to reinforce that impression.

Now, when people talk about a "portable version of the iMac," it's entirely possible that they simply mean, "a portable version of a consumer-oriented Macintosh." But more and more, we're getting the feeling that the eMac (which we expect to receive a real name to fit into Apple's new scheme-- "iMate" has been suggested, and seems fairly likely) really will be a shrunk-down version of its older sibling. Imagine a $1200 "PowerBook Lite" in eMate-style translucent plastics (but probably matching the iMac's bondi-blue-and-ice color scheme) that families could buy in addition to their iMac, which was capable of instant networking either via fast Ethernet, or, slicker still, infrared. Finally, a real use for the iMac's IrDA port!

And as we enter this via our trusty old Duo 280c, we're heady with the thought of someday replacing it with a low-cost blue and white translucent slab capable of letting us broadcast from the road at G3 speeds. If the iMate turns out to be even half as compelling a product as the iMac seems poised to be, we may all be seeing a much wider segment of the population using laptop computers in the not-so-distant future. They're not just for the suits in business class anymore.