When Steve Jobs first took the wraps off of the iMac, we recall several people enumerating the system's various shortcomings and predicting that, in the final analysis, the average consumer wouldn't be willing to pay more money for an underfeatured computer "just because it's blue." That kind of statement pretty much illustrates the unfortunate Wintel cloner attitude that price is the only thing that matters-- that the key to building a successful computer is to buy whatever components are cheapest this week, bolt them together, and try to undersell the competition by ten bucks or so. The Wintel price war has gotten so fierce that we're seeing PCs sold for $399, for $199, and even for "free," provided the customer prepays for a few years' worth of Internet service. So how the heck can Apple ever expect to win that game?

Personally, we think they found their solution in much the same way that we, the AtAT staff, find our rules for living: through extensive immersion in the cable television experience. Basically, you have two choices for philosophical growth and balance in this day and age: you can devote yourself to the intense lifelong study of the great works of Marcus Aurelius, Kant, Nietzsche, Lao Tzu, and Plato, or you can plant your butt on the couch and watch the tube until your eyes start to crust over. Our guess is that Steve Jobs caught a showing of Wargames on TNT at some point and realized, like Joshua, that when it comes to price wars in the market for "free" PCs, the only way to win is not to play.

Just think about it for a second; here you've got all these cutthroat teeth-gnashing PC cloners duking it out by lowering their margins and hoping to scrape out their success by selling in volume, yet according to PC Data, the number one selling personal computer in June was... the iMac. A CNET article notes that at $1199, the candy-colored space egg that critics called "underfeatured" costs about $500 more than the overall average selling price of Wintel systems, but people keep buying them. When Apple released their quarterly financial results, money guy Fred Anderson indicated that Apple doesn't plan to touch the iMac's price while demand is still high-- and it's high. Apple's gross margins were over 27% last quarter, which is a pipe dream in the cheapo PC bloodbath. So as it turns out, people will pay a premium for a computer just because it's blue. And beautiful. And stylish, and easy to use, and a joy to operate, and... Well, you get the point. Professor Falken would have been so proud.

On a related note, do we have to tell you what we think of the pundits claiming that the iMac's revolutionary industrial design is not important enough to influence the rest of the computer industry? Heck, computer manufacturers everywhere are finally realizing that style sells, and we're not just talking about the Future Power rip-off artists. The spectre of the beige box will soon be a thing of the past, and if the iMac was the computer that killed it, the iBook will be driving the nails into the coffin. It's curvy, it's colorful, and we think it's going to sell like Spock ears at a Trekkie convention.

Interestingly enough, while the iBook has generated more AtAT feedback than any product or event since the iMac itself was announced, almost none of the iBook mail focused on the AirPort wireless networking, or the unit's unfortunate weight, or any of the technical features: the vast majority of the buzz we're hearing concerns the iBook's colors. (So much for the theory that color isn't what sells computers...) Specifically, we received dozens of messages in defense of Tangerine from viewers who love Apple's bright orange iBooks-- and don't get us wrong, folks, we like the Tangerine ones better than the Blueberry. But here's a kicker for you: two faithful viewers, Bob Sassone and Timur Tabi, both independently posited similar Jobsian Tangerine Conspiracy Theories: Steve is limiting iBook colors to Blueberry and Tangerine in the hope that Tangerine's increased visibility and sales in the iBook stats will give the flavor a boost on the iMac side as well, thus vindicating the original questionable decision to ship an orange computer, which proved less than popular. Hey, it could happen.

If you're looking for the more pedestrian (and probably true) explanation, though, faithful viewer and Expo attendee John Rousselle has the answer: "I overheard an Apple guy on the floor explaining that the double-shot rubber on the casing only came out nice in Blueberry and Tangerine. None of the other fruit flavors were rubber-friendly." Sounds entirely possible to us, and it hints strongly that Apple's working on bringing the remaining flavors to the iBook (as Steve Jobs himself hinted, in a Wired article), possibly even by the time the first units make it onto the shelves. As for us, we think the Blueberry looks fine, and the Tangerine is nifty-- but we'd buy a Lime iBook in a heartbeat. We're keeping those fingers crossed...

As we prepare to head back into the Expo for a last happy day of wandering the floor, we thought we'd just share a few random thoughts about the overall experience this year. See, we at AtAT generally aren't the schmooze type, so we don't spend all our time getting sneak peeks at secret products in the back rooms and drinking ourselves into oblivion at the various parties only to awaken half-naked in a dumpster inexplicably clutching a tin of Altoids and a rubber chicken. Not that that's not a perfectly legitimate way of Expo-ing, but for us, we generally play things like Joe and Jane Expogoer. We wander the show floor with a curious mixture of awe and edge-of-the-seat excitement, we look at all the neat toys, we wait in line to try out the beta of the latest Bungie game, we jump up and down in the Apple Theater in hopes that the boothbot will throw us a t-shirt (we each caught one this year!), and we sit through endless Palm demos in an attempt to win a Palm V for free. For those of you who think the AtAT staff are Macworld celebrities or something, we're not. But maybe next year. ;-)

Anyway, our point is that this approach probably gives us the Average Showgoer's Viewpoint™. And as average showgoers, we have to say that this year's show seems smaller than last year's; covering all the exhibits doesn't seem to take as much time. Maybe that's just because last year's show was the first one at the Javits Center and so this year we're more used to it, but that's the feeling, anyway. Plus, there seems to be a dearth of cool swag this time around. The volume of cheap plastic junk with company logos printed on it ready to disappear into our bulging shopping bags seems to be way down, which is a darn shame. And on a similar note, there seem to be far fewer "show special" deals worth getting excited about: check Deal-Mac and you'll see that there isn't very much to report. And even our celebrity-spotting is down this year; our closest brush with greatness came when Mac pundit Bob Levitus came into the restaurant where we were eating and held a loud conversation with the people at the next table. It didn't quite measure up to seeing Gregory Hines buying a hot dog a few years back.

Now, that's not to say that this Expo feels like a failure-- not by a long shot. The energy level is high and attendance seems to be up, though we haven't seen any official numbers yet. But we're wondering if the lack of swag and show specials is symptomatic of something, whether it's the fallout from the higher expenses of exhibiting in New York, or if Apple's so "back" that the vendors don't feel a need to try as hard to hold people's attention. Nevertheless, we're having a blast, and it's a real treat to be surrounded by teeming throngs of Mac fans from around the globe. It's like coming home again.