Looks like that preliminary injunction against K. K. Sotec is doing its job. Sotec, as you know, is the Japanese company making and selling the Wintel-based iMac clone known as the e-one. Apple sued, and less than a month later, a Japanese court granted Apple an injunction which prohibits Sotec from "manufacturing, selling, displaying, exporting or importing" the e-one product. Note that this also might put U.S. cheapo computer kings eMachines in a bit of a bind, because while Apple's suit against them has yet to draw blood, eMachines is simply reselling the Sotec e-one in the U.S. as the "eOne." And since Sotec can no longer export the suckers, eMachines may see their supply dry up.

The latest news, though, is that Sotec, after seeing the stock of its business partners plummet up to 25% following the issuing of the injunction this past Monday, has now announced that it plans to sell a "remodeled" version of the e-one as early as next month. This second e-one (e-two?) is promised to have "distinct" features that are "not to be confused with the iMac," according to Sotec planning department director Masayasu Ozeki. You can read more about the situation in a Bloomberg article.

We at AtAT, of course, have managed to weasel a pre-release photo of the new e-one, stolen from Sotec's design labs. As you can see, it no longer resembles an iMac in the least. "Liberated" internal memos indicate that the new e-one will sell for the same price, but will now include a mustache comb and a year's supply of oversize Bioré Pore Perfect nose strips. Finally, some real innovation from a Wintel manufacturer...

Well, we certainly had an Apple sort of evening while planted in front of the TV last night. Let's see... Sharon was playing with a Blueberry iBook on Two Guys and a Girl, Mimi's upgraded her original Bondi Blue iMac to a Grape one on The Drew Carey Show, and the Tangerine iBook made a brief but clearly visible reappearance on Get Real. Then, of course, there were the Power Mac G4 and iBook commercials popping up all evening. You may not be able to find the products on store shelves, but you can sure drool over their flickering images on your TV. Ahhhh, a new fall season loaded with new Apple gear. It doesn't get any better than this.

Well, it could get a little better. Motorola could shift into high gear and get Apple enough processors to fulfill G4 demand. And while Steve Jobs claimed iBooks were shipping last Wednesday, even the people who placed the earliest pre-orders still haven't gotten them (though we've gotten numerous reports that the first ones may reach their owners as early as Thursday). While there are worse problems for a company to have than demand far outstripping supply, we just can't suppress that feeling of déjà vu; doesn't it seem like Apple's always having trouble building cool gear fast enough to keep the shelves stocked? There have been extreme cases, like the original Wall Street Powerbook G3, and milder cases, such as the three-week delay in getting the new "bronze" Powerbooks into the hands of customers. The G4 wasn't exactly "shipping now," as Steve had said, even if the delay is Motorola's fault. In fact, the iBook looks like the only new product since last year's iMac that's actually going to ship on time; back in July, we were told "end of September," and that looks pretty accurate.

On the other hand, just because the first iBooks are going to hit the shelves before the end of the month doesn't mean that you'll actually be able to run out and buy one. With 160,000 pre-orders to work through, even under ideal manufacturing conditions it would have taken a few weeks to work through the backlog and get a decent number of iBooks into the channel. And, of course, the manufacturing conditions are far from ideal right now; a MacWEEK article indicates that delays in iBook productions are "likely" due to the recent earthquake that rocked Taiwan, home of iBook manufacturers Alpha Top. While we now have official Apple word that Alpha Top's manufacturing plant suffered "no significant damage," you can bet that nation-wide power outages, completely jammed communications systems (it took us two days to contact our family members there, who are fine), and far more pressing concerns than cranking out orange and blue laptops are going to affect the iBook supply for a while. But just be thankful that an extra few weeks waiting for your iBook is all you have to worry about due to the quake. So calm down and watch TV.

Man, for a guy who once publicly said that if he were running Apple he'd "shut it down and give the money back to the stockholders," Mike Dell sure seems to be taking a lot of pages from Apple's book these days. Not too long ago Mike gave customers a peek at a new Dell system that's going to ship this fall-- a "small, stylish computer" that will be available in different colors, and that's targeted at the "cool consumer," according to a Reuters story. What do you suppose that's inspired by? But if that's not enough to tell you that Dell's more than a little envious of Apple's newfound glory in the consumer market, just wait 'til you get a load of Dell's new laptop plans...

A Bloomberg article we found while checking out MacInTouch shows just how shamelessly Dell's jumped onto the Apple bandwagon. First of all, the company's introducing "new products and services, coupled with a consumer-oriented advertising campaign, targeted at the growing number of customers who want a computer to use the Internet." Gee, selling a computer to the average shmoe who just wants to get on the 'net? Doesn't ring a bell. But then there's the news about the new "Inspirion 3700" line of laptop systems, which somehow seems just a little familiar. The new laptops are targeted at consumers, come in two colors, and cost about $1800 each.

Now, granted, while this is an obvious attempt to compete with the iBook, it's interesting to note Dell's diversions from Apple's path. First of all, there's the price: Dell's systems are $200 more expensive, though we bet the feature set is a little less stripped-down. For once, though, Apple's actually going to have a straight price advantage with the iBook's $1599 price tag. More importantly, though, is Dell's choice of two colors: blue and grey. That's right, Dell's banking on the fact that "manly men" will gladly shell out an extra $200 to get, as Dell consumer marketing director Klee Kleber puts it, "a tasteful, nice-looking PC that they can carry around." Now this is going to be an interesting battle. How will the iBook's Blueberry and Tangerine fare against Dell's "tasteful" hues? We can't wait to see the sales numbers...