You know the drill by now, right? Apple introduces a funky blue egg-shaped computer. The rest of the industry laughs it off. Said funky blue egg-shaped computer flies off store shelves and sets sales records. The rest of the industry takes notice. A year later, Wintel-based iMac copycats start to surface. So Apple sues the companies producing the clones, and manages to secure a preliminary injunction against one of them-- Sotec, the producers of the e-one computer, which they sell in Japan and export for eMachines to sell here in the United States. Under the terms of the injunction, Sotec has to stop selling and exporting the e-one until the lawsuit is settled. Sotec then issues a statement that they're redesigning the e-one to have "distinct" features that are "not to be confused with the iMac," so that they can keep shipping their product while still complying with the injunction. Fair enough.

Or it would be, if Sotec's "remodeled" e-one weren't a big joke. MacCentral has a photo of the brand new system, which basically looks like an iMac dipped in silver paint. All the company did was replace the blue and white plastic with silver plastic, which actually makes the new e-one look more like an iMac, since without the color accents to distract the eye, the e-one's obvious copying of the iMac industrial design becomes the center of attention. Heck, our joke redesign is more distinct from the iMac than Sotec's real version. Note to Apple: want to win that suit against Sotec? Build a single iMac using all-silver plastic, bring it into court, and plop it down next to the "new" e-one. The judge won't be able to keep a straight face. (If you do this and win, we'll accept the one-of-a-kind silver iMac as a thank-you gift.)

We can't say we're surprised by Sotec's half-assed "design change," since they announced the "new" e-one scarcely a week ago. Sorry, Sotec, but painting stripes on a tree frog doesn't make it a zebra. As it stands, we're wondering if Sotec's new silver e-one will actually help Apple's case; by eliminating only the blue-and-white color scheme to get around the injunction, Sotec has issued a tacit admission that they at least meant to capitalize on the iMac's success by copying its colors. But even if it doesn't strengthen Apple's case, at least the new e-one gave our eyes a nice workout; upon first glance, our eyes rolled so far back in our heads, we could see our frontal lobes.

Wow, Apple's stock performance for the past week and a half is really bringing us back. An earnings warning started the first big drop, concerns about the Taiwan quake dragged it down farther, and AAPL just can't seem to regain any upward momentum. It almost feels like the Bad Old Days, doesn't it? Of course, things are a bit different now compared to three years ago. For one thing, Apple's earnings warning projects a lower-than-expected profit instead of a six-figure loss. And for another thing, even the most stalwart Apple-bashers are going to find it tough to blame the company for causing an earthquake (though we could name some columnists who might be able to pull it off).

Still, the downward slide continues, and most recently it's been accelerated by an analyst who, ironically enough, was reiterating his "buy" rating on AAPL. (Gee, thanks for nothing, buddy.) According to a CNET article, analyst Michael Kwatinez of Credit Suisse First Boston still considers the stock a "buy" even though he expects the massive power outages associated with the quake in Taiwan may result in "a shortfall of about 10,000" made-in-Taiwan iBooks, plus a big empty space on the warehouse floor where 15,000 Powerbook G3s should be sitting. Unsurprisingly, the Street seems to have ignored the repeated "buy" and focused on the laptop shortfall instead. Consequently, despite an AAPL upgrade to "buy" from Banc America, the stock's price continues to slide downward, having dipped just below 60.

Now, to put things in perspective, while 60 is way down from AAPL's recent high of 80, it's still higher than the price from a couple of months ago. With the iBooks now shipping, the stunning new iMac poised for a big bells-and-whistles introduction, and a Christmas buying season about to start with Apple's strongest consumer product line-up in history, we still expect the stock to reach new highs by the end of the year. Provided, of course, not too many analysts come forward to reiterate their "buy" ratings, which could prove disastrous...

So the iBooks are shipping. And we don't mean the "Steve Jobs announced it at Apple Expo" kind of shipping-- we mean the kind of shipping that actually results in customers getting iBooks into their hot little hands. Reports are flooding in from all over; people are receiving their iBooks, which Federal Express managed to deliver all the way from Taiwan in just two short days, even in the wake of last week's big quake. No doubt about it: the iBook has arrived.

And that means it's time for the advertising to kick in. Apple seems to be going the same route they took with the iMac, with glossy inserts in major consumer-oriented magazines, high-visibility billboards (we just saw an "iMac To Go" one in Boston on Route 93 heading to the airport from the north), and, of course, television commercials. Those of you who've been around for a while are well aware that we in the AtAT staff log more than our fair share of hours in front of what some snooty types will crassly refer to as the "idiot box" (Philistines!), but so far, we've only seen a single showing of an iMac ad. Compared to the virtual bombardment of "Tanks" we've been witnessing for the past several weeks, the iBook ad frequency has been downright anemic, but we expect that frequency to rise meteorically now that the iBooks are actually sort of available. We don't think they're actually in stores yet, though, so maybe we'll be waiting a bit longer before the heavy rotation starts.

In the meantime, you can always see Apple's newly-posted official QuickTime versions of the iBook and AirPort ads. But the truly Apple-savvy AtAT viewers will find something a bit... suspicious about Apple's new "iBook Theater" pages; weren't there four iBook TV commercials, you ask? Why, yes, there were. Ominously, though, two of those seem to have vanished from Apple's radar, leaving the Barry White "Notice the change" ad and the Jeff Goldblum "Possibility of love" ad to stand on their own. Those of you who saw the Macworld Expo keynote address last July probably know why Apple cut the other two ads from the roster; they weren't nearly as popular with the keynote crowd in Steve Jobs' "Applause-o-meter" experiment. Wow, real action from Apple management based on customer feedback-- it really is a new Apple. Granted, it's no built-in microphone for the iBook, but still...