What's the single biggest growth market that Apple's currently completely missing out on right now? That's right, the burgeoning sub-$1000 market, which apparently accounts for something like 40% of the sales of home computers these days. And Steve Jobs' comments at Seybold last week, when he stated that Apple would have some great products targeted at that market this fall, caused more than one spit take here at AtAT headquarters. That's because we've been expecting Artemis, Apple's rumored all-in-one G3-based computer to ship in April or May for $999. A possible delay until fall could be catastrophic.

However, many sources still claim that Artemis is well on schedule for a spring unveiling. But one of the more disturbing reports is over at Reality-- one of their sources claims that not only will Artemis be ready for April, it's actually ready now. In fact, this source states that a "large number" of Artemis machines are built, boxed, and sitting in a warehouse doing nothing for anybody, kinda like the Ark of the Covenant at the end of the first Indiana Jones flick. This alleged warehouse holds product destined for the Apple Education Reseller program, implying that these hidden Artemis boxes are destined to wind up in school labs, but not until Apple actually starts selling them. Which they do not intend to do until all of the Powermac 5500's they have in stock are sold. Allegedly. We would hope that Apple isn't missing a critical window of opportunity by deliberately holding up Artemis' shipment just to clear stock of older machines. The very idea makes us nervous.

Regardless, by almost all accounts, Artemis will be available quite soon. Was Steve just being overly cautious with the fall release prediction, true to Apple's recent "underpromise and overdeliver" fashion? Or will the Artemis machines only be available to education for six months before they are released into the consumer channel, as Apple has done in the past with LC machines that turned into Performas? Or was Steve talking about a completely different product targeted at the budget-constrained home user? The possibilities are endless...

Following our recent worried wonderings about Rhapsody's future, Mac OS Rumors was kind enough to post a clarification of what is ostensibly Apple's plan for its dual OS strategy. As they had reported in the past, the Mac OS will continue to gain the most important modern OS features of Rhapsody, and it will also receive Yellow Box runtime libraries, allowing software developed on Rhapsody to run in the Mac OS, starting with Allegro (due to ship this summer). Next year, Allegro will be replaced by Sonata, which sounds like it'll be more Rhapsody than Mac OS, at least at its core; the big difference between Sonata and Rhapsody will be Sonata's concentration on ease on use above all else, in true Mac OS fashion.

So given that the most important bits of Rhapsody are finding their way into the upcoming versions of the Mac OS, hearing that Rhapsody itself will be primarily a server OS isn't such a big deal. Future versions of the Mac OS will be Rhapsody, at least the way we've been thinking about Rhapsody. The server Rhapsody will only differ in its tools, its price, and its use of the unix command line. (Given that we dig unix, AtAT may just shell out the extra cash for Rhapsody for that added bonus.)

Of course, we'll have to wait until at least the Worldwide Developer Conference to hear anything like this from Apple, but if the official plan is anything like the one proposed by Rumors' sources, we're much more comfortable with the direction things are taking. Programmers will be encouraged to develop for the Yellow Box so that new applications will run at their fastest in both Rhapsody and the Mac OS. Neat.

One of the many, many rumors about Apple's top-secret "Columbus" project is that it's a teeny little eMate-style handheld that can play DVD movies on an integrated color LCD screen. That particular description sounded great to us-- if Apple could be the first company to release an entertainment appliance that would be the movie equivalent of a Sony Walkman, they'd stand a good chance to break into a whole new area of consumer electronics. But then we watched the Oscars.

If you were tuned in as well (and there's a pretty darn good chance you were, given the ratings that event commands), you may have noticed the commercial for the Panasonic DVD-L10. It's a teeny little eMate-style handheld that can play DVD movies on an integrated color LCD screen. D'oh! And it really looks cute-- sorta like a mini-Duo, which is already pretty darn small. At just over six inches square, think "Duo for a smallish dachshund."

Of course, if this is essentially what Columbus was supposed to be, Apple still has a chance if its offering is significantly cheaper and/or cooler than Panasonic's. Apple's would probably run Allegro Lite, which may allow more intelligent features and the use of basic software packages, like say a notepad or a movie annotation system. It might also double as a CD/Enhanced CD player. If the price is right, Columbus could still be a real winner. Assuming that this is what Columbus is supposed to be in the first place, instead of an NC, a desktop Mac, or a set-top internet device. Ain't speculation grand?