Well! Quite an exciting day, eh? We never imagined that Apple would make an announcement that would totally overshadow the introduction of the new Wall Street Powerbooks. We're speaking, of course, of the iMac, the goofy-looking new consumer Macintosh due this August, whose color scheme reminds us a little too much of Aqua-Fresh toothpaste. For a good long time after seeing it, our only reaction was simply "what the hell is that?" Not to say that we don't find its bold curves, translucent blue-green and white case, and light-up mouse thoroughly charming; we're just in a state of shock over this new development. Mostly, we're stunned that Apple managed to keep this thing a complete and utter secret; I mean, we've all been waiting for the Wall Street announcement for months, after all, whereas the iMac caused nary a blip on anyone's radar until the sneak attack this afternoon. (Not that the post-announcement coverage hasn't been excellent to make up for lost time-- in particular, we recommend MacCentral's overview of the iMac, as well as Don Crabb's take on the whole thing, complete with a quote from a senior executive at Compaq who delivers up this gem: "Am I worried? You're damn right I'm worried... We've got to play catch-up.")

So this iMac, due in August, could well be the key to regaining some of Apple's lost market share; after all, for a piddly $1299, Joe Average could pick up a complete system that (at least in Steve Jobs' choreographed demo test) outperforms a 400 MHz Pentium II Wintel setup. The specs do indeed make us drool: 233 MHz G3 with 512K backside cache; 32 MB of RAM; 4 GB hard drive; 15" 1024x768 monitor; a kick-ass software bundle, including Filemaker Pro, Quicken 98, a slew of games to be announced, and AppleWorks (we're pleased to see that Apple has renamed ClarisWorks to AppleWorks, the name of the integrated productivity suite we used to run on our Apple //e); and a coolness quotient that even has diehard Wintel fans telling us they're thinking of buying one. We've long wanted a stylish new Mac to replace the aging LC575 in the AtAT kitchen, and it looks like we've found one. We can hardly wait until August...

In fact, there are only a few things that stick in our craw about the iMac. First of all, if the "i" really stands for Internet, why on earth is Apple including a 33 kpbs internal modem instead of a 56k one? Perhaps Apple can remedy this bizarre situation before the systems actually ship. Secondly, the apparent lack of any expansion slots and SCSI interface mean this just might be the least expandable Mac in history. Are we expected to wait for Iomega to ship a USB Zip drive? And finally, while we like how Apple is positioning the iMac as the 90's equivalent of the original Mac, the "Hello. (Again)" campaign might remind people just a wee bit too much of the 1987 cinematic disaster, starring Shelley Long in her post-Cheers movie career. The horror... the horror...

All in all, the iMac has some very interesting omissions from its spec sheet. Since it's a super-cheap consumer machine, we suppose that leaving out the PCI slots isn't all that incongruous, though it seriously affects the iMac's viability as a game machine, as it can't be upgraded with a 3D acceleration card. The missing ADB and SCSI bother us even more, as does the conspicuous absence of standard modem/printer serial ports, which have been replaced with USB; we sincerely hope that Apple is bribing and/or threatening major peripherals manufacturers all over the world to produce USB peripherals with Mac drivers, because otherwise there will be nothing to add on to the iMac for backup purposes, etc.

And when we say nothing, we mean nothing. The last omission is the strangest of all; it appears that the iMac is the first Mac ever to lack a floppy drive. (A MacAddict article confirms this.) That could be problematic for many reasons: parents can't bring home work from the office, the kids can't bring homework in to school, some software still only ships on floppies, etc. It wouldn't really have occurred to us offhand, but after considering things for a bit, the lack of a floppy drive could seriously affect the viability of the iMac as a "full-fledged consumer Mac."

Apple's often on the bleeding edge with this kind of decision. The floppy drive is definitely old technology-- although the media is cheap, floppy disks are slow, low-capacity, and quite unreliable. Heck, even AOL seems to be sending out CD-ROMs instead of floppies these days. We don't particularly mind seeing the floppy go, though we would feel a lot more at ease knowing that Apple had something else in mind. Kind of fitting, isn't it? We believe that the Mac was the first computer to standardize the 3.5" floppy disk. And now it appears that the Mac is also going to be the first computer to ditch it. We just hope that Apple knows what it's doing.

Of course, though it's easy to forget, the iMac wasn't the only thing that happened today. There was, as expected, the formal rollout of the new Powerbook G3's, formerly known as Wall Street and Main Street, available for order at the Apple Store and at fine Apple-authorized dealers near you. In the words of Uncle Steve, "they eat Pentium notebooks for lunch." Some of you have already seen the fold-out ad for these new laptops appearing in magazines hither and thither; in addition, we're told to expect a new "Think Different" television ad in the next three or four weeks called "Steamroller," which will focus on the new Powerbooks' superiority over the Wintel competition. (Use your imagination. The violent part of it.)

Also as expected, Apple today unveiled the new Apple Store for educational buyers, which brings build-to-order and convenient purchasing to those Mac folk still doing time in the schools. Disappointingly, there was apparently no mention of build-to-order for VARs, though an AtAT source claims that this capability will arrive on or about May 23rd. If and when that happens, authorized dealers will be able to custom-configure Macs for their customers, instead of being restricted to shipping Apple's pre-boxed flavors. We're keeping our fingers crossed on this one.

And finally, there's one more point we thought was worth mentioning: Apple's stock is currently higher than it's been for at least a year, shooting past the record set last August, when Microsoft's $150 million investment in Apple boosted the stock price up to a short-lived spike of 29 3/4. Today AAPL closed at 30 5/16 on heavy volume, indicating that Wall Street liked what Jobs had to say. (A concrete commitment to the consumer market was exactly the missing piece of the Apple strategy puzzle, in our opinion; apparently Wall Street agrees.) Conventional wisdom among investor- and analyst-types seems to be that 30 is some sort of magic number in the stock market-- once a stock breaks 30, it supposedly indicates a healthy optimism in the company which feeds on itself, sending the price even higher. Let's hope this lasts. Man, suppose we'll see another day like this in the Mac world anytime soon? How about May 11th and WWDC? We can but hope.