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Not Manufactured Here (9/15/98)
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The iMac keeps selling up a storm; units seem to fly off of store shelves as if repelled by some kind of magnetic force. So far, Apple's done an admirable job of keeping up with demand, but the strain of cranking out iMacs twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week is really beginning to show. Apple's just barely shipping iMacs fast enough to keep the stores stocked, while volumes of other Macs is dropping like a stone. According to several resellers, availability of various Power Macs and PowerBooks is less than satisfactory, and the situation hasn't been all that great ever since the iMacs started rolling off the production lines. Coincidence? Hardly.
So Apple's finally close to outsourcing some of the manufacturing in order to keep supplies at a reasonable level, according to a CNET article. The biggest contract manufacturer on the planet, SCI Systems, claims that there is a "very good chance" that future iMacs may be born in non-Apple facilities-- including SCI plants. Apple's keeping mum on this (surprise, surprise), but we have no reason to doubt the truth of the rumors.
One of the intangible attractions of the iMac is that it doesn't just look like it was designed by Apple; it feels like it was crafted by Apple. While some reviewers have said that the iMac's plastic case feels "cheap," we at AtAT think it's one of the most tightly-constructed computers we've ever used. So while we welcome the idea of an Apple that's actually capable of selling as many computers as people want to buy, we hope that the outsourcing of manufacturing won't degrade the quality of the merchandise. We doubt it will, given that SCI has built Macs for Apple before, and one of their plants in Colorado actually belonged to Apple before they sold it in the "lean days" of 1996. Here's hoping.
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SceneLink (1014)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 9/15/98 episode: September 15, 1998: Apple's only got two hands, and juggling iMacs, Power Macs, and PowerBooks is getting tiresome-- time to call in some outside help? Meanwhile, while most of the Wintel industry thinks the iMac's design is a flash in the pan, Intel and Trigem are borrowing and stealing iMac design elements in their own computers, and Quark has dropped its proposal to buy Adobe, in the face of Adobe's extreme resistance...
Other scenes from that episode: 1015: Chew On This (9/15/98) Well, we've officially met and exceeded our U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of irony today. First we came across a ZDNet article about how PC manufacturers are adopting a "wait and see" attitude about the iMac and its revolutionary design... 1016: Separate Ways (9/15/98) The dream is over; Quark Inc., the makers of QuarkXPress, has officially withdrawn their proposal to buy out competitor Adobe. In a press release, Quark reveals that Adobe has repeatedly rejected their offers for a friendly buyout, and "summarily dismissed" the entire proposal...
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