Several AtAT viewers have contacted us with theories as to why Apple would have cancelled the first of three Winter Demo Days events-- some more colorful than others. Probably the most widely-reported speculation was that the promotional kits to be used by the stalwart Demo Days volunteers just weren't done in time for this weekend's retail hootenanny-- a sensible guess, though not particularly engaging. Few, if any, viewers seemed to place much stock in our theory involving a Steve Jobs alien clone hybrid making decisions designed to throw Apple into a tizzy. (We admit, it's a little less likely than the promo kits theory, but hey, it could happen.) Anyway, the point's now moot, because Apple has released the official reason for the cancellation.

According to Insanely Great Mac, several volunteers received email from Apple explaining that this weekend's event was cancelled due to demand for the new products, such as the fruit-flavored iMacs and the new blue-and-white Power Mac G3. Of course, when Apple says the problem is "demand," they usually mean that the real problem is "supply;" there just isn't a high enough level of inventory in the stores to justify a Demo Days promotion, since the volunteers would just be persuading customers to buy products that weren't actually available. But fear not; Apple expects plenty of product to hit the channel in time for next weekend's shindig, and we hear that volunteers who were supposed to work the cancelled gig will still be paid. Apple did the Right Thing™.

We at AtAT suppose we'll grudgingly accept the "official" explanation as the likeliest-- after all, Apple's been notoriously slow at getting newly-released products into stores in the past, so why should they be any different now? We suppose that lack of supply may also explain why the commercials for the new products that Apple showed at the Expo still have received very limited airplay-- we did see the "Rainbow" iMac commercial on NBC tonight, though. Ah, well-- believe us, we're not retiring the alien hybrid theory any time soon, though. After all, there's still that little matter of the cancelled Super Bowl commercial to explain, and we haven't heard a better theory yet...