Alas, poor Tangerine. We've seen it, Horatio; a color of infinite scorn, of most excellent orangeosity. Yup, there's little question left that Tangerine is by far the least popular iMac color when it comes to sales; people just generally don't buy things that are orange, if they're also available in blue, green, purple, or red. So while supplies of most iMacs are constrained, it seems like everyone's got plenty of Tangerines on hand; when we wandered into the local Microcenter a few days ago, it appeared that they only had Tangerines and Strawberries for sale, and they had a ton of them. Reports are pouring in from all over that the Tangerines are harder to sell than Magic Beans at a Skeptic's Convention.

And that's why we at AtAT feel sorry for Tangerine. It's really not a bad color-- when you see it up close, it's actually pretty happy. It reminds us of when you get to sit down to a great, big glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice in the morning; not one of those teeny little glasses that they often stick you with in family-style restaurants, but a big, heavy 32-ounce glass brimming with nature's sunny goodness. And yet we're sure that most people just won't be able to get past the fact that the machine is orange. Tangerine's tragic flaw is that it's, well, Tangerine. But we entreat you all-- if you're planning to buy an iMac, consider a Tangerine. It's unconventional; think different (except for all of you whose school colors are orange and white-- you folks should think same). It may eventually turn out even to be a good investment, as we hear from anonymous Apple sources that Tangerine iMacs are no longer being produced, which may make them a valuable collector's item in the future. Who knows?

By the way, if you think you know your favorite iMac flavor but you've never seen it in person, you should definitely see all the flavors first-hand before picking one. They look quite different than we expected, based on the TV commercials and photographs we'd seen. For instance, Strawberry isn't really a deep pinkish red-- it's pretty much just pink. Of course, since they're all translucent, a lot depends on the light in which you're viewing them, we suppose. Personally, we like Lime and Grape the best, but they're all gorgeous. Even Tangerine. Really!