Well, "SJ-Day" has come and gone, and all but the most conservative of crystal-gazers who guessed about the day's events were wrong, wrong, wrong. No new CEO. No merger with Oracle. No alliance with Lucent. Not even a collaborative agreement with Sun. That's not to say these things will never happen-- but they didn't happen today.

Is that bad? We don't think so. Today we got a hell of a show (though it was only an hour long-- 60% shorter than originally planned. Did something fall through in the eleventh hour?) outlining Apple's new three-pronged plan to retake the computer world by storm. First there's the new chip-- the G3, featured in new Powermacs and Powerbooks available immediately. 20,000 Powermac G3's have shipped to stores already, and these suckers blow the doors off the fastest Wintels-- whether you're looking at the benchmarks or the real-world performance. Next there's the Apple Store, where anyone can buy a Mac (or Apple software, or an eMate, or a MessagePad, etc.) online. Only time will tell, but this could mean huge things for Apple-- especially if Steve isn't just blowing smoke about it being better than Dell's system ever was. Also, don't forget the CompUSA alliance-- 54 Apple salons before Thanksgiving, and all 150 up and running by the end of January. As CompUSA heavy Hal Compton said today, "We are committed to make CompUSA America's Mac headquarters... We expect Christmas to be huge for CompUSA and Apple." And third, there's the new build-to-order strategy. If you want a Mac, you decide yourself how to put it together. This is incredibly important to Apple, who can't forecast its way out of a paper bag; no more unwanted systems languishing in warehouses when everyone's clamoring for the exact same model with the Zip drive and a bigger hard disk.

Amazingly enough, Apple is fighting. That's a first, as far as we can see; they've been coasting for too long. And it's because they're not standing still that we at AtAT are more confident about Apple's future than we've ever been. "Speed, convenience, and choice-- the gloves are off at Apple. Our competitors better beware."