First, Apple severed all ties with its existing national resellers. Then they worked out a deal with megachain CompUSA whereby Apple products would be attractively displayed and competently sold in special "stores within stores." Later on, Best Buy climbed back on board to sell iMacs, and not long ago, Sears enlisted, too. But CompUSA (who never fully lived up to its promise anyway) is now talking about "de-emphasizing" the personal computer in favor of PDAs and consumer electronics, the whole Best Buy iMac thing exploded with the force of a billion executives yelling "I don't get it" all at once, and after a simultaneously frustrating and exciting start, the Sears situation is still just lukewarm at best. So now what?

Wouldja believe, Apple's own chain of stores? We've been hearing furtive whispers for a good couple of months now that Apple was seriously considering taking a page from Gateway's book and opening special boutiques across the country, where customers would be guaranteed a solid, Mac-friendly and Mac-knowledgeable sales experience. Certainly there have been plenty of opinion columns on the web stating that Apple needs to do this if they're ever going to get away from the horrors of an uncontrolled and indifferent retail sales force. To be honest, while we love the idea, we never considered it very feasible; Apple could never get the kind of coverage they would get with Sears or CompUSA. But if Apple Insider is correct, now it looks like they're really going to try.

The Apple Insider article is a long and in-depth examination of the retail Apple Store concept, and it's the first time we've seen those furtive whispers coalesce into an overt declaration that Apple is indeed preparing to make bold changes to the way they do business. Imagine being able to walk into a store and seeing nothing but Macs and Mac accessories from wall to wall. Imagine being able to question a salesperson about a Power Mac without being steered towards a Compaq system instead. Imagine being able to custom-configure your dream Mac and have it built to order in the back room for you to throw in the car and take home right away. Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it? But it's just one more rumor that might materialize as fact during next week's keynote address. Oh, the suspense...