The iBook ship date is drawing ever closer... or is it? See, back when the iMac was first unveiled on May 6th of last year, the phrase "shipping in 90 days" was tossed around a bit. And Apple actually came pretty close to making that schedule; a firm ship date of August 15th was announced at some point along the line, and iMacs squeaked onto the shelves just in time. That was a total of 101 days from announcement to availability. The iBook situation, though, is still kind of vague. When the Consumer Portable Formerly Known As "P1" was first introduced, we believe Steve Jobs stated it would be shipping in late September, but no firm date has yet been set. And depending on whom you choose to believe, the day you can go buy an iBook and take it home with you varies wildly.

First of all, if you pre-order an iBook at the Apple Store, you'll notice you're quoted an estimated ship time of 70 days. If that's accurate, then placing your order today will get you your iBook on October 19th. Now, there are a few different possibilities here. The first is that the estimated 70-day ship date is utterly meaningless-- just a number that someone typed in to fill the required field, which hasn't even been updated since the iBook first got entered into the Apple Store's system. (Unfortunately, we think that's probably the likeliest scenario; add 70 days to the date of the iBook's unveiling and you get September 29th-- otherwise known as "late September.") The second is that the iBook's availability date really is slipping forward every day, and the Blueberry and Tangerine laptops will make their big on-the-shelf debut in mid-to-late October. And the third is that the 70-day lead time takes into account all of the other pre-orders Apple's already taken. Meaning, those early birds who rushed to order an iBook as soon as Steve held one aloft in the Javits Center will get theirs in late September, but poor shmoes like us who haven't bothered to order yet will have to wait an extra three weeks in line.

Now, that last possibility makes a lot of sense. By most accounts, iBook pre-orders by resellers are through the roof; Apple Insider has some preliminary numbers, and they're pretty staggering: CompUSA has 50,000 on order. Pinacor, the smaller of Apple's two distributors, has 4000. ClubMac, MacMall, and MacZone have reportedly each ordered about 1000. According to iBookZone, MacWarehouse has at least 7000 on order-- but they're also holding out hope that MacWarehouse's September 1st ship date is true, so we'd take that with a grain of salt or two. Still, there's no question that pre-orders for the iBook are running high, so whenever the first units start to ship, the earlier you place your order the less time you'll have to wait.