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Goofy Distribution Model (10/3/99)
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Where have all the iBooks gone? The answer may surprise you. It's no secret that Apple's supply of the luscious new consumer portables is pretty heavily constrained, and that availability's not going to improve very much for probably at least a month due to lingering production difficulties in Taiwan following the earthquake. So there's only a precious few iBooks to go around, and for the most part, they seem to have gone to two places. One big batch went to the homes of those irrepressible souls who pre-ordered from the Apple Store early on. The rest appear to have gone to Sears.
Yes, Sears. At least, according to MacProvider, and we've been receiving independent iBook-at-Sears reports over the weekend. Now, we always knew that Sears would be carrying the iBook; in fact, it was widely rumored that the iBook was an even bigger enticement to their return to Apple-resellerdom than the iMac was. What surprises us, though, is that while there are thousands of people waiting for their orders to be filled from resellers like Cyberian Outpost, CompUSA, etc., apparently Sears stores across the country have a few iBooks in stock, just waiting to be bought by anyone with enough credit left on his/her plastic. As far as we know, Sears didn't even take pre-orders for the iBook-- or, if they did, they were pretty darn quiet about it.
So why did Sears get them? Who knows? It's probably some kind of political thing; maybe Apple promised them the first batch as a condition for selling iMacs or something. We can imagine that many people who pre-ordered iBooks from non-Apple-Store sources are more than a little miffed that they're still twiddling their thumbs and waiting, while lazy slugs like us who never bothered to pre-order can own an iBook first. Similarly, we bet the resellers are hopping mad-- especially after the last supply distribution scandal, when Apple kept all of the first "bronze" Powerbook G3 systems for the Apple Store and let the resellers go hungry. All we can say is, hopefully Apple will be a bit more willing to share when handing out the Kihei iMacs-- and if you can't wait any longer for your pre-ordered iBook, check out your local Sears; you may be able to cancel your order and buy an iBook today. Don't forget, Sears will match prices, so don't be fooled by that $1699 price tag. And if you open a Sears charge account, you can take an additional 10% off...
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SceneLink (1818)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 10/3/99 episode: October 3, 1999: While hordes of foaming Mac fanatics still await their iBook pre-orders, unclaimed Tangerine and Blueberry units sit on the shelves at Sears. Meanwhile, Sotec vows to fight the injunction preventing it from selling the "e-one" iMac clone, and speculation mounts that "Think Different" may be retired at Tuesday's event...
Other scenes from that episode: 1819: Objection Overruled (10/3/99) So were you wondering how Japanese iMac cloner Sotec was able to get a "remodeled" version of its "e-one" system out the door so quickly? Maybe you weren't; after all, the only design difference in the new "e-one 500" model is the use of uniform "Millennium Blue" silvery plastic instead of the more derivative blue and white in the original... 1820: Thought Different (10/3/99) You probably think that, when Steve Jobs takes the stage on Tuesday to address the world at this mysterious "event," you know exactly what he's going to show us all. First, there's the new iMac; Apple's been running itself ragged trying to shut down all the sites posting the alleged "Kihei" images, and the "event" was announced just days after the dam broke and Kihei pictures and specs were plastered all across the Mac webscape...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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