One of the few really dark stains on Apple's otherwise gleaming performance this year was the earnings warning lowering expectations of its fourth-quarter profits due to G4 availability problems-- remember the resulting stock dip? An even bigger stain was the time that Steve Jobs (or financial dude Fred Anderson, depending on which rumors you believe) lost his mind and downgraded the whole line of Power Mac G4s while keeping the prices the same. Worse yet was the PR bloodbath that ensued when Apple announced that all pre-orders for the original, faster G4 systems were being cancelled. It took a week of confusing policy revisions before almost all of the pre-orders were reinstated, and amazingly enough, not a single high-ranking Apple official was lynched in the meantime. (We hear that marketing guy Mitch Mandich had his car egged, but that may have just been a coincidence.)

Now look at those low points in Apple's otherwise stellar recent past. What do they all have in common? That's right-- the G4 chip. Or, more accurately, the lack of G4 chips. Apple's profits in Q4 were lower than originally expected because there weren't enough G4 processors to fulfill demand. Apple's decision to slow down the whole Power Mac line came because faster G4s just weren't available. And the cancellation of all pre-orders-- well, okay, that was just completely and utterly insane, but still, it would never have happened if the "speed dump" hadn't happened either. So what should any self-respecting Apple fan do when confronted with these nasties from Apple's timeline? Simple: Blame Motorola. Go ahead; Apple does.

Anyway, with a little luck, it appears that this particular supply problem may soon be behind us. According to a MacWEEK article, Motorola's director of communication and marketing states that his company is now "run-rated to meet Apple's demand in the fourth [calendar] quarter." Motorola plans to "focus on fulfilling demand" for the superchips, and soon, anyone who wants a Power Mac G4 will be able to buy one in a reasonable time frame. (We hope.) At which point, of course, Apple will have to find someone else to blame when things go terribly, terribly awry. We're betting on either IBM or the British royal family...