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Reply Hazy, Try Again (2/28/00)
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When faithful viewer Adam pointed out a MacWEEK article claiming that availability of Apple's new gear was pretty good, we admit, we were skeptical. After all, the world just doesn't work that way. But apparently MacWEEK wasn't lying, because reports are coming in from the furthest reaches of the cosmos confirming the news: the new Macs really are "available now." The veterans of past Steve Product Unveilings among you may need a little time to adjust-- we sure did. After all, we'd just taken it for granted that Apple's late-1997 policy not to announce products until they're actually available had gone out the window starting with the iMac's 90-day teaser premiere.
In recent years, we who follow Apple's epic saga have had to master the theory of Jobsian relativity, which holds that any ship date issuing forth from Uncle Steve's lips must be extended by a variable multiplier, determined by a complex series of equations. These equations attempt to map the non-linear time translation between our dimension and that of Steve's homeworld; they factor in the presence/absence of the dreaded turtleneck sweater, the humidity of the keynote hall in which the announcement is made, and how much bottled water Steve imbibes onstage prior to the product unveiling. (In addition, they also include minor adjustments for such mundane factors as current DRAM prices and the availability of LCD display panels, but the effect of those is generally near-negligible.) In this manner, those of us "in the know" have been able to make the distinction between the phrase "available now" and the same phrase uttered while making "air quotes" with our fingers-- which could mean anywhere from two to six weeks. Neat, huh?
Except this time, Steve's apparently gone and flummoxed us all; he announced immediate availability, and it appears that's what we got. Elite Computers & Software, Inc. (which has the enviable position of sitting right across the street from Apple's headquarters) claims to have "a very large supply of Power Mac G4 400s, 450s, and 500s" and "a pretty good-size truckload" of Graphite iBook Special Editions. Other retailers are reporting similar stories. As for the new PowerBooks, well, we all know how new PowerBooks lag. But reportedly everyone's expecting a shipment sometime this week. We'll believe it when we see it, but for now we've given up on the Jobsian Relativity equations in favor of a Magic 8-Ball. Will the Pismo surface this week? (Shake, shake, shake) "Outlook Good." What's it say when you ask it?
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SceneLink (2121)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 2/28/00 episode: February 28, 2000: Ars Technica shows what happens when good Docks go bad; icons get teensy and wackiness ensues. Meanwhile, all those nifty new Macs introduced in Tokyo may actually be available (really!), and Apple sticks in fourth place for January computer sales, but the signs are good for continued prosperity...
Other scenes from that episode: 2120: Hickory Dickory Dock (2/28/00) Here's three things about Aqua that we absolutely love: 1) the "Genie effect"; 2) cursor magnification in the Dock; and 3) the way that just about everyone immediately registered an opinion about Aqua despite the fact that almost nobody had used it yet... 2122: The Numbers Don't Lie (2/28/00) You know, way back at the dawn of creation, we never thought we'd look at computer sales figures and see anything but dry, dull statistics. That was, of course, before Apple's sales figures turned first into a cliffhanger deathwatch, as market share spiralled away like so much bathwater down the drain, and then became the underdog feel-good story of the century, with the iMac cast as the Little Computer That Could...
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