Anyone who thinks the Mac is just another computer obviously doesn't own one, right? We all know it's more than a CPU, a hard drive, some RAM, and a bunch of pretty colored plastic; the whole is insanely greater than the sum of its parts, which is why the Mac draws fervent loyalty unheard of in other computer circles. (Well, okay, there's that whole Amiga thing, but let's not go there.) There's a drawback to that, though; if Macs aren't like other computers, they can't be sold like other computers. Listing specs only gets you so far, and there's no way a bunch of numbers on a page is going to persuade someone to buy a Mac instead of a Wintel system. Unless there's some extra effort put into selling the Mac's unique appeal, sales will suffer. Heck, just look at how staggeringly Best Buy failed at selling the iMac, back when it was the hottest thing on the market.

So one of Apple's long-standing headaches has been trying to control the manner in which Macs get sold-- trying to shoehorn a truly different product in amongst all the beige bundles of parts out there. It's not easy; look how long it took before the stores-within-stores became decent and the average CompUSA location offered at least a semi-reasonable Macintosh buying experience. Any company trying to enforce an elegant sales protocol in order to sell an elegant computer when 90% of the market is sheer dreck gets an "A" for effort. The problem is in the implementation; lots of people think Apple keeps too tight a hold on its sales requirements, thus making Macs tough for consumers to buy. What are our options? In terms of bricks and mortar, there's CompUSA, Sears (for iGoods), some larger regional retailers like Micro Center, and the real heroes, the independent local Apple-authorized dealers. Online, in some ways it's even worse: we either have to stick with the Apple Store, or choose among a handful of super-large catalog resellers, like MacWarehouse, MacConnection, or OutPost.com. Smaller resellers who are allowed to sell Macs in their stores are expressly prohibited from selling those same Macs from their web sites. Overly restrictive? Probably.

But that last policy appears to be changing-- at least, a little. According to MacWEEK, Small Dog Electronics (yep, the same Small Dog that's been advertising on AtAT since day one) will start selling new Apple computers from its web site starting in April. See, Small Dog's been selling used, refurbished, and discontinued Mac systems from its web site for a long time, but selling new, current systems at SmallDog.com was a no-no. However, it sounds like Apple's loosening up a bit: starting in April, Small Dog (and any other Apple-authorized resellers) will be able to sell new Apple products via the web, with one little catch: they're only allowed to sell to existing customers. So if you've never bought anything from them before, you still won't be able to order a G4 from their web site-- but once you've purchased, say, an Ethernet card from them, you'll get a shiny new password allowing you to order brand spanking new Apple gear to your heart's content. It's an improvement, right? It's nice to see that Apple's learning to relax a little; too much stress is bad for the soul.