Ladies and gentlemen, we have a denial! What was perhaps the most striking thing about the recent rumors of IBM/Motorola G4 gridlock was the marked lack of on-the-record comment from either of the involved parties. And don't go telling us that none of the folks at these companies ever heard the accusations. We're talking about Motorola allegedly holding back IBM from shipping faster, cheaper processors while Apple's pro desktop Macs get left ever further behind in the Megahertz Wars-- c'mon, there's enough juice there for a Starburst commercial. Mac OS Rumors broke the story, and that's probably one of the highest-traffic sites on the Mac web. Furthermore, commentary on the rumor has appeared in both The Register and MacWEEK. Is it really possible that no one at Motorola ever heard about this? (Actually, now that we think of it, given the ongoing anti-Mac initiatives at Motorola, perhaps it's not all that unlikely after all...)

You know how rumors work; the longer they go without a denial, the more likely they are to spread. That's why the world of Apple is such fecund ground for rumormongering; the company's official stance on rumors is never to comment, and therefore never to deny. But finally, it seems that someone kicked a Motorola spokesperson awake long enough to issue a statement regarding the G4 gridlock allegations. According to MacUser U.K., Motorola's European marketing manager Paul Clark has responded by "categorically denying" any such contractual hobbling: "Motorola has placed no restrictions on IBM that will prevent it from manufacturing and selling the MPC7400, at any clock speed, to Apple."

So does that mean the rumors will now shrivel up and die? Not likely, unless you're willing to accept the word of Motorola's European marketing manager as the end-all-be-all authority on what kinds of contractual strings the company pulls behind closed doors; who says this guy has the faintest shadow of a clue? Maybe he just never read the memo. Plus, while Motorola's utter lack of denials as the rumor spread for a full two weeks seemed suspicious at best, this late denial seems almost even shiftier. See, when Apple doesn't deny a rumor, that's par for the course. And if Motorola had clammed up about the whole thing until the end of time, that'd be one thing. But for the company to issue a denial two weeks after the rumor first made headlines, well, they can't very well claim they "don't comment on rumors," can they? So why the delay? Maybe they're just as slow at PR as they are at getting clock speeds up...