It's time to take stock of the natural laws of our universe. First, there are the five fundamental forces: electromagnetic, gravitational, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and duct tape. Then there are all those "conservation" laws-- conservation of matter, conservation of momentum, conservation of pocket change under the sofa cushions, yadda yadda yadda. But did you know there's apparently a law of conservation of Apple distributors? Hey, it was news to us, too. As near as we can make out, the bill was passed by The Powers That Be sometime within the past three years, after Apple was forced to trim its list of authorized distributors from five to two; only Pinacor and Ingram Micro remained.

Well, about a month ago, in the spirit of a healthy and growing company, Apple announced that it was adding a new distributor to its list: Tech Data. This move indicated strong demand for Apple's products, and there was much rejoicing. Dealers applauded the arrival of a third distributor, because it gives them more flexibility in certain situations. Let's say-- purely for the sake of argument, you understand-- that there's an availability problem with, oh, let's say Apple's latest portables. (It'd never happen, we know, but bear with us, here.) If such an unlikely scenario ever came to pass, then dealers with no PowerBooks to sell would have a third distributor to complain to. See how this benefits both the dealer and the consumer?

But alas, the newly-formed Mighty Mac Triumvirate has fallen upon hard times. In accordance with the new law of conservation of Apple distributors, MacNN is reporting that Pinacor's parent company, MicroAge, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As a result, dealers are scampering away from Pinacor's "unclean" status and running for cover under the wings of Tech Data and Ingram. So now we're left with a tough question: was the recruitment of Tech Data as a new Apple distributor really a reflection of a healthy Mac market, or was it simply a buffer move by Apple's management, who saw MicroAge's financial situation preparing to crater? Either way, depending on how this whole Chapter 11 thing turns out, it sounds like we're effectively back to two distributors, for a while at least.