Speaking of the controversial new iMac patterns, we've got our first clue that they might prove more popular than many of us originally anticipated. Whether or not they'll sell is, of course, our biggest concern; there's no reason to take the introduction of "Flower Power" and "Blue Dalmatian" as a personal affront, since there's always Indigo and Graphite for people with more conservative tastes. But those of us with a vested interest in seeing Apple succeed and grow (and that includes each and every one of you who uses a Mac, not just those of us who also happen to be shareholders) don't want to see Steve's latest vision clogging warehouses with unsold and rapidly-depreciating stock in the quarter that Apple is supposed to return to profitability.

Anyway, we found this interesting: faithful viewer Derek Dohler was bold enough to have gone right ahead and ordered a Blue Dalmatian iMac last week, and at the time the Apple Store quoted him an estimated ship date of "3 days." However, a few days later, he got email from Apple-- which, as frequent Apple Store customers know, is rarely good news. Here's what it said: "We appreciate your recent order for our new, exciting iMac... this email is to inform you we have incurred a slight delay and that we now expect your iMac to be shipped by March 3rd." That's hardly enough of a delay to complain about (especially in the context of PowerBook G4 orders that are still backed up since early January), but the reason given might be a positive sign: "This delay is the result of high demand for the product."

High demand, eh? So are Blue Dalmatian iMacs really so popular that Apple can't build them fast enough to keep up with the screaming hordes who are clamoring for their "dotted i's"? Don't answer yet, because as faithful viewer Tim Kirk wrote in to tell us, MacCentral is reporting that the Apple Store has since shifted its shipping estimate for both patterned iMacs from three days to seven. What's more, one MacCentral reader received email similar to Derek's, but his ship date had been moved to March 6th-- and his order was for a Flower Power model.

So there are a couple of possible interpretations of this news. One is that both Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian are selling like crazy and Apple is having trouble filling orders as quickly as people can place them. Another is that Apple always blames delays on "high demand" and is just having trouble making any of the patterned iMacs due to some parts shortage or manufacturing difficulty-- building those patterns right into the iMac's polycarbonate shell might indeed be posing a bit of a challenge. But we'd prefer to think that fashion-forward consumers from Atlanta to Zurich are snapping up floral-print and polka-dotted iMacs at a rate far in excess of Apple's wildest and most optimistic projections. It's gonna be a Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian world, baby, just you wait!