So was it a wuss-out intended only to save face and grant false hope to its grieving customers, or is Apple genuinely open to the possibility of someday popping the Cube out of its deep-freeze tray and sticking it back on store shelves? Apple fans the world over zeroed in on the company's unusual wording in its official notice of the Cube's demise: "Apple Puts Power Mac G4 Cube on Ice"; the company will "suspend production"; "there is a small chance" that Apple will "reintroduce" the product in the future. That's hardly the same as saying "the Cube was a massive sales failure and we're cutting our losses by rounding up all unsold units and firing them directly into the sun so that they may blight our balance sheet no longer."

What's the deal? Apple could just as easily have granted the Cube a silent and obscure death, letting it slip quietly from the price list when new Macs debut in two weeks' time. Instead, the company issues an honest-to-goodness press release announcing the fate of the product. Does that seem normal to you? Product introductions are one thing, but we can't imagine that any company typically expends the time, effort, and money to tell the world when it's cancelling a product. (We notice that the usual "quote from Steve" is conspicuously absent; since the Cube was Steve's baby, he may have been too overwrought to comment.)

This seemingly bizarre behavior and open-ended wording has prompted several true believers to cling to hope of a Cube resurrection someday. The Cube-Zone has already launched a petition-- and as faithful viewer the M@d H@tter (who else?) points out, Mac OS Rumors claims that Apple is indeed keeping the Cube on ice until the company needs "reserve firepower" in the form of a "marketing boost." One current plan? "Bringing the Cube back with spiffed-up plastics or even a stamped-metal enclosure as the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Mac next year."

Not to be party poopers or anything, but we can't see Apple reviving the Cube anytime soon... if at all. Think about Apple's history in the Second Jobs Dynasty. For the most part it's been a rousing tale of success despite overwhelming odds; you've got your return to sustained profitability, your skyrocketing stock price, the iMac phenomenon, etc. There have really only been two big stumbling blocks in recent memory: the original G4 speed dump (and its resulting earnings warning), and deadly slow sales of the Cube (and its resulting earnings warning). Sure, the Cube won a zillion design awards, but it's been forever tainted with the stigma of failure. We don't expect Apple to ship a revamped Cube as the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Mac any more than we'd expect the company to ship a 450 MHz Power Mac G4 next year at $2499 "just for old times' sake"; it's only going to remind the press of one of Apple's biggest missteps since kicking Steve out in the first place.

No, the way we see it, the Cube is gone-- and either Steve couldn't bear to admit that the product (at least the way it was sold) was a mistake, or Apple thinks it's helping Mac fans by leaving the door open for a "Search For Spock"-like return that it never actually plans to bring about. (Actually, we're betting the press release was an attempt to get the bad vibes and stock price deflation out of the way now, so it doesn't taint the good news in store at the Expo-- but that's just us.) In our opinion, it's far better to mourn the Cube's passing and move on than to cling to false hope of a miraculous rebirth. Besides, miraculous rebirths aren't nearly as impressive if you're actually expecting them.