You really have to hand it to Apple: sometimes we wonder if those folks would chew off their own legs to meet a deadline. Remember back in early January when Steve said that the company would ship high-end iMacs by the end of the month, mid-range ones in February, and low-end units in March? Well, you probably recall that Apple indeed shipped the very first SuperDrive models on January 28th, beating the first deadline with days to spare; Steve and the gang even saw fit to crow about the accomplishment in a full-blown press release. Nice, but not overly dramatic, right?

But just last week as February was winding to a close, we noted that the mid-range iMacs were still nowhere to be seen-- and that MacUser was reporting that Apple had been "quietly warning dealers to expect virtually no mid-range and low-end models until April." Bummer, right? For the first time in ages, it appeared that Apple had actually failed to meet a shipping deadline that had issued forth directly from Steve's Mighty Lips. We picture scads of crestfallen Apple employees staring shamefacedly at their shoes, morale in the ranks at an all-time low, the screams of a couple of scapegoats echoing through the halls as cattle prods meet naked flesh, etc. In short, nothing good.

But wait-- what's this? Faithful viewer Troy Biesterfeld tells us that if Apple missed its end-of-February shipping deadline, it sure didn't miss it by much; Troy got email from Apple informing him that the earliest mid-range iMac order should ship "within the next 7 business days." And since Troy's own combo drive iMac left Taiwan just two days ago on March 2nd (you can even track his shipment), apparently Apple missed the cutoff by less than 48 hours. Not too shabby.

Since then, other AtAT viewers have informed us that their combo drive iMacs have shipped, and readers over at MacNN are reporting the same. What's more, Troy placed his order on January 15th-- a full week after the new iMacs were introduced, implying that there were quite a few orders in the queue ahead of him. And considering that Troy's email from Apple announcing that the mid-range iMacs were "now shipping" arrived in his inbox "on February 28 at 10:30 PM CT," well, heck... maybe, just maybe, Apple squeezed the first such order out the door before March officially reared its ugly head.

At least, that's what we'd like to think; hundreds of jubilant Apple worker elves high-fiving themselves at five minutes to midnight is a much nicer mental image than faces set in grim despair amid screams and the stench of searing flesh. Or maybe it's just a matter of taste.