Hey, it's a day of the week that ends in "Y," and you all know what that means: Apple has gone and revised its iMac pricing again! Okay, so it's not exactly news; Steve Jobs changes the sticker price of various iMac models more often than he changes his socks (when he wears them). When they debuted in January, the LCD iMacs cost $1299, $1499, or $1799 depending on which model you wanted. Then in March, Apple cited "rising component costs" as its rationale for abruptly tacking an extra hundred bucks onto the price of each system. Fast-forward to July, when Apple introduced a fourth iMac configuration (with a nifty 17-inch screen) and dropped the high-end 15-incher from $1899 back down to its original $1799. Then in August, the company quietly took the extra Benny off the two lower-end iMacs as well, thus restoring the 15-inch line to its January pricing.

With us so far? Well, just a week and a half ago, Apple then submarined into new territory: it cut the price of the high-end 15-inch iMac by another hundred bucks, to bring it down to the nifty new level of $1699. And yesterday, as noted by MacMinute, the lowest-end model followed suit, shedding $100 of ugly price tag fat to come to rest at a far more consumer-friendly $1199. Which means that if you've long been toying with the idea of picking up an entry-level LCD iMac to spice up that empty spot on your desk, if you buy now, you'll now have to steal less of your kids' college funds than ever before. (C'mon, they're young, they won't care. Tell 'em Enron did it.)

However, we should mention that unconfirmed sources report that Apple plans to cut the price of the mid-range 15-inch model by $50 at noon on Friday, before increasing prices by $200 across the board at 4 PM EDT. Then, we're told, Apple will alternately increase and reduce the 17-inch iMac's price by $100 every fifteen minutes from 3 AM until 5 AM on Sunday morning, while at 6:41 PM on Monday night the entry-level model will be reduced by a dollar amount to be determined by either the roll of two twenty-sided dice or where Bessie does her business on a giant numbered grid painted on a football field-- whichever method wins the coin toss.

Right now this is all just rumor, mind you, but given Apple's previous iMac pricing shenanigans, we figure we're looking at maybe a 70% likelihood here. So keep your eyes peeled and maybe you can save a few extra bucks if your timing is good. It's kinda like day-trading, isn't it?