Hey, pessimists! Looking for a reason to stay depressed for as long as possible? Well, have we got just the angst-filled Dark Cloud o' Despair for you: the analysts are starting to make little rumbles about the possibility that IBM does not have its chip production problems sorted out as well as Apple assured us it did during that quarterly earnings conference call last month. If that's true, you can look forward to many more months of Power Mac shipping delays-- and since the iMac is going G5 next month, we suppose there's a distinct chance of iMac shortages, too. More doom and gloom than you can shake an unusually morose stick at!

Yes, according to a Forbes report, the Prudential Equity Group has been keeping tabs on this whole G5 availability thing, and "following a series of recent checks on Apple," the firm sees no evidence of the sudden G5 oil strike that Apple predicted would arrive this month. Consequently, the Pru feels that "the availability of the company's 1.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz G5 processors may be worse than initially anticipated," which implies that IBM will reprise its starring role as Quarterly Scapegoat during the next earnings conference call in October.

Trying to see the glass as half-full? Good luck, because Prudential isn't the only analyst firm predicting a continued G5 shortfall; CBS MarketWatch reports that analysts at UBS insist that the "key risk" to Apple's stock price in the next few months is "IBM's ability to produce enough G5 chips." UBS claims that while Big Blue is allegedly "devoting more resources to the 'Apple issue' on almost a weekly basis," the measures have met with only "some success in yields" and production still isn't where it needs to be. The upshot? Apple may experience Power Mac "yield issues" until sometime next quarter, as well as shortages of whatever the G5 iMac turns out to be when demand far outstrips supply. (Ugh, it'll be the buzz-smothering intro of the original iMac G4 all over again.)

But don't go off the deep end or anything, because things aren't all foreboding and woe. It's significant that Prudential's target price for AAPL hasn't budged; sure, there will probably be continuing G5 delays, but the firm expects that their "financial impact should be modest." Meanwhile, UBS admits that "Apple could still deliver significant sequential improvement" heading into the holiday shopping season, and Apple still hasn't been hit by a single analyst downgrade all year. Sounds like the honeymoon isn't over just yet. Of course, there's only so much of this sort of thing Wall Street will stand, and if Apple is still singing the G5 Shortfall Blues come October, you can bet that the downgrades will come fast and furious. Don't forget to pack a poncho.