If any of you out there in TV-Land are lucky enough to be working at a company that still buys Macs, you may be aware of a problem that plagues us on an ongoing basis: we have "build-to-order envy." Whereas Joe Consumer (and now, Jane Student) can visit the online Apple Store and custom-configure a cool new Mac to his (or her) heart's content, those of us working at companies that require us to purchase all equipment through a list of approved value-added resellers are stuck choosing from among Apple's shelf configurations. Which is why we just bought six PowerBook G3/233's with the 13" screen, and had to settle for separate PCMCIA card modems instead of getting Apple's internal one. (The only shelf configuration including both the required 13" screen and the internal modem also includes a 250 MHz processor, which is more horsepower than we need, and adds about $800 to the price.) So we're stuck with a less elegant solution.

There have been rumors floating around for months that Apple will soon open up build-to-order capabilities to its VAR's, and the latest reports at MacNN and MacInTouch indicate that this new incarnation of the Apple Store is expected to be launched on August 3rd. Once it goes up, customers will be able to call their vendors, describe a custom-built configuration, and have the vendor obtain that exact configuration from Apple to resell to the end user. Not exactly thrilling news if you've been able to buy your equipment built-to-order directly from the Apple store since November, but for those of us who have to buy through certain resellers (and for those resellers themselves), this is a huge step forward.

Unfortunately, even when the Reseller Apple Store does go live in a week and a half, it sounds like we'll have to wait still longer for the ability to order custom-configured PowerBooks from our vendors. When the new site first becomes available, it will offer custom configuration options for G3 desktops, minitowers, and servers-- but not for PowerBooks. Reportedly we'll have to wait for September before Apple adds that feature. (We're guessing it has more to do with the continued drought of PowerBook parts and Apple's 6000-unit backorder list than anything else.)