Oy vey... Only a few short months ago, it seemed like Apple had conquered its chronic supply and forecasting problems of the past. Remember last November, when Steve Jobs unveiled the brand-spanking-new Power Mac G3, and announces immediate availability both from traditional vendors and from the newly-christened Apple Store? What a concept-- availability immediately after introduction, and a supply capable of meeting demand! Apple even overtly declared a new policy of "announce it when it's ready to ship." (Alright, buddy, who are you, and what have you done with the real Apple?)

Unfortunately, that lofty goal seems to have petered out over time. The first hint came when Apple announced the Apple Studio Display a month or so before it became available for purchase. Then there was the Great PowerBook Famine of 1998, which still continues to this day; some customers are still waiting for the PowerBook G3's they ordered last May. Then came the troubling whispers that the paradigm-breaking iMac (announced more than three full months before its expected release date, by the way), despite Apple's manufacturing facilities going great guns churning out the little suckers at an alarming rate, may in fact not be available in sufficient quantity on August 15th to fulfill what is expected to be record-breaking demand.

So what's the latest rumor of Apple's slide ever further back into the mire of its old bad habits? Look no further than CNET for the answer. Rumors have been flying that there are delays in the case design holding up the production of the new pro-level Power Mac G3's, expected to surface in early September. That wouldn't necessarily be a big deal, except Apple's already discontinued and halted production of several configurations of its existing G3 Power Mac. And with price cuts on the way, demand is expected to increase in early August. That all means that there's a chance of Apple selling all of its "old" G3 systems before the new ones become available. Whoops! No Macs to sell. See, now that's the Apple we remember. Well, with one huge exception: the new Apple is avoiding huge inventory stockpiles like the plague, and in fact it's because of that effort that they may get stuck with a Mac drought until the new systems arrive. Hey, we can live with a short Mac drought if it means we won't have to see bloated inventory numbers over the next couple of quarters.