As the world awaits the iMac's advent with bated breath, genetically-engineered design geniuses are locked deep in secret underground labs winding their twisty way beneath the unknowing city of Cupertino, hard at work on squishing the cuddly blue iMac into slightly more portable form. (At under forty pounds and with a cool translucent carrying handle on top, the iMac is already somewhat portable-- okay, luggable-- but that's not what we're talking about.) We've all been told for months now that Apple plans to release a consumer-level portable Mac sometime next year, and in recent weeks, we've received more clues that this new "eMac" will possibly resemble the iMac little growth-stunted brother. For instance, a short article in InfoWorld Electric seems to reinforce that impression.

Now, when people talk about a "portable version of the iMac," it's entirely possible that they simply mean, "a portable version of a consumer-oriented Macintosh." But more and more, we're getting the feeling that the eMac (which we expect to receive a real name to fit into Apple's new scheme-- "iMate" has been suggested, and seems fairly likely) really will be a shrunk-down version of its older sibling. Imagine a $1200 "PowerBook Lite" in eMate-style translucent plastics (but probably matching the iMac's bondi-blue-and-ice color scheme) that families could buy in addition to their iMac, which was capable of instant networking either via fast Ethernet, or, slicker still, infrared. Finally, a real use for the iMac's IrDA port!

And as we enter this via our trusty old Duo 280c, we're heady with the thought of someday replacing it with a low-cost blue and white translucent slab capable of letting us broadcast from the road at G3 speeds. If the iMate turns out to be even half as compelling a product as the iMac seems poised to be, we may all be seeing a much wider segment of the population using laptop computers in the not-so-distant future. They're not just for the suits in business class anymore.