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Nor Any Drop to Drink (7/29/98)
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Wow, we had really thought that the worst of the Great PowerBook Drought of 1998 was over, but apparently we were wrong, wrong, wrong. Despite the fact that they were introduced way back in early May, the highest-end PowerBook G3's are still harder to find than a home shopping channel selling something other than Beanie Babies. Not only have several poor souls who placed their orders for the 14.1-inch, 292 MHz configuration way back on May 5th still not received their goodies, but O'Grady's PowerPage reports that the problem is more widely spread than we ever imagined.
Quick, can anyone tell us the significance of the number 7700? No, it's not some top secret never-released Power Mac that packed a 350 MHz 604e and an on-board Sony Playstation. (At least, as far as we know.) It's the number of backorders that Apple's racked up for its fastest PowerBook. Can you imagine? That's a fairly huge number of units to be behind on, especially since they would fetch about $5600 apiece. That's over $43 million worth of PowerBooks that aren't shipping. Had they shipped on time, Apple's Q3 profit may have been quite a chunk higher than even the fairly impressive $101 million it was.
Even more disturbing, the PowerPage further states that only 2300 units of the 7700 backordered are expected to ship in August. That still leaves 5400 outstanding (or over $30 million in revenue), not even counting any new orders that may add to the pile. Yikes! Here's hoping that these numbers are way, way off... we're not thrilled with the idea that Apple still has so much trouble fulfilling demand. (Though, we suppose it sure beats having a ton of inventory that nobody wants to buy...)
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SceneLink (896)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 7/29/98 episode: July 29, 1998: CNN's "Stock of the Week" spot on Apple was unsurprisingly devoid of much substance, though its inaccuracies were flagrant enough to irk us. Meanwhile, high-end PowerBooks are still a very scarce commodity, and at last we learn why the iMac keeps reminding us of a big Charms Blow Pop...
Other scenes from that episode: 895: "This... is iMac" (7/29/98) Well, we've just seen CNN NewsStand's little "Stock of the Week" segment on Apple, and for the most part, it was relatively positive and accurate. They pointed out that Apple's stock has gone from under $13 to over $38 since last December, and they credited Steve Jobs with infusing the company with the energy it's used to climb back "from the dead."... 897: Sweet Tooth Baby (7/29/98) Call us totally nuts, but we've been unable to stop thinking about the iMac's incredible look and feel ever since we first got to use one at the MacWorld Expo. Even if you never turn the thing on, it functions extremely well as a piece of visual and tactile sculpture...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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