With all the last-minute bustle gathering steam before next week's iMac rollout, you'd think it were a wedding approaching instead of a computer introduction. In fact, some stores are even going beyond a "standard" level of hoopla entailing giveaways, products demos, and the usual promotional stuff. No, some stores, such as Elite Computers of Cupertino, California, won't be satisfied with anything less that a full-fledged Midnight Madness Sale. According to MacWEEK, Elite Computers plans to start selling iMacs the very minute they are allowed to by Apple-- at 12:00 AM on August 15th.

It's worth noting that several resellers may be cooling the jets on their planned iMac promotional events, given the fact that, in all likelihood, Apple won't be able to deliver as many iMacs as stores have ordered. In fact, could that be the reason behind today's mysterious CompUSA Sunday paper color insert? Mysterious as in, where the heck was it? We've all grown used to seeing nary a Mac presence in the weekly CompUSA ad, but after being promised a full-page iMac promotion, it's a bit surprising not to see any CompUSA insert at all. Is Apple temporarily putting the brakes on all iMac propaganda until such time as people could actually hope to go out and buy one?

As for just how bad the shortfall of iMacs may be, we at AtAT decided to do the tiniest little bit of recon on our own. When we paid a visit to the local Microcenter today, a sales associate confirmed that they'd have iMacs in the store next Saturday-- but to demo, not to sell. When we asked why that was, his response was that every iMac they would be getting in their first shipment from Apple-- every single one-- would go towards filling the pre-orders they'd taken for the little blue appliances. When we asked him just how many pre-orders they'd gotten, the gentleman rubbed his chin thoughtfully, gazed at the ceiling for a moment, and finally said, "about ninety." Ninety. Ninety people had deposited a chunk of cash to reserve a computer that is still a week away (and only a week, we hope!), all at a single store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is a demand for these things, make no mistake; now let's see if Apple can fill that demand.