The news wires are humming with still further evidence of the iMac's mass appeal. Most likely you've seen by now that Creative Computers, the company that runs the MacZone MacWarehouse MacMall mail-order house, has announced that it's received $4 million in iMac orders, and the product's only been available for a week and a half. That's the largest dollar volume Creative has seen for any computer during launch time-- and since Creative also runs PC Mall, that includes Wintel systems as well. A Business Wire release has more details.

"Consumer interest in the iMac is bigger than big," according to Dan DeVries, Creative's executive veep of sales and marketing. He claims that both he and the CEO went ahead and bought iMacs for their families because they were so excited about the product. But the really cool thing is that Creative has gotten so many inquiries about the iMac from their PC-using customers, they've decided to start advertising the irresistible blue lump in its PC Mall catalog as well. A Mac being advertised in a PC catalog? Pinch us, we're dreaming... It's like the start of a sort of karmic realignment to make up for all those Windows ads we've had to wade through in MacWorld and MacWEEK. Here's hoping the trend continues, which may be a key factor in the expansion of the Mac's market share.

Personally, we at AtAT have always found the ClubMacZoneMallWarehouseConnection mail-order houses to be somewhat interchangeable, and we frequently get them mixed up (except we know that MacWarehouse is the one with the really outrageous memory prices and that lady with the headset on the catalog that hasn't changed a pixel in over ten years). But from now on, we're more likely to remember MacMall as "the one who started advertising the iMac in its PCMall catalog." That means that this strategy isn't just good for Apple and the Mac market-- it ought to be good for MacMall, too, who will see increased iMac sales from their PC-using customers, and possibly a surge of support from Mac users who appreciate the company's attempt to expand the market, no matter how self-serving the motive. After all, in a general sense, we Mac users are a fiercely loyal bunch. (Hey, we're just happy we may soon have a reason to at least open the PC Mall catalogs we get in the mail before we toss them into the recycling bin.)