By all accounts, less than a month out of the gate, the iMac is a big success. Apple's selling a ton of them (several tons, if you want to Think Literal), primarily to existing Mac owners who wanted to upgrade their older units, but a significant number seem to be going to first-time computer buyers and PC users fed up with all that DLL and Registry nonsense. One place the iMac was not expected to shine, however, was in the corporate arena.

That's why it's kind of cool to hear that some businesses are indeed very interested in the iMac as a low-cost general-use office computer. Mac the Knife, for instance, mentions that a "sizeable Pacific Rim company" has ordered some 3000 iMacs for corporate use. That's a whole lotta iMacs, and they're obviously destined for the desktops of more than just the graphic design department. (Not that the iMac is particularly well-suited for graphic design, but you get the point.) According to the Knife, this is exactly the kind of reason that is pushing Apple to release a "pumped-up" iMac targeted directly at business users next year.

A "pumped-up" iMac for business? It seems to us that the iMac is already considerably more powerful than it needs to be for the vast majority of basic office computing tasks. It's got a fast processor, a crystal-clear screen with plenty of VRAM for office use, and a cubicle-friendly design that takes up very little space. Then again, given that most corporate computing makes use of the software behemoth known as Microsoft Office, upon further reflection, we can see the point. Who ever thought that a 233 MHz G3-based system with 32 MB of RAM might someday be considered sub-optimal for writing memos and tallying up expense reports? (Ah, for the days long past, when I wrote my essays and tracked my expenses on a 128 KB Apple //e using AppleWorks...) So here's our suggestion for the bMac: lose the modem, pop in a 266 or 300 MHz G3, bump the RAM to 64 MB minimum, and include at least one configuration that ships with a USB floppy drive. Heck, the only time we ever use floppies anymore is when we're handed one by someone who couldn't figure out how to get his PC onto the local network... Strip out the consumer software and pop in VirtualPC. At least one configuration should ship with Office. And by the way, Apple-- release it sooner, rather than later. Mid-1999? Puh-lease.