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I ordered a 2.8 with 750 GB on Aug 9. It still hasn't shipped. I can't really check on it because powermax can't see what is going on with it because it is built to order.

Currently iMacs ship in 3 to 5 business days. Is this what they call shortage???

Yep ! Ordered on the 15th and still waiting for it !!!

I remember seeing this about a decade and a half ago, only it was a headline from Dell.

That then launched an era of rushing components from anywhere in the world where anyone producing anything from a hard drive to a ram chip to a mother board to a sister board to anything else, no matter if any of it worked or not.

Result: a well deserved reputation of a total crap machine.

Will the decision makers at Cupertino (with Steve's permission, of course) make the same MISTAKE because of their greed to take rush advantage of today's demand?

If the answer to this question is anywhere close to 'yes', then it's time to sell all your AAPL - the sooner the better.

And, by the way, if the answer is anywhere close to 'yes', then it's time to stay away from Apple Stores anywhere.

Just went into the Tampa Apple Store (International Plaza) and walked out with a 24" iMac yesterday. Very nice experience, although the store was very crowded and the employees were clearly a bit flustered by the pace of activity. There were many, many systems going out of that store yesterday.

I had thought about ordering online and getting a larger hard drive. I am now glad that I didn't.

Apple has a long history of component shortages. This is part of the reason that pushed them to switch to Intel. This shortage is not going to cause Apple to change it's behavior. They already have a robust component supplier network. It's always a balance of quality and control versus quantity.

We're better off waiting for a solid product rather than rushing a broken one. Apple knows this. Or I hope they know this. My MBP was fixed three times before they got a good motherboard, fans and DVD drive.

Bought a 20" iMac off-the-shelf a few days after the announcement. Delay? There was a long checkout line because of the tax-free weekend. I didn't mind because we stacked up tax-free weekend + student discount + free-after-rebate student iPod promotion + free-after-rebate printer promotion.

"Will the decision makers at Cupertino (with Steve's permission, of course) make the same MISTAKE because of their greed to take rush advantage of today's demand?"

Okay, so if Apple modifies or increases its vendor base to keep up with growing demand, that is now GREED??? If they need to go that route it would be sound business. One doesn't have to necessarily replace good components with crap components when adding vendors. There are a lot of good manufacturers making quality electronic components. Not capitalizing on current demand and making potential customers wait to the point of frustration is no answer.

Anyway.... I ordered a 2.8 GHz model on Aug 10th. Still backordered as of this morning.

Any kind of custom made order for imacs are shipping late. So says the local mac store...

If you play around with the online order form, ordering a wireless keyboard makes the leadtime jump several weeks.

"Have you experienced a delay in the shipment of your new iMac?"

Yes. The component I am short on is Money....

I ordered a standard 20" iMac on the 21st and I received a notice from Apple that it shipped today. The FedEx tracking number shows that it left Shanghai at 10:37 a.m.

damn, towertone, I was going to say that!

I ordered a 20" standard config from MacMall late on Wednesday night, it shipped lat Thursday. Some wait.

I ordered my 24" iMac on the day they came out. It was on the plane from Shanghai within 2 days and to my door in Alberta 6 days after order...not sure how indicative that is of their initial stock or what though.

You're a jerk, Dent. A complete Knee-biter.

The component they are short on is gloss.
The supplier, The Shiny Happy Kitty Glossy Fun Fun Company in southeast Asia is running dangerously low on eel saliva. This is a bad reflection on the industry and closely mirrors the drop in luster for high technology products.

walked into my local apple store on Aug 13th at 11:30am. Fortunate enough to get the 24" model. was the only one they had received for the day and the last of their inventory at that time.

To "On Time": Just hope that your iMac is being air shipped, and not sitting on a slow boat FROM China.

The current shortage suggests the iMac is being well received, and will not be discounted. But I have to wonder if relying on assemblers and suppliers half a world away is a healthy long-term strategy.

Not to make anyone jealous, but I got lucky. I ordered a 24" 2.8 GHz iMac with a memory, a disk upgrade, and a wireless mouse.

On Thursday, 16 August, the Apple Store said I had to order that particular configuration on line.

On Friday, 17 August, I placed the order on the web.

They promised shipment about 23-28 August and delivery about 28 August-4 September.

On Tuesday, 21 August, I checked the shipment on FedEx just for yucks. It was on the truck for delivery! I rushed home from work and got there in time.

That was four days from the order to the delivery, and it was shipped from Shanghai. That's so fast it nearly gave me brush burns.

Just an afterthought. Sometimes a custom configuration actually speeds delivery. It puts your order in a shorter queue. Maybe that is the case here.

Good one, Jian!

I went into the Apple store in OKC on Sunday the 19. Guy said they had sold the last 24 incher they had. I wanted the 2.8 anyway. Ordered on Tues 21st, says will ship 28 - 30. Machine - 2.8, 500, 1 mem. Apple is too proud of their memory. I order 2g from Computer Brain through Amazon. Calls 2 days later and says it's back ordered. I'm givin them the one week only because of the delivery time on the computer. Otherwise it's OWC.

The timeline for my 2.8 GHz Extreme 24" iMac with an customization to a 750GB disk drive was as follows:

* Ordered online from Apple: 8/9 (was given 5-7 day ship)
* Shipped from Shanghai China: 8/13 (5 days, the low end of the estimate)
* Received on 8/16 at 9:30 in the morning.

Powermax - bad move. You just got hozed so they can play cash flow games for the quarter or the like.

Worse yet, Apple has them about as low on the totem pole as can be, so they will be the last folks to get a product - and only when it is completely in stock at other channels.

If you ordered from them to get some "free memory" or crap like that, well then, let me ask you - what is your time worth? Yeah, a heck of a lot more than anything you got for "Free" so keep that in mind next time and order direct.

A buddy of mine ordered a 2.8 GHz iMac, and got it in 5 days - direct from Apple, so there you go.

Ordered 24" 2.4Ghz iMac on 12 August.

Shipped from Shanghai 20 August with TNT.

Delivered 24 August 9:41 at home in the Netherlands

Beautiful!! Whisperquiet. Could not and still cannot take my eyes of machine. So beautiful.

And booting sounds like it is done with compressed air. A kind of subsonic rush of air.

MDN Magic Word: Why, like why do I have to suffer with XP Pro at the office.

I've been given all kinds of run arounds since I ordered on 7th.. The actual order was entered into the Apple system on 8th., I was told it was scheduled for manufacture on 9th., and I have subsequently been given dates of 20th. August, 23rd. August, and ~14th. September. Needless to say, Apple's internal ordering system is of little help to Apple first line or supervisors in getting a accurate manufacture/delivery date.

I my 25+ years of buying Apple computers (I won't use anything else unless I have to), I have never seen such a badly botched product announcement. Both Apple's marketing and supply chain bosses have failed to live up to reasonable standards, yet alone Steve's exacting standards.

It's such a difference from my first G5 iMac that was also ordered on during Steve's announcement speech, and which arrived within about 36 hours (and I could track it). I thought that production and reporting was supposed to get better over time, not worse. :-(

Still don't know when it's going to get here, and Apple Canada still cannot get the information they need to tell me. :-(

@ TMF,

Do not taunt gloss.

My wish for the rest of the year:

More Twisted Mac Freak, less ZuneTank! (Much less.)

TROLL ALERT:

"If the answer to this question is anywhere close to 'yes', then it's time to sell all your AAPL - the sooner the better."

Yes, yes, and . . . er . . . . buy Microsoft! ??? Like they are going anywhere but down, any time soon.

en

I just noticed two details that must have been designed to increase my blood pressure:

1) OctoberMac placed a tailored order on the same day or one day (8/9 August) after I ordered mine (I didn't even want the extra sized hard drive, just the faster processor);

2) On 12th., Combitron placed a 24" 2.8GHz order four days AFTER mine was already in the Apple system, and received it three days ago. Yet, Apple still can't tell me when mine will ship....

What wid dat?

Apple: you should be serving your customers in the order they arrive.

There's definitely summat weird going on in Apple's manufacturing plant.

The addition of Wireless Keyboard to any iMac order will change the estimated 5-7 business days to 2-3 weeks (20" iMac) or 4-6 weeks for 24" 2.8 iMac. The wireless mouse is not a problem.

Apple should ship the pending iMacs with the wired keyboard to improve customer satisfaction, and followup with a discount coupon that could be used for a Wireless keyboard when they become available.

Thanks, Roberto. (And it shall not be taunted a second time.)

I remember very similar conversations with the first gen iMac G5 was launched. In my case, the original 5-7 day estimate ended up being several weeks - Apple kept putting the dat back by a week, one day before the previous estimate expired. *Extremely frustrating*. Yet other people claimed no delays. So there's nothing new here folks. I've just ordered a 24" 2.8GHz and am hoping that this time I'll be luckier.

ps. I hope you're all ordering Applecare too - with my iMac G5 I had two replacements and three repairs. Thank God for Applecare!

@ TMF,
Just curious, were you paraphrasing from SNL's "Happy Fun Ball" sketch?

Naturally, just after my last post, Apple gave me a FedEx tracking number. Naturally, the box just missed the evening FedEx deadline.

At least, I can now track the box from Shanghai to Toronto.

As for AppleCare, I agree. I had to have the mid-plane (effectively the motherboard) replaced twice due to the converter problems with the generation 1 iMac G5. Kudos to Apple for a brilliant internal design, making is a five minute user replacement. After the second converter blew up, Apple replaced the unit under AppleCare. Kudos to Apple for overnight turnaround each time the computer blew up, and for less the 24 hour replacement of the entire box to the second generation, upon which I now type.

I understand that Apple could not do much about a time-dependent design problem that showed up over a year after I bought the unit. I'm in engineering and I understand it happens. What was amazing was Apple's turnaround with AppleCare for that unit. Consequently, getting this unit has been all the more disappointing.

Barring a FedEx aircraft or truck having an accident, I imagine I'll have the unit by the end of the week. Let's hope so. I really DO want it for the long weekend.

TMF
If you like the gloss, does that make you one of the "Shiney, Happy People"?
And just to be clear, this in no way reflects my view of the Matte/Gloss contrast.

BTW, wasn't Matte Gloss a Quinn Martin Production? No?

I ordered an iMac the day it came out and are still waiting. It's not all shortages, though, that's just the reason right now. I've been experiencing some quite farcical incompetence from Apple, I'm afraid to say.

Roberto: There are so many. The Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy, REM (I guess that one's possible), etc.

My iMac is somewhere over the P. Ocean.. Ordered a 2.8 ghz with wireless mouse and wireless keyboard on Aug. 7, changed order for wired keyboard on August 17th (will get wireless kboard later).

TMF: oh Yeh, Shiny Happy People - I get that now.

Happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy >>S M A S H<<

Wow, I lucked out (first time in a very long time).

I ordered online (Apple Store) on August 8 and received my new iMac (24 inch, 750 GB, 2.8 GHZ) on August 15.

All I can say is phew!