WSJ.com - Apple's New iMac Desktop Won't Ship Until September

WSJ.com - Apple's New iMac Desktop Won't Ship Until September "In a statement, Apple said it had stopped taking orders for the current generation of iMacs and expects its inventory of these machines to run out in the next few weeks. "We planned to have our next generation iMac ready by [this] time. ... But our planning was obviously less than perfect," Apple said. "We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers." An Apple spokesman declined to elaborate.
The delay is another problem for Apple's computer division, which steadily has been losing market share. Apple sold just 1.7% of the world's personal computers in the first quarter, down from 2% in the first quarter of 2001, according to market researcher Gartner Inc.
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The slip-up comes at a particularly bad time for the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker, because it means Apple won't have a current model available for schools and universities -- one of its core markets -- during the back-to-school shopping season. Overall sales are likely to suffer, because Apple won't have a consumer-oriented desktop computer available for much of the current quarter, which ends in late September."