High-end G4 wait 4-6 weeks; new iMacs 3-5 days

For those wanting the new iMac systems, the wait will be bearable. Professionals anxious for 733MHz and 667MHz Power Mac G4 systems, might as well curl up with a good, thick novel.

MacCentral has confirmed customers buying through the online Apple Store are being quoted a minimum three-day wait on all new iMac systems, while independent dealers are being quoted a minimum five-day wait, if buying directly from Apple. The systems were announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs during his keynote address from Macworld Expo in Tokyo.

Dealers expecting to have and sell the new iMacs by next week and buying through national distributors will be disappointed. Neither of the two North American distributors selling iMacs to authorized dealers currently have the new consumer desktop systems in stock and are not expecting units until March 12th, despite word from Jobs during his address that systems “are available now.”

As for 733MHz Power Mac G4s with the SuperDrive and 667MHz systems with a CD-RW drive, the wait goes on. MacCentral has confirmed through dealers that orders placed today will ship in four to six weeks, minimum. Customers purchasing online are also being quoted the same time frame — this despite an official announcement Monday that the high-end configurations were “shipping.”

“Even if I could get you one, it would take over a month,” said one unnamed Illinois-based dealer. “I don’t see them shipping anytime soon and an Apple representative wasn’t very optimistic I could get even one system as a demonstration unit.”

There is some question among CompUSA sales people contacted by MacCentral on whether some locations will even stock the high-end units, thought to be a ‘slow mover’ in some markets where Macintosh sales on low-end G4 systems are slim at best.

The 733MHz system, introduced at last month’s Macworld Expo San Francisco, ship with Apple’s new iDVD authoring software, which allows users to create interactive presentations on DVD media using a simple drag-and-drop interface. Apple is also offering DVD Studio Pro, a US$995 DVD-authoring program aimed at creation of commercial DVD titles.

The standard $3,499 configuration includes a 733MHz PowerPC G4 processor with 256K level 2 on-chip cache and 1MB level 3 backside cache; 256MB of PC133 SDRAM memory; 60GB Ultra ATA/66 hard disk drive; Nvidia GeForce2 MX with 32MB video SDRAM; two FireWire and USB ports; four PCI slots; Gigabit Ethernet; and a built-in 56K V.90 modem. Systems are available through the Apple Store and from authorized Apple resellers.

The $2,799 667MHz G4 system replaces the SuperDrive with a CD-RW drive but otherwise has the same specs as the faster model.