Where Did All the Power Mac G5 Dual 2-GHz Models Go?

As late as last Wednesday night, we heard Apple's Power Mac Program manager Todd Benjamin state on Your Mac Life that the Dual 2-GHz models were set to ship as promised, i.e. at the end of August. We posted his statement in our Thursday edition. But many of our readers noted that their shipping date on Apple's on line Store changed from August 29th to September 26th on August 29th or late August 28th. So what happened? Is Todd's face red?

One explanation is that the 2-GHz models began shipping first at the end of August to major education customers regardless of when they ordered and everyone else was moved to later. We even found this note, purportedly from Apple, posted to a list server that we belong to:

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

We are very excited that the Power Mac G5 systems have started shipping and want to provide an update on the status of your order.

The demand for the dual processor PowerMac has been overwhelming and our employees are working around the clock to meet demand. Initial units will be sent to education institutions to meet key back to school deadlines. We currently anticipate shipping your new G5 PowerMac in 10-15 business days.

If for any reason this revised shipping date is not acceptable, please let us know and we will promptly change or cancel your order per your instructions.

If we do not hear from you prior to shipment, we will assume the revised date is acceptable and will ship your order. If you decide to cancel your order and it was paid for in advance, you will receive a prompt refund.

We can not attest to it's veracity because we did not get one. The current waiting time posted on Apple Store is the very same 10-15 days as in the note [Dana Baggett]. But why would those who ordered June 23rd have the same waiting time as those ordering today? Apple's home page says "Power Mac G5, Now Shipping," the latter is in red. We saw the single 1.6's in the Tysons Corner, VA, Apple Store and Micro Center but no for-sale stock was left. [Dana Baggett]

There was also another note on the same list server claiming Virginia Tech bought 1100 DP 2-GHz G5s to make a large cluster super computer, indicating large educational institution purchases. But still, unless a hundred other institutions ordered like amounts, this wouldn't account for a significant delay.

While we sincerely hope that educational insitutions (and large firms) ordered many thousands of the new Power Mac G5s and we could wait a few weeks if that were true, our readers are still perplexed by the way that Apple handles delays. Maybe doing so minimizes cancelled orders but it sure ticks many people off.