This has been a year for changing out business computers for me and I have been fairly lucky with Apple so far:
BTO 15" 1.5 PB ordered in mid April and in my hands in less than 10 days for the new model. iPod (for me) shipped in 2 or 3 days after having my name put on it.
23" display for the PB in August, told shipping in 3 - 5 days. Was in a panic for it so I said overnight and it was on the desk the next morning.
BTO iBook ordered Aug 31st, standard shipping, and delivered Tuesday. It was ready for delivery Monday, but that was a holiday. Wife's iPod (with name) arrived a day faster.
BTO iMac ordered 6 AM on day 1 and looks like 9/29 or sooner. This may be delayed, but that's OK as I will be overseas on a business trip at that time and it takes about 2 weeks to catch up after a trip. From what I have read, components are not the problem with the iMac, but "the problem" was not discussed. I would not be surprised if Apple was not ramping up the production quickly, but having their engineers watch over the line as it slowly is ramped to a normal speed. They definitely have the left one on the chopping block with this the G5 iMac and are going to be careful with what is going out the door in the first month.
I can't complain. Both the PB and display were "new" models. BTO iBooks (recommended for the larger HD, BT, WiFi) ship rather fast - especially since back to school has calmed down some.
30" displays are a problem and will continue to be until the GPU is delivered to Apple. Read somewhere that Apple has the displays in a warehouse ready to ship - which must piss Apple off almost as much as IBM has this year.
Overall Apple puts a lot of effort into balancing the need to deliver current products fast with the equally important need to avoid the inventory problems of the past that could have killed the company. New technology with limited production (iPod mini, G5s, 30" GPU) have been the killers in terms of hurting the Mac customers. This problem is a direct responsibility of the component supplier, except for the iPod mini where demand was far beyond the capacity of the HD factory to deliver.
The one area where Apple "can't do it right" is in releasing new products and/or discussing their roadmap. When they don't everyone gets pissed and when they do everyone gets pissed. (At least they Aussies can enjoy it when they get pissed . . .) In the current situation they have released the products and advised potential customers of the ship date based on their best information from component suppliers. I'll live with it if the iMac is delayed a bit - as least i FINALLY know what it looks like!
