With the Release of Apples IMac Computer, The Excitement Builds.

Re-printed from Wall Street Journal
Original Story by JIM CARLTON 
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

 CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Fourteen years ago, Steve Jobs set a new standard for consumer marketing with Apple Computer Inc.'s launch of the Macintosh. Mr. Jobs's publicity machine turned that computer into a symbol for the democratizing power of technology.

 Now comes Apple's new iMac, a distinctive new machine that goes on sale tomorrow. Mr. Jobs, Apple's co-founder, is touting it as nothing less than the second coming of Macintosh.

In a marketing blitz set to intensify this weekend, computer retailers are preparing midnight madness sales featuring 20-foot-high inflatable iMacs flying above stores. Radio stations across the country this week began an iMac countdown, topped off with iMac giveaways.

In a scene reminiscent of the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Mr. Jobs is expected to personally sign five "golden" tickets and place them in the boxes of five iMacs, with the winner receiving a free iMac each year for the next five years.

And all this is just for openers. Apple this weekend is embarking on a $100 million ad campaign -- its biggest ever -- to promote iMac through TV, print, radio and billboards through the end of the year. The billboards will go up in 10 major U.S. cities, with slogans such as: "I think, therefore iMac." Like much of the publicity, that slogan was conceived by Mr. Jobs himself.

Where Apple drove home its egalitarian mythology the last time around with the celebrated "1984" TV commercial -- a dig at industry giant International Business MachinesCorp. -- a different theme is driving the iMac debut. This time, the drama springs from Mr. Jobs himself, and his
long-shot quest to make his old company important again.

"I think Jobs being Jobs is what has created the excitement around the iMac," says Michael France, CEO of Mac Center Inc., a chain of Apple dealers in South Florida.

The iMac, priced at $1,299, represents Apple's re-entryinto the consumer PC business. It's also a long-awaitedresponse to the sub-$1,000 machines that have flooded the market in the past two years.

Encouraged by the renewed ties, some dealers are promoting the iMac enthusiastically. Many are featuring software and T-shirt giveaways. At DataVision's superstore in Westbury, N.Y., a local radio station will broadcast live from beneath an inflatable iMac, while all the ComputerWare stores around San Francisco are scheduled to open after the stroke of midnight tonight to sell the new computer. Nationally, CompUSA is beginning its first-ever series of newspaper ads promoting only Mac products.

With advance orders piling up, Apple's next challenge will be to stay abreast of demand. The company has historically had big problems accurately forecasting how much product it needed to meet orders, and analysts think the supply of iMacs will be short of demand at least through the quarter ending Sept. 30. Mr. Jobs says the company has stockpiled "tens of thousands" of the computers in stores but won't know if that is enough until sales begin..

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