In August, the iMac made its retail debut and hell froze over, all translucent blue and white. Once the dust had settled and the numbers were tallied up, it became clear that the iMac was the second best-selling computer for the month of August-- a fact made all the more remarkable by its mid-month introduction. In the short term, at least, Apple had a real winner. Then the September numbers came out, and since everyone who'd been chomping at the bit for an iMac since the previous May had run out and gotten one in August, the iMac's position in the retail charts fell to third place. Now, when you consider the issue of pent-up demand and all that, third place for September was a great place to be, but the press didn't see it that way. They took it as a sign that the iMac's popularity was waning, and for a while, we were inundated with stories about how the iMac was only a flash in the pan.

If that's so, then the pan is flashing again. PC Data has just released the sales figures for October, and according to a MacTimes article, the iMac inched its way back up into the second slot again. And while at first we assumed that this was due largely to the release of the revision B iMacs and the $29.99-a-month loan program, we soon realized that both of those developments occurred so late in October that they probably barely affected the sales figures at all. Hopefully that means in a month's time, we'll have some really nice November numbers with which to ring in the new year.

Incidentally, the MacTimes article makes another very interesting observation: the sub-$1000 personal computer is conspicuously underrepresented in the list of the top-selling home computers. Four of the five best sellers came in over the $1000 mark, and the top seller, the Compaq Presario 5050, has an average selling price of over $1500. For those of you who are still clinging to the hope that Apple will cut the price of the iMac before the end of the year, we've got to say, the chances look pretty slim; the average $1266 that iMacs are bringing in seems to be a very popular price point. Then again, if Apple had charged $999 instead, the iMac might have topped the list-- but for a good balance between profit and market share, it looks like the iMac is priced pretty darn well for the holidays.