So is it a full-blown crisis yet, or does it still need another month to simmer and maybe a pinch of Mrs. Dash? We speak, of course, of the ongoing stagnancy of Apple's PowerBook lineup, which consists of the aluminum twins-- fraternal, apparently-- who are a hair's breadth away from their .67th birthday and their titanium big brother (well, chronologically, anyway; size-wise he's the Peter, but by the calendar he's the Greg) who's pushing ten months old... which is about 140 in PowerBook sales years. Three months ago the missing product update was a "puzzler"; two months ago it was an "annoyance"; last month it was a "problem." So again, what we're trying to determine is whether it yet qualifies as a "crisis," or if it's perhaps jumped a couple of designations and gone straight to "ruinous catastrophe."

Well, according to AppleInsider, one source reportedly describes the situation as a "retail and revenue disaster," but it's currently unknown whether said source is actually a bonded and licensed Bummer Classification Engineer, so we're unsure whether or not that's an official diagnosis. The description seems to fit, though, since AI now reports that Apple is "still scrounging for ample supplies of faster G4 processors," allegedly because of Motorola's continued inability to produce enough chips-- due, according to AtAT sources, to the company's incapacitating preoccupation with the riddle of why Garfield can talk, while Odie speaketh not.

So what's this mean in terms of extending the delay? Well, you know those pessimists who figured on no new PowerBooks before Apple Expo on the 16th? They just became the optimists in this game; according to MacBidouille, an "extremely reliable" source confirms that Motorola still ain't kickin' it PPC 7457-style, at least not in volumes large enough for Apple to launch a product line based around the new G4. At the same time, Apple doesn't want to cut its losses and stick a 7455B-class G4 in the new PowerBooks, because while they have certain advantages over the 7457 (e.g. actually existing in reasonable quantities on this plane of existence), at higher frequencies they chew power at a fierce rate, leading to crappy battery times and enough heat output to flash-roast a buffalo. Hence, barring divine intervention, MacBidouille's source flatly states there will be "no new Apple portable computers before mid-October." But hey, at least that means your Halloween plans to dress up as a blood-caked Steve Jobs with Motorola CEO Chris Galvin's head on a stick will be snazzy and topical.

And there's more good news in all of this; according to AppleInsider, Apple is reportedly so shellshocked over the fact that it actually let itself get blitzed by crippling G4 delays twice in the past four years (remember that "Motorola screwed us on G4 availability" earnings warning back in '99?) that it's "rushing plans to deliver a G5 PowerBook within the first 3 months of the next calendar year." Portable G5 performance in less than seven months' time? Yowza, suddenly we're not in so much of a hurry for those PowerBook G4 updates after all...