Now that the iTunes Music Store has finally made it to Canada and Apple can go back to being preoccupied with selling a few gazillion more iPods, things are a little quiet again, so how about we drop back and punt with the Agatha Christie-style drama of Ten Little PC Vendors? Early in the week, faithful viewer mrmgraphics dished us an intriguing little thought experiment in the form of a death warrant; according to an InternetNews article, a recent Gartner report predicts that, 36 months from now, three of the current top ten personal computer manufacturers will be pushing up the daisies-- at least in a PC-vending sense. While said companies might not necessarily go out of business, Gartner forecasts that "reduced profits and growth" will force the unlucky Triad of PC Pain to exit the personal computer market altogether.

So assuming that Gartner's right, who's tottering on the edge of the PC-making grave? Well, in no particular order, apparently the top ten PC vendors (three of whom are apparently marked for death) are Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Gateway, Toshiba, Acer, Fujitsu, NEC, Legend... and Apple. (Dunt dunt dunt dunnnnnnnn!)

Not that anyone thinks that Apple is actually about to go under (at least, not these days), but as you all know, there are plenty of conspiracy theorists who serve as the Mac-universe equivalents of those guys with wide eyes and scary beards who march up and down city streets carrying poorly-lettered "THE END IS NIGH" signs. Given the Mac's continuing decline in market share and Apple's increasing focus on (and revenue from) the iPod and related music technologies, they've got a point: it's not completely inconceivable that the company is reinventing itself as a consumer electronics company that will eventually divest itself of its entire line of personal computers-- or, to put it more succinctly so it'll fit on a paranoiac's poorly-lettered sign, "THE iPOD IS KILLING THE MAC."

But assuming it'd ever happen at all, could it really happen in just three years' time? Personally we're not buying the theory that Apple's got a long-term plan underway to phase out the Mac, but like Gartner says, "exiting the market may be the only logical choice for global vendors bleeding profits and struggling for share"; if, three years from now, the Mac has become a financial liability for Apple and it can thrive on its burgeoning "Digital Lifestyle" business alone (we know, we know... but a lot can happen in three years), who's to say that Apple wouldn't cut its Mac business loose?

Of course, just because we think such a development is marginally within the realm of possibility doesn't mean we think that Apple's one of the three Dead Vendors Walkin' that'll bail come late 2007. Obviously Dell isn't going anywhere, but consider some of the others; Gartner thinks that HP and IBM might both be ripe to spin off their PC businesses soon "if a squeeze on margins and profitability are deemed too great by their parent companies"-- and indeed, reports of IBM putting its PC business up for sale are circulating even now. Feckless Gateway's always a favorite candidate for the Big Dirt Nap, eMachines merger notwithstanding. We've heard that Toshiba's been hurting for a while, now. And we know we're talking about the global market, here, and we're blessed not to have to mess with Wintel PCs much in even a local capacity, but we'd never heard of Legend; sure, a quick Googling reveals that Legend (now Lenovo) is huge in Asia-- but c'mon, how big a market can that be?

So for now, at least, we're betting that Apple will be one of the seven survivors that makes it out of the woods sobbing and clutching a bloody machete to its tattered blouse. (Whoops-- sorry, wrong genre.) But don't sleep too soundly, because hey, anything can happen, right?