There had been concerns that the transition of the Power Mac product line from G3 to G4 based machines may cause some near term inventory management issues in the channel. Apple said that it expects to end fiscal Q4 with backlogs of over 150,000 units of PowerMac G4s. The company also has a preorder of over 160,000 units of iBooks. However less than 50k units are expected to ship in time to count for this fiscal quarter. An earthquake estimated at 7.3 on the Richter Scale hit Taiwan just a few hours ago.
Early report suggest that damages to buildings was light, at least in the capital Taipei.
However the temblor knocked out electricity in many regions. It is unknown how much impact if any the quake will have on the production of Apple's iBook and PowerBooks which are being manufactured in Taiwan by AlphaTop and Quanta respectively. Injunction Against eMachines Granted in Japan Apple's lawsuit against distributor of eOne in Japan has resulted in a preliminary injunction. The Tokyo District Court granted the request today following Apple's complaint that eMachines , the maker of eOne, was taking advantage of Apple's iMac marketing efforts by releasing products that look similar to the iMac. Apple's press release has more on the story.