Limited iMac Availability Suggests Possible Refresh

Several forum users have reported that that they have been told by various resellers that iMac availability is currently limited. Meanwhile, another user reports that their orders for 20" iMacs have been unexpectedly delayed:

This certainly falls in the realm of speculation, but I ordered a number of baseline 20" iMacs for work, with no custom configuration, and I've had my order delayed for a week, followed by this message today:

"Due to an unexpected delay, we are unable to ship the following item(s) by the date that you were originally quoted:

MB324LL/A, IMAC 20/2.66/2GB/320GB/SD-USA will now ship on or before Feb 05, 2009"

AppleInsider was able to confirm from their reseller sources that supply of Apple's iMacs are indeed "constrained" for the immediate future. The rumor site believe that this means that new models are nearing production.

Apple is said to have braced its partners for limited availability of the remainder of the iMac line in the coming weeks, a sign which this late in the product's life-cycle "only means one thing" -- namely that the company is drawing down inventory levels ahead of new models.

Reseller supplies tend to be rather crude in predicting product revisions, but many have been expecting iMac revisions early in 2009.