New & Noteworthy: Apple Stores Evaluated; Sony to Skip

Fall Comdex; iMac Compared to Gateway; more

New York Times compares iMac to Gateway In a column for the New York Times, David Pogue compares Apple's flat panel iMac to the recently released flat-panel Gateway Profile 4. An excerpt: "Ever since I got my hands on Apple's new iMac, I've marveled at a trend — or the absence of one: that the masses don't seem to appreciate the benefits of a one-piece, self-contained, flat-panel computer. The iMac itself, a graceful piece of art whose astonishingly thin screen floats in air on a gleaming chrome elbow, sells well enough. But whenever a Windows PC maker tries something similar, buyers stay away in droves." More.

Pictures from Novi Apple Store opening Dave Birdsong has posted pictures from the August 31st opening of Apple's latest retail outlet in Novi, MI. All pictures were captured with a Kodak LS420 Digital Camera. More.

Sony to skip Fall Comdex CNET reports that Sony has decided to skip fall Comdex, continuing a recent trend of large technology companies abandoning the industry's signature tradeshow. Sony informed Key3Media, the show's organizer, that it will not be buying floor space at Comdex, to be held in Las Vegas the week of Nov. 17 to Nov. 22. However, the company intends to have representatives at the show to meet with customers. More.

IBM to exceed Intel Itanium sales Reported by ZDNN, Sales of servers based around Intel's Itanium chips will grow, but they will still lag behind today's established leaders five years from now, according to research firm Gartner. By 2007, yearly revenue from servers running Itanium processors, will come to approximately $4 billion, while revenue from IBM machines using the Power processor will total $8.6 billion. More.

Apple stores evaluated Business Week has posted an interview with retail guru, Machead, and author Paco Underhill, who says he loves the "consumer-friendly" Apple emporiums, but says Jobs and company should do some fine-tuning. "Paco Underhill loves Macs. He bought his first Apple computer in 1984 and has never veered in his tastes. Nor is he the average consumer. The author of the influential retail tome Why We Buy calls himself a retail anthropologist and is one of the world's leading experts in shopping dynamics and interactions." More.