I ordered my wife one of the new dual-core iMacs early last week, with an expected ship date of January 26th. Imagine my surprise when I received this email on the 26th:

Due to an unexpected delay, we are unable to ship the following item(s) as follows / Dû à un délai non-anticipé, nous sommes forcés de reporter l'expédition de votre commande ainsi:

Z0CX0LL/A, IMAC 17/1.83/1GB/160GB/SD-USA
will now ship on or before / sera expédié au plus tard
le Mar 10, 2006
We regret any inconvenience this delay may cause. / Nous sommes désolés
de l'inconvénient que ce délai vous poserait.

Imagine my further surprise when I received this email on the 27th:

The following products shipped on 01/27/2006. Transit time will depend upon whether you have chosen standard or premium freight options. If your order is shipping standard freight, it should arrive within 12 days of shipment.

Les produits suivants vous ont été envoyés le 27.01.2006. Le délai de livraison varie en fonction du mode de transport choisi, par voie ordinaire ou exprès. Si vous avez choisi la voie ordinaire, votre commande devrait vous parvenir dans les 12 jours de la date d'expédition.

Product Description Qty Ext Price
Produit Désignation Qté Total
__________ ________________________________________ ____ ________________

Z0CX0LL/A IMAC 17/1.83/1GB/160GB/SD-USA 1 CAD XXXXXXXX
With the following configuration:
Configuré de la manière suivante:

Not that I (or rather my wife) is complaining, but that was a rather wild swing in delivery dates in the course of two days.

Incidentally, and quite timely, a new Dashboard widget which monitors Apple Order Status was recently released and can be downloaded here:

DashboardWidgets - Apple Order Status