iMac gets multimillion dollar launch

US customers will be the first to taste a piece of Apple's $100m marketing campaign for its latest machine, the iMac. The campaign is thought to have one of the largest budgets ever allocated for a single product in the computer industry.

The company would not say how much of the $100m is being ploughed into European marketing, but a spokeswoman said there will be full multimedia coverage.
The UK will be among the first in Europe to get its hands on the iMac, along with Austria and Germany on 5 September, with other European countries following later in the month.

John Rymell, manager at Future Intuitive, a Macintosh reseller, said: "We have had a lot of interest already from many businesses. Some have been small businesses and some are design companies who want it just as a feature on their front desk." He added: "We have some great things planned for the launch date."

Apple has now seen a third consecutive quarter of profit and its stock has almost trebled from a year ago. The company has already had over 150,000 iMacs pre-ordered in the US.