Color Spat Has Apple Seeing Red

The discount retailer Best Buy and Apple Computer are locked in a dispute over colors that has kept Apple's hot-selling iMac computer off Best Buy's shelves for months.

Best Buy hasn't stocked the iMac since early this year when Apple started selling the computer in five colors.

Apple demands that retailers offer all five. But carrying the iMac in blueberry, grape, lime, strawberry and tangerine when the retailer doesn't think its customers want all those colors would have created inventory problems, Best Buy spokeswoman Joy Harris said Monday.

Best Buy doesn't want to stock inventory that might not sell, so the company held off from ordering the egg-shaped machines while it tries to reach an agreement with Apple. Negotiations are ongoing, said Harris.

The dispute leaves CompUSA as the only national retail chain offering the iMac.

Apple retired its old teal-colored iMacs earlier this year. Best Buy sold off its supply of teal machines and hasn't carried the iMac since.

Although Apple is not the only supplier of iMacs to retailers, the machines cost slightly more if purchased through a distributor that provides the computers in any color or quantity.