FORTUNE — When the “stunning,” “brilliant,” “all-new” iMacs were introduced at the iPad mini event on Oct. 23, Apple’s hyperbolic press release promised delivery of the 21-inch model in November and the 27-inch version in December.
On Tuesday, Apple (AAPL) announced that the 21-inch model will be available for sale on Friday Nov. 30, the possible last day to make good its original promise. There was no word on how many iMacs Apple plans to actually ship by Friday.
If the 27-inch model follows the same pattern and arrives on Dec. 30, it will have completely missed Christmas sales.
In his Black Friday survey of an Apple Store in Minneapolis, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster counted 3.9 Macs sold per hour, down from 10.1 in the same store last year, a decline he attributed in part to the fact that the new iMacs were not yet on display.