so we all know gateway is giving up and closing all of its stores (and firing 2500 people, incidentally). we also know that there are at least two resellers who have grave doubts about how apple is accounting for profit in their stores. i guess the big question is (will be?) what differentiates apple's stores from gateway's and will those differences be enough to make one a success while the crashed and burned. i bet apple's intent is essentially to poach business from their local resellers -- ie. to move towards a more dell-eque model where they control the whole channel. while this isn't the kindest, gentlest vision, it does seem viable. (disclaimer: i used to be involved in an AASP location/reseller in NYC and shut it down after the SOHO store openned a few blocks from us. that sure seemed like a battle we were going to lose quickly.)