AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

Without Apple's redesigned unibody Macbooks (which I have and love) and the refreshed iPod Touches, and certainly the iMacs were no help, Apple stock price could have end up much lower.  The record quarter revenue and profit did stunt any effort from Jobs not being at the helm, at least until June. But with Macbooks selling really hot, let's not forget the iPod Touch.  the iPhone had a great quarter but nothing like the 7 million sold in the previous quarter.  So, let's focus on the iPods. It's unfortunate that Apple doesn't break out individual numbers for the different iPods but I'm willing to believe that the second generation iPod Touch did a lot to exceed analyst expectations (from Wall Street to Internet bloggers/analysts).  I got the 2nd gen 8GB iPod Touch and it's just absolutely incredible.  I have the iPhone as well and this design is just incredible.  More than just the design, it's what it represents.  It's a mobile computing platfo...

Maybe not today.  Maybe not in the next couple of years.   But don't be surprised if Apple offers only Macbooks and Mac Pros as the two main Mac choices somewhere down the line. If that was to happen, I'm sure there will be an hybrid of Mac and Apple TV (my Mac Hybrid) perhaps even integrated with a widescreen LCD (or LED) HDTV.  But that's analysis for another blog.   First let's examine why Apple would do this rid themselves of consumer desktops: Macbooks have higher margins.  Mac portables account for an increasing percentage of sales. Steve Jobs read our lame blogs at On Apple and over at Onxo .  Okay.  Just being funny.  Okay, not funny. The move is towards mobile computing - laptops, smartphones, mobile platform with devices like iPhones and iPods. Affordability.  Laptops, including Macbooks, have gone down in average selling price.  Furthermore, refurbished Macbooks are very popular with consumers. As far as going green, Macb...

According to Business Week, that is indeed the case. I guess hits are needed at BW in light of the deep recession that we're in. Honestly, these kinds of comparison posts are a weekly ritual.  However, it usually isn't a staple for mainstream print media.  Of course, it was mainstream media that did brushed aside blogs as true news sites (which I happen to agree - for some sites, such as the one you're reading now) but since they recognize blogs are an important part of reaching out to readers, they quickly learn that blogs are ways to sustain business.   Hence, BW's trashy post about MBP being more expensive. Never mind that the Macbook Pro they're coming has a newer chipset, never mind that Dell's machine uses a much older video card, never mind that it's Vista on the Dell and not OS X, never mind that MBP can come down to the level of Vista and wash away any after taste after booting back into OS X.   Interestingly, BW made a point about economic pressure...