Neven Mrgan, Neven Mrgan’s Tumbl:

Hardware isn’t my strong suit, but I know half a thing about website design. So let’s look at the websites for Apple’s primary desktop computer, and the same from Dell and HP.

A striking differences between Apple’s website, and it’s competitors – Dell and HP. It is obvious which companies take a certain pride in their products, and which consider them to be *just* another SKU.

Apple Battery Charger:

Each Apple Battery Charger comes with six NiMH batteries — two for your keyboard, two for your mouse or trackpad, and two for charging. Not only do these high-performance batteries have up to a 10-year lifespan(1), they also hold a charge for an incredibly long time. So you always have power when you need it.

I am not even kidding, take a look at the product page for yourself.

Apple, Press Release:

Dual-core Intel Core i3 and Core i5, and quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 processors set a new benchmark for iMac performance. The processors feature an integrated memory controller to access the system memory directly, allowing the new iMac to take full advantage of its faster 1333 MHz memory. New discrete ATI Radeon HD processors deliver incredibly smooth, crisp graphics for the most demanding 3D games, creative software and technical applications. iMac displays feature IPS technology to deliver a brilliant image across a wide 178 degree viewing angle. The SD card slot on the iMac now supports the SDXC format to handle the latest high-capacity storage cards. Customers of the 27-inch iMac have the option to order a 256GB solid state drive (SSD) as a primary or secondary drive. The iMac SSD supports up to 215 MB/s data transfer rates for faster startup and application launch times. […] The new iMac line is shipping now and available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

This is the iMac for me; I should have mine in another 3-4 weeks, including the Magic Trackpad.

Apple, Press Release:

“With built-in MagSafe charging, iSight camera, speakers, and USB ports, the LED Cinema Display is ideal for MacBook and MacBook Pro users,”said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With its massive 2560 x 1440 resolution, the new 27-inch LED Cinema Display is a perfect fit with our powerful new Mac Pro, and it gives iMac users an easy way to double their screen real estate.” [...] The new LED Cinema Display will be available in September through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 (US). The LED Cinema Display requires a Mac with Mini DisplayPort.

The 23-inch display is no longer available.

Apple, Press Release:

“The new Mac Pro is the most powerful and configurable Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With up to 12 cores, the new Mac Pro outperforms our previous top-of-the-line system by up to 50 percent, and with over a billion possible configurations, our customers can create exactly the system they want.”

The new Mac Pros will not be available until August. That gives you enough time to save up for $2,499 beast. Did I mention that is the base price? Enjoy!

Apple, Press Release:

The Magic Trackpad brings the intuitive Multi-Touch gestures of Mac notebook trackpads to the desktop. With its glass surface, the wireless Magic Trackpad enables users to scroll smoothly up and down a page with inertial scrolling, pinch to zoom in and out, rotate an image with their fingertips and swipe three fingers to flip through a collection of web pages or photos. The Magic Trackpad can be configured to support single button or two button commands and supports tap-to-click as well as a physical click.

Here is a link to the product page, in case you want to take a closer look.

This past Tuesday, Apple shared their third quarter results, boasting the headlines: All-Time Record Revenue and Earnings Increase 78 Percent. This press-release set the stage for the Conference Call – lead by COO Tim Cook, and CFO Peter Oppenheimer – scheduled later that day. Analysts and stockholders were given the opportunity to ask questions regarding the company’s plans, intentions and opinions. My interest lies – specifically, though not exclusively – in a question made by Mark Moskowitz of JPMorgan [emphasis mine]:

Two quick questions, Tim, just coming back to the iPad for a second. I know, there is a lot of speculation about potential cannibalization down the road, while it’s still premature to speculate. I’m just trying to get a sense, could there actually be a reverse effect, where Apple maybe benefits from a halo effect forced by the iPad, but then they also decide maybe to buy some either Apple devices to keep at home when they’re using the iPad on the road. In the early stages, has your data shown that where you’re seeing someone buying iPad and then there is a subsequent purchase of a MacBook or a iMac or an iPhone?

Tim Cook’s response [again, emphasis mine]:

We – that’s a very good question, Mark, and I do agree that I think most people external to Apple focus on cannibalization, it’s been negative, and internally, we focused on exactly the opposite. It’s the synergy between both technically and from a demand point of view. If you look at the iPod historically, all of the people here felt that the iPod created a halo for the Mac, and in fact as the iPod volumes took off, you will see a dramatic change in the Mac sales back in time that we experienced. So, could that happen on iPhone and iPad? We’ll see. I don’t want to predict it. But I do think that with our Mac share, the Mac has outgrown the market 17 straight quarters. However, the Mac share is still low, and so there is still an enormous opportunity for the Mac to grow. Certainly the more customers we can introduce to Apple through iPad, and through iPhone and through iPod, you would think that there might be some synergy with the Mac there, and there may be synergy between the iPad and the iPhone as well, and so on and so forth. So, that’s the way that we look at it internally instead of the negative. Although I know everybody is more focused on the negative piece of it. This is where it’s great to be – to have a lower share, because if it turns out that the iPad cannibalizes PCs then I think it’s fantastic for us, because there is a lot PCs to cannibalize. It’s still a big market.

Ok great, so what exactly is the Halo Effect? According to Wikipedia,

The halo effect refers to a cognitive bias whereby the perception of a particular trait is influenced by the perception of the former traits in a sequence of interpretations.

This definition is full of highly organic and overly complicated words, however – in regard to Apple – the definition becomes much simpler:

The halo effect refers to the act of acquiring knowledge in favor of a company, whereby the perception of one product line [Eg. Macs] is influenced by the perception of the former traits in a previous product line [Eg. iPod].

Now this makes a lot more sense. The way we perceive one product is affected by another – albeit, more successful and desired – product. If we agree on this definition, then we are able to see where, and how people were getting interested in the Mac; through the iPod. What about this definition:

The halo effect refers to the act of acquiring knowledge in favor of a company, whereby the perception of one product line [Eg. Macs] is influenced by the perception of the former traits in a previous product line [Eg. iPad].

Fast-forward to 2010 and only one word has changed, iPod : iPad (although, I really want to write iOS). This must mean people love the iPad, and therefore perceive MacBooks to be an adequate offering. However, the word ‘perceive’ is a very strong word, and is probably the most pertinent point to my argument. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, ‘to perceive’ reads as:

a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression.

Tim Cook claims [emphasis mine]:

If you look at the iPod historically, all of the people here felt that the iPod created a halo for the Mac, and in fact as the iPod volumes took off, you will see a dramatic change in the Mac sales back in time that we experienced. So, could that happen on iPhone and iPad? We’ll see. I don’t want to predict it.

I have a feeling Apple has predicted it, and in fact, are betting on it. Both analysts and tech columnists predicted – here, here and here – that the iPad was guaranteed to “Cannibalize Mac Sales”. Did it?

Record quarterly sales of 3.47 million Macs, beating last record by 100,000. 33% year over year growth, over 22% growth for market overall (IDC).

The last quote was provided by MacWorld’s Live Coverage of the Q3 2010 Earnings Call. So what did Apple do to avoid the analyst’s predictions? Pay close attention to my definition of ‘perception’. Apple curated the way we perceive the iPad, from the moment we take it out of the box and connect it to iTunes. From that moment, the iPad is no longer seen as a Notebook Replacement, but a Notebook Accessory – a thing that can be added to something else in order to make it more useful, versatile, or attractive. I believe Mark should have asked, “Does Apple try to control the way we perceive certain products, to ultimately control the way we interact with others?”

The Sources Unlinked

Apple Inc. AAPL Q3 2010 Earnings Call Transcript
Apple Reports Third Quarter Results

Ultimate Status Bar via David Chartier:

Ultimate Status Bar is the awesome new alternative to the standard Safari status bar.

The most important feature is that this status bar dissapears when you are not using it, vs the standard Safari Status bar, which is turned off by default, but when visible it’s there all the time, taking up some valuable space at the bottom of your browser.

However, Ultimate Status Bar also includes several features to give you a better idea of what’s on the other side of that link that no other status bar extension has, all implemented in a tidier, elegant fashion.

Installed, and works as advertised.

John Carey, Fiftyfootshadows:

The stand is able to function in two different ways. One, as a slightly elevated and tilted surface for typing and two, a tall upright easel like position that is able to support the iPad in either orientation. It accomplishes these two functions effortlessly using simple mechanics and a minimal approach that I love. There are two small rubberized arms that fold down out of the stand in the bottom for its taller standing position which I find get in the way while in the typing position but I find that the rubber pad at the top of the stand does a fair job of holding it in place while I type without these little tabs poking into my palms as I type. The construction is incredibly solid and has a really nice weight to it. Im sure this will last longer than the iPad itself.

A pleasant and direct review. Fiftyfootshadows does not normally review products, but John’s impression was appreciated nonetheless.

Joe Wilcox, Betanews:

The question isn’t if iPad will cannibalize Mac sales but when.

Rene Ritchie, TiPb:

For me the key will be wether it gets stuck on meme-heavy, oft-repeated (or re-tweeted) content or whether it helps me better discover those little gems discovered by my more adept friends.

Agreed. Here is the link for Flipboard on iTunes, in case you want to try it out.

A Sidenote on ‘Revolutionary Products’

A revolutionary product should not change the way we work, but integrate into our workflow; just as the iPad did some months ago.  As of this writing, Flipboard has only been out mere hours – not days, or weeks like some might assume. Maybe it will be worth it in the long run, but right now it might be too early to tell.

TheAppleBlog has a great overview of the conference call that occurred earlier today. If you were not able to listen – or couldn’t be bothered – this is great *short* article, with witty commentary, and thought-provoking quotes from both CFO Peter Oppenheimer and COO Tim Cook. If you were looking for a ‘live-blog’, I was following Macworld’s coverage while listening to the conference live – which was also extremely excellent; providing charts & graphs for the more graphically minded. I will update this post with a link to the conference call, once it goes live on iTunes.

Update

The conference is now available on iTunes.

Apple, Press Release:

Apple sold 3.47 million Macs during the quarter, representing a new quarterly record and a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.4 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 61 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.41 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company began selling iPads during the quarter, with total sales of 3.27 million.

“It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with iPhone 4,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”

Online MBA:

They have become a filter for out world. Through them we can access information, games, entire virtual worlds. Not the internet, nor our computers, not tablets or laptops – just little programs on our phones. Millions of little programs. What are the real numbers behind these programs, and why are there so many of them?

My favorite quote from the chart:

More than 4 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store alone.

Google, the second-largest Application Market, does not release these numbers.

Carl Lange, Flax.ie:

Specifically, they take information from Safari, the Windows, iPhone and Macintosh browser. However, you can disable this quite easily. If you don’t like the idea of Apple having your location data, and don’t use location-based apps, this is for you.

neistatbrothers, YouTube:

A little movie about the iPhone 4 controversy

This guy gets me.

Sam Oliver, AppleInsider:

Mac sales were up a strong 35 percent stateside in May, following the introduction of the iPad in both Wi-Fi and 3G models. Those sales figures have been interpreted to suggest that Apple’s new portable multitouch device will not cannibalize Mac sales.

I am both surprised and – for lack of a better word – unchanged. I strongly believed the iPad would reduce portable sales (à la Apple’s notebook offerings – MacBook/Air/Pro), and both reinforce and boost their desktop sales (Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro). Based on the comment thread, it seems a couple of people were interested in the Mac Mini, and some are holding-out for a new iMac. It will be interesting to see the results of the earnings call later today.

I told myself I would refrain from commenting anymore on the ‘Antennagate’ Presentation, but some feel inclined to beat the dead horse. Though it may be overhyped and ridiculed, I do not have a problem with people discussing the “mysterious” signal loss when holding the iPhone 4. It has turned into a neat party trick people want to show to their friends. My problem lies with the people who insist on rewriting Friday’s event. Jean-Louis Gassée from Monday Note writes:

[Steve Jobs] proceeds to demo the phenomenon. Indeed, within ten seconds of putting the heel of his left thumb on the gap, the iPhone loses two bars. Just to make sure, he repeats the experiment with his index finger, all the while making a live call to show how the connection isn’t killed.

This of course is just wishful thinking, and this of course was not the issue. I am not sure Gassée has even seen the event with his own two eyes. The keynote was about presenting facts; not proving the iPhone 4 can make a phone call – we all know it is fully capable of handling this task [Please, no ridicule is needed]. In case you missed it, here are the facts provided by TUAW:

0.55 percent: This is the percentage of iPhone 4 users who have contacted AppleCare regarding antenna or reception issues. This comes out to only 16,500 AppleCare cases. We are not sure if this includes issues related to the proximity sensor; however, Jobs later acknowledged in the press conference that the proximity sensor will be addressed in a future software update.

1.7 percent: This is the number of iPhone 4s returned to AT&T since the initial release 22 days ago, which comes out to roughly 51,000 returns. By contrast, 6 percent of iPhone 3GS were returned in its early days — and the numbers of those sold are lower than the iPhone 4.

The final number is that AT&T is reporting that less than one more call per 100 placed is dropped compared to the iPhone 3GS — more calls are dropped than the earlier model, but it’s only one more per one hundred.

I have stated this before, there is absolutely nothing Steve Jobs could have done that would have made everybody happy. Steve decided to wait until all of the facts were in, and to let them speak for themselves. I would have shown the press a Unicorn, and watched as the headlines changed from “Antennagate Plagues Users” to “Steve Jobs Owns the First Unicorn Known to Mankind.” Again, wishful thinking.

Antenn-aid for iPhone 4 via Kevin Rose:

Antenn-aid is a custom-sized vinyl sticker for your iPhone 4. It’s designed to be placed over the lower left corner of the antenna. It may improve signal performance*

You get one of each stylish color, for a total of 6 Antenn-aids! Gray, light-gray, green, blue, peach, purple.

*Antenn-aid is for entertainment purposes only, results may vary.

Digeratii via Twitter:

Today’s Urban Dictionary phrase of the day: Cockblocked by Steve Jobs. http://twitpic.com/26vsyh