I know, I know, I've been remiss in posting to the blog. But friends I hope you now understand. We've been working on the report for weeks, and the team made me promise to stay focused and lay off the blogging until it was done.
Apple saw particular strength in notebook systems, which rose 64 percent in units and 67 percent in revenues, suggesting strong sell-through of the company's new MacBook Air, noted Hargreaves.
"Macbook Air sales appear to be additive to total sales, rather than replacing Macbook Pro sales," he said. "We believe a new set of corporate customers make up a meaningful portion of MacBook Air buyers."
People have been asking me why Apple would license Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Analysts at Tidbits.com say it best:
"Apple surprised many industry watchers by announcing that they'd licensed Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft, as Apple rarely licenses anything that's core to their purpose. But in the enterprise, Exchange is one of the kings, and Apple had to pay obeisance to get the pieces necessary to perform robust synchronization and communication. With full Exchange support, Apple can directly take on Research in Motion (RIM) and its BlackBerry communicators. Apple took aim at RIM by criticizing their single-point-of-failure approach to having all email and messaging pass through RIM's servers; two recent brief failures have highlighted RIM's vulnerability. In Apple's approach, the iPhone will communicate directly with the enterprise's servers."
Security and dependability matter. Which system would you choose for your business?
AAPL Target: $250
Thanks to Viv for the magnolia tea tip. And thanks for all your concerned emails. Even the one from "AAPL Anna" up in Mille Lacs. The lady offered to run down with dried "infusion" leaves from her magical fence screener plants (Yah, can you believe it? At the next cc I'm gonna ask why there's no background checking on Apple shareholders.)
Anyway, Violet was so agitated by the time I got over there she insisted on calling her lawyer. She wants to start a class action against Sprint.
So I had to tell her Sprint has a big ass hole in their bucket.
That didn't go over very well. OK . . . it was a disaster. So I'm blogging from Regions ER . . . they say it will be just five stitches.
My cousin Violet is a sucker for deceptive TV ads.
By age three (1988) we had the diagnosis. It was the year of the "Oopsie Daisy" fad, a "smart" doll that crawled, fell down, cried "Mama", then righted herself and continued crawling.
Saturday morning TV Oopsie ads were Violet's gateway drug. Cue the music to "Pop goes the Weasel". "Oopsie daisy's learning to crawl, she's such a pretty baby...oop! oopsie daisy!"
To sane adults -- which her parents were at the time -- it was nauseating. But little Violet HAD to have that doll, a fact she reminded her parents about until it drove them to distraction.
So on Christmas morning, 1988, her father took it from the box and quickly installed two C batteries (while Violet was jumping up and down and holding her crotch). Dad turned on the doll and set her into crawl position.
Violet started screaming. The relatives were baffled, and had trouble yelling over the gear grinding noise coming from the toy. The same noise that was scaring the bejeezus out of Violet. She began to cry. "That wasn't on the TV commercial", she wailed.
The Oopsie Daisy Christmas was just the beginning. No matter how hard we work as a family to help her overcome this addiction she periodically falls into the trap.
So Violet saw the latest Sprint Blackberry Pearl "smart" phone ad, the one that features a guy on a moving sidewalk in an airport. He's using a combination finger/laser pointer to write words in the air, which are magically transmitted as text messages or email or something.
Violet bit for it. You bet, I got the call this time. Her parents couldn't be bothered; they were busy logging on to hypnosisdownloadsfortraumatizedparents.com.
Anyway she said it's all Apple's fault. After all, they show how the iPhone works on their TV ads, with the touches and all. The Blackberry ad didn't have tiny print disclaimer on the screen, you know, "Dramatization -- don't try this at home" or whatever. Violet assumed Blackberry had honestly invented air writing to beat iPhone. It looked so cool, she said.
Ugh. I'm going over with oolong magnolia tea to help Violet through this latest "oopsie" episode.
