KCMW--by "jacking the price up" I simply meant that there's absolutely no logical reason for the oil companies *not* to keep raising prices at the moment. If they raise prices to $5/gallon and we keep paying it, why not $6? Why not $8? Why not $20? Sooner or later the rest of us will finally get our heads out of our collective asses and start taking wind, solar, etc seriously.

It seems to me that financial conservatives should *like* the fact that gas prices are sky-high. After all, isn't this the truest example of the Free Market, Supply & Demand, etc?

They'll keep jacking the price up higher and higher until people stop paying for it (ie, switch to some alternative) or until there's government intervention of some sort, correct?

Hmmm...from the (fuzzy) pics, it just looks like an aluminum Mini...I'm sure the innards would be more powerful, and presumably it'd have all sorts of developer tool/api goodness on the software side, but it only looks slightly larger than a Mini to me. I don't see any extra space for full-size hard drive, removable video card, etc., which are the main things the "mid-sized Mac" folks are clamoring for...

KCMW--you may be correct (beats me), but your point is only valid *if* Apple would *otherwise* not be producing the iPhone at all.

In other words, if producing a solar-powered iPhone uses up roughly the same energy as producing a non-solar-powered model, then yes, the solar version *is* valid as being more environmentally friendly, etc.

If, however, you're saying that the energy/resources to add the solar panel itself are much higher than the non-solar version, then you're correct (in the same way that corn-based ethanol uses more energy than it produces, and reduces the food supply in the process).

Tom--if those numbers are accurate...

2007 2nd Quarter (April-June): http://www.systemshootouts.org/?q=node/196

Apple: 1,764,000 units sold (3.0%)
All Vendors: 58,824,000 units sold

if both of those numbers are accurate, global and hold true through May and June...

2008 2nd Quarter:
Apple + 50%: 2.646,000 units
All Vendors +17%: 68,824,080

...Apple could be looking at a 3.8% global market share for the quarter, the highest it's been since Q4 2000 ("Fruity iMac Christmas").

Tex--beats me, which was kind of my point; there's just way, WAY too many unknown factors at play for the entire Macosphere to be going on and on about this "OMG 70% of the market!1!!!" business. Not to mention that even then, of course, the number claimed was 66%, not 70%.

I remember years ago seeing a fluff piece news report (around this time of year, actually) about how vitally important high school prom season is oto the limousine rental/tuxedo rental/etc businesses. The reporter excitedly reported that "every year, prom season accounts for a whopping 18% of *all* tuxedo rentals!" (or perhaps it was limos, I don't recall which).

This sounds impressive until you realize that "prom season" generally lasts about 6 weeks (last week of April until the first week of June, depending on the school). 6 weeks out of 52 weeks = 11.5% of the year.

18% of all tuxedo rentals for 11.5% of the year isn't exactly a stunning figure. Wow, sales jump 56% during a season where a lot of people need your product? Color me astonished!

Without including direct sales, these stats are almost useless...

Or, at least, they're only useful for companies considering their *retail* strategy, if any--and even then, only within the United States, since NPD's stats don't include non-U.S. sales.

So, let's see...it doesn't include Dell, which sold 31% of all computers in the U.S. the first quarter of this year. It doesn't include any of the computers that HP, Acer, or Toshiba sell *online* or *over the phone*. On the flip side, it doesn't include any of Apple's *online* or *phone* sales either (unless, I presume, those sales were made via one of Apple's retail stores).

Basically, there's no way of knowing how high or low Apple's percentage of *total* over-$1,000 sales are, even if we just limit it to the U.S.

The closest you can come to knowing this is to compare Apple's total U.S. market share to it's *retail* market share, and then applying that to the over-$1K area:

U.S. Market Share, 1Q 2008:http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080417-apple-dell-big-market-share-winners-for-the-first-quarter.html
Apple had 6.6% of the *total* U.S. market.

U.S. *retail* market share, 1Q 2008: 14% according to NPD.

So, assuming that 6.6% of the total market vs. 14% of the retail market carries over for the over-$1K sub-market, that would mean that Apple actually sells about 31% of all over-$1K computers in the U.S.:

6.6/14 = 31/66

Plus, Apple's *global* market share is half that of their U.S. share (around 3.3%):
GLOBAL Market Share, 1Q 2008: http://www.systemshootouts.org/?q=node/195

...which means, assuming that the ratios of retail to total sales are similar globally to what they are within the U.S., that worldwide, Apple actually sells about 16% of all over-$1K computers.

Still impressive, but considering that they only offer a single model *below* $1K, hardly *that* surprising.

Plus, of course, there's absolutely no way of knowing what percentage of all computers are sold direct vs. retail in other countries, or even from one vendor to another, so *all* of these ratios are questionable at best.

And I say this as a die-hard Mac guy.

Deepest sympathies to his family & friends :(

I know this doesn't mean much, but for whatever it's worth, 4 years ago, when Dilleet's dog Shiazz passed away, after I sent him a sympathetic post, he replied:

"I wanted to thank you for your sympathy for the loss of my dog...My dog was my best friend and a companion like I have never found in any human. I like our board and think we have a good mix of well informed and interesting people, the kind of web community many envisioned years ago, but even though a virtual world it is good to know that we are considerate of one another and supportive."

Amazing work. Some production house oughta hire the guy, if he's not already working for one.

For that matter, Apple should consider buying the rights to make a shorter commercial version of it to promote OS X/iLife/etc...didn't they already do that with some other guys' iPhone ad?

Some fun charts from yesteryear and today:

I'm still in the middle of converting all of the site content over to the new blog format, and figured you guys might get a kick out of some of these (breaking them into smaller chunks of info gives rise to some interesting stuff):

First, here's the top 7 PC sellers worldwide in 1999:

http://www.systemshootouts.org/?q=node/206

Note that 4 of the 7 have either merged with each other, gone out of business or gotten out of the PC business entirely.

Next, here's the average songs sold per day on iTunes:

http://www.systemshootouts.org/?q=node/212

Note that at the current rate of around 6 million per day, they should be announcing 5 billion songs sold sometime in late June.

Finally, the quarterly iPod sales chart:

http://www.systemshootouts.org/?q=node/208

They've essentially plateaued at around 10 million for non-holiday quarters and around 22 million for the holiday quarter, or around 50 million per year. Presumably the iPhone will start taking up the slack.

Yofal/Roni--fantastic news (if true, re. SalesForce.com). I suspect that the factor which closed the deal in the minds of TPTB is Boot Camp--the peace of mind of knowing that even in a worst-case scenario, they can always just have everyone install Windows (XP, presumably, since Vista is such a dog) and use those 4,000+ Macs as Windows machines instead.

Not that that'll be necessary, I'm sure :)

Shootouts Site Overhaul: Phase 2 complete

http://www.systemshootouts.org/

(actual new shootouts still on the way...)

FYI: The Shootouts site has acquired MacMove.com :)

http://www.macmove.com/

(Wow, I feel like such a corporate raider...actually, the guy just didn't have time to update the site, so he decided to hand it over to another guy who hasn't had time to update *his* site...now I can lag behind on *double* the content! :))

Seriously, though, all-new updates are on the way for real this time...

Also, in a related amusing piece of news, check out the Wikipedia entry for "iPod":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod

Take a look at the first footnote.

No, I didn't add that; I stumbled across the reference in my traffic referer stats.

For my part, I'll be replacing my current G5 iMac (20"/2.0 GHz) with one of the new Intel iMacs (24"/2.8 GHz) within the next month or two (I hope).

Checking eBay, it looks like I should be able to get around $800 or so for my current one...anyone interested? It still runs (gasp) Classic and all... :)

Other noteworthy news: Apple just sold their 150 millionth iPod sometime this quarter:

http://www.systemshootouts.org/ipod_sales.html

FWIW, it took them 18 quarters to sell their first 50 million, 23 quarters to sell 100 million, and 27 quarters to sell 150 million. They're averaging 13 million iPods per quarter, though that's obviously leveled off completely at this point.

For comparison:

The Walkman created a totally new market for portable stereo systems, and it became a much-loved product around the world. In June 1989, 10 years after the launch of the first model, the total number of Walkman units manufactured had exceeded 50 million, and in 1992 this reached 100 million. In 1995, total production of Walkman units reached 150 million. Including a special 15th anniversary model, over 300 different Walkman models have been produced to date and Sony has remained the market leader.

http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2003/10/sony_walkman_hi.html

Walkman: 40 quarters for 50 million, 52 quarters for 100 million, 64 quarters for 150 million.

Minor Shootouts update:

Hey all...I know, it's been like 6 months since I updated the shootouts site, but I did at least update the quarterly Mac sales charts today:

http://www.systemshootouts.org/mac_sales.html

Main point of interest: Apple hit 3.3% *global* market share the first quarter of this year, the highest it's been since the third quarter of 2000 (just before their fall from grace that holiday season...ut oh...)

One other note: It's conceivable--almost laughably unlikely, but conceivable--that this quarter, Apple *could* possibly even beat out Toshiba for 5th place in global sales.

How? Well, according to the charts, Toshiba has been averaging about 20% Y/Y growth every quarter for the past couple of years. Apple just pulled off 51% growth. If each were to repeat this for Q2 2008, it'd be:

Toshiba: 2.407 million + 20% = 2.888 million
Apple: 1.764 million + 51% = 2.664 million

OK, yeah, Apple would have to pull off a stunning 64% Y/Y quarter to beat that, but you never know...

Fi--"Arabian Horse judging buddies"? His name wasn't Michael Brown, I hope...

Retail Report--Troy, Michigan:

My 1st-gen MacBook battery crapped out on me again (black X in the menu bar; battery not recognized even after resetting the SMB or whatever, yadda yadda).

Good news--they swapped out the battery free of charge; apparently I'm still under the 2-year replacement period for the Great Battery Debacle of 2006 (just under the wire--my model came out in May '06).

It wasn't packed like it usually is on the weekends, but was still pretty busy for a Wednesday morning. A good half-dozen people getting trained on various iApps, another 15 or so milling about the store.

A belated congrats, Roni!

Well, it's their 32nd birthday--perhaps a 32 GB iPhone to celebrate? :)

PDQ--Yikes, that doesn't fill me with confidence. Which model iBook and how much RAM do you have?

The replacement iMac I'm looking at is the 2.4 GHz 24" Intel model fully loaded w/4 GB RAM. Spec-wise, I'd be changing from:

2.0 GHz G5 -> 2.4 GHz Core2Duo
2 GB PC-3200 -> 4 GB PC2-5300
Radeon 9600 -> Radeon HD 2600 PRO
128 MB VRAM -> 256 MB VRAM

Whaddya figure my performance improvement with Intel-optimized apps will be?

Tex--"Maybe I'm overstating how abysmal the performance is on Pages and Numbers, since I'm on a G5 iMac."

Well, FWIW, I also have a G5 iMac (2.0 GHz w/2 GB RAM), and I can definitely say that the Adobe CS3 suite runs dog slow. Incredibly disappointing--as far as I can tell, it wasn't just optimized for the Intel machines, it was designed specifically for them without much thought to my less-than-3-year-old "legacy" machine :(

Re. iWork--I agree that it's still not ready for prime time (KeyNote is, but Numbers and Pages are still 1-2 generations away), but unless it's bringing in a solid profit (I find it hard to believe that it's selling all that well), I really wish that they'd just go ahead and start bundling it with new Macs like they do with iLife.

That's what they did with AppleWorks for years, after all, and iWork *was* launched as a "replacement" for AppleWorks. They used to include AW with every consumer model (but not the Pro models, since presumably Pros would go for MS Office anyway). Today, that would mean minis, iMacs and MacBooks.

Better yet if they just went ahead and bundled it across the board; they'd truly be able to advertise "everything you need out of the box" and all that (yes, plenty of people would still shell out for MS Office, but they'd still have the bragging rights). Besides, they already have "consumer grade" email, calendar and contact apps bundled...why not bundle the rest of it as well?

That's OK by me--I'm waiting until after May to replace my 2.0 GHz iMac G5 (that's when AppleCare expires), so I'm ok with a refresh not coming out until then.

Might even go for the high-end 24" model if I'm feeling confident enough about business...

Bear in mind that those numbers are for *retail*, not total, and *U.S.*, not global. Still impressive, though!

Oddly, after all of the anticipation of this move, I'm oddly underwhelmed by it actually coming to fruition.

Perhaps it's because iTunes is already king of the hill at this point--a Beatles-on-iTunes move even 2 years ago would've shot it into the stratosphere; today, I think it'll be a nice bump, but not nearly as dramatic of an impact...because iTunes is *already* in the stratosphere...

Plus, my guess is that it isn't exclusive to iTunes (the article doesn't specify).

Then again, perhaps I'm wrong and it'll be a Big Huge Deal® after all?

OT: wdave--nah, I mostly meant raising my kid :)

I'm "involved" in the Prez campaign in the sense that I'm following it closely and have given a few bucks to Obama (not my first choice, but I much prefer him to Hillary), but that's about it. I'm not nearly as ga-ga as I was over Dean in '04.

wdave--candidate? Not sure I follow...unless you're referring to the state legislator client I signed recently:

http://www.richardsonforstatehouse.com/

Yofal--(sigh) yeah, I know, I haven't updated the Shootouts site since friggin' September; life stuff keeps getting in the way.

I do plan on a complete overhaul very soon, however (entire laptop lineup, plus the iMac vs. Dell One).

OT: Guam Excitement: Catch It!!

So, it looks like Clinton & Obama are essentially dead-even for tomorrow's SuperDuperPooperScooper Tuesday, which means that the Democratic nomination could be dragged out until March, April or beyond.

Curious, I looked up the primary schedule, and discovered that after Pennsylvania on April 22nd, the next one up, on May 3rd, is...Guam.

With a total of 8, count 'em, 8 delegates; 3 pledged, 5 unpledged...which basically means that everyone who lives in Guam is a Superdelegate :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29_presidential_primaries%2C_2008

So, what I'm thinking is, how awesome would it be if after Pennsylvania didn't decide things, the media decided that IT ALL COMES DOWN TO GUAM!???

How cool would it be for Obama/Clinton to fly out to Guam to hold a Huge Guam Rally?

The Eyes of the World Will be on Guam!

People would buy commemorative T-shirts reading "I was There: GUAM 2008!"

A new political truism would arise: "As Goes Guam, So Goes the Nation!"

The new meme tossed around by the TV talking head pundits would be "No Democrat has ever won the White House without Guam!"

I love it!

The sad part is, Guam will end up having more impact on the nomination than either Michigan or Florida. Nice job, guys...

Well, this would certainly be a good time to do so!

Actually, the time to do so would've been about 4 years ago, but still...

Heh. Cute :)

clearsailing--heh...I'm working on it, I'm working on it...a bit backed up work-wise of late...

Annie/Yofal--(shrug) dunno...adding a 3G card would complete the wireless/"over the air" trio (BT, Airport, 3G). The marketing angle would be that it's "light as air", I would imagine.

Then again, I always thought that Safari should've been called iBrowse (nice pun, plus it ties in with the iLife naming convention), while iCal should've simply been called "OS X Calendar' to tie in with "OS X Mail" and "OS X Address Book"--dull names for "work"-related apps.

And don't get me started on "Bonjour" (I know they had to change it from Rendezvous, but still...)

"Something in the air" = MacBook Air?

Speculation according to MacRumors--it refers to the name for the rumored "ultralight" laptop (external optical drive, flash storage, etc).

Makes sense to me. Throw in a built-in 3G card, and along with the already-included Wi-Fi/Bluetooth cards, the name would make sense.

Wow! There's only one reason I can imagine that they would update the Mac Pros a week *before* MacWorld--if Jobs doesn't want to spend time talking about the Pros, but *does* intend to announce a major iMac processor upgrade, he wouldn't want the specs to ride too closely to the previous Mac Pro specs.

FWIW, the Mac Pro standard config just changed:

FROM: 2x 2.6 Dual Core Xeons for $2,500 (starting at $2,200)

TO: 2x 2.8 QUAD core Xeons for $2,800 (starting at $2,300)

Seems to me that they just opened up an even bigger window between the iMac and the Mac Pro, no?

Hmmm...perhaps they're gonna add a "minitower" kind of headless Mac after all?

AI: Apple filing for "iMac-like docking station":

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/03/apple_filing_proposes_imac_like_notebook_docking_station.html

Reminds me an awful lot of the old DuoDock:



But for me, I think I prefer these guys' product:

http://www.bookendzdocks.com/Docking_Stations-Docking_Station_for_13_MacBook_White.html

Anyone ever used BookEndz' docks? Good, bad?

FWIW, I just won a late-model iBook G4 on eBay as a late birthday/Hanukkah gift for my father-in-law. $355 plus shipping, which is about average for this range of models (1.2 GHz 12" combo drive).

He currently has an *ancient* (Pentium 3) tower running Win2K sluggishly. He wanted a "bare-bones" laptop just to check email/surf the web on the 2 trips out of town he takes each year.

I was gonna get an old G3 iBook for perhaps $200, but instead figured why not kill two birds with one stone and just replace the ancient PC tower as well? So, I went with a "relatively" new(er) G4 model, which he can hook up to his LCD and use as a desktop system as well.

Of course, between beefing up the RAM, adding an external keyboard/mouse (his PC still uses PS/2 ports) and the VGA adapter, it'll end up costing another $100, but it'll be worth it to banish one more butt-ugly PC monster to the recycling plant...

Make it 5...we dropped our cable about a year or so ago when we realized that a) the only TV shows we watch are DVD collections and b) dropping it would save us something like $500/year.

Lango--fair enough; let's hope so! :)