Apple's iMac line is now selling at a pretty serious clip.
Don’t believe us? Well, we’re not the only ones saying it - NPD analyst, Stephen Baker (vice president of industry analysis) came up with this gem in a chat with journalist, Joe Wilcox, as bought to our attention by Dalrymple and his beard).
So - some stats to back-up these claims:
Apple’s US retail desktop revenue share for October was 47.71 percent, up from same time last year when it hit 33.44 percent.
Sure, we know PC sales kinda declined as everyone waited on new purchases in order to ensure they got a free Win7 upgrade (Mac users do the same thing when they see an OS upgrade coming), but as Dalrymple observes: “Baker also pointed out that the numbers compare a month where a new iMac was released to a month last year when people stopped buying.”
There’s a little caveat to this goodness. As we await the ceremonial unveiling of what the Mac world and its brother currently call the “Apple tablet”, those netbook sales are getting under market share analysis skin - seems Mac laptop sales, “fell from 38 percent to 34 percent, while PC laptops rose from 61 percent to 66 percent.”
That last stat, incidentally, still means Apple laptops account for a good one-third share of actual cold hard cash laid down in retail outlets on new laptop purchases. Which begs the further question, given analysis of the PC market tends to favour a 90 percent Windows equation, just how cheap are they pushing out those Windows-based PCs the world’s meant to be using?
Apple has introduced updates to iPhoto (improving the face recognition feature), Final Cut Server and its Xsan server software.
The iPhoto update (v 8.1.1) addresses issues affecting face recognition performance and accuracy. It also resolves minor issues with book ordering and iPod touch support. This update is recommended for all users of iPhoto '09. It is available through Software Update or as a standalone installer here.
Final Cut Server 1.5.1 includes a range of improvements, as described in the tech support note these include:
- Fixes possible slowdown in the check in and check out process.
- Fixes status display in the Downloads & Uploads window.
- Corrects aspect ratio on thumbnails for anamorphic clips.
- Locked assets are now skipped in the archive process.
- Fixes archiving and restore for bundle assets.
- Improves reliability of adding and removing archive devices.
- The release also contains a significant number of smaller stability fixes.
Updated: Removed erroneous Xsan info, feed error.
Apple has updated its Boot Camp drivers, software which enables Intel Macs to boot up into Windows XP and Vista.
Boot Camp users must source their own copy of Microsoft Windows to employ within Boot Camp.
The 23.87MB update doesn’t introduce support for Windows 7, which Apple has promised will be made available to users in a future release. Instead, according to tech notes accompanying the release:
“This update addresses issues with the Apple trackpad and turns off the red digital audio port LED on laptop computers when it is not being used. It also includes support for the Apple Magic mouse and wireless keyboard. It is intended only for use with Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista running on a Mac computer using Boot Camp.”
Requirements
- Boot Camp 2.1 must be installed prior to running this update.
- For Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 2 must be installed before running this update.
In related news, Apple has also introduced updated Server Admin Tools (10.6.2). This update is recommended for the remote administration of Snow Leopard Server. It includes the latest versions of iCal Server Utility, Podcast Composer, Server Admin, Server Monitor, Server Preferences, System Image Utility, Workgroup Manager, and Xgrid Admin.
Whoops. It looks like Apple might have made those new iMacs a little too fast!
According to Macworld's tests, the Core i7 iMac beat the Octo-core Mac Pro 2.2GHz in a number of Speedmark 6 tests and overall it was 1.5% faster than the fastest base model computer Apple sells. Sure, you can update that Mac Pro Beast to 2.93GHz Octo, but that is $2600 more, $500 more than the entire Core i7 iMac! Even the Core i5 iMac did pretty well. Oh, and that iMac has the best display Apple has ever produced.
Sure, these are just a few specific tests and users real-world milage will vary. But it does show that the fastest iMac can hang around with the Mac Pros. In fact, unless you need to add internal RAID hard drives and/or extra PCI cards (or hate the hi-shine™ display), it is hard to imagine many cases where the Mac Pro workstation makes more sense than the cheaper, faster iMac Core i7 that also includes the best display that Apple produces.
Apple has quietly begun development of Mac OS X 10.7, the next iteration of its OS and an as-yet completely unknown animal, MacRumors informs.
That Apple’s engineers are already hard at work figuring out what to do next with the lean, Intel-only software at the heart of the current Mac OS X ‘Snow Leopard’ OS is no great surprise. Work has to begin sometime, and Apple is a company known for a five or ten-year planning cycle.
MacRumors reports a post in a database of changes to the open source “launchd” framework, which “oversees booting of Mac OS X and administers processes running on the system”.
The post included a new build number - 11A47 - which MR explains is likely to indicate an initial version of Mac OS X 10.7.
So it looks like they’ve managed to create a software mechanism to boot the system - we’re curious what the new OS will offer.
We could speculate on this based on some of the emerging trends across the technology industry.
- We’d anticipate more Cloud features. These could include a far more discrete means by which to access, edit and use MobileMe content. These could also include applications - perhaps some of the iLife apps - hosted in the cloud. Iterations could also include access anywhere computing, which could equate to your Mac desktop and files accessed from anywhere on any platform using a Web browser.
- Processors: We know the current OS is Intel-only. Now Apple has stripped-down the code, working in performance and other enhancements, what next for the OS? New support for new processors and graphics units from the likes of ARM and Nvidia, all spiced up with a little PA Semi magic. After all, OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch are strong foundations for an inherently faster and more stable 64-bit architecture.
What else can you imagine Apple’s R&D teams are exploring for deployment in the future of the Mac OS? Will we see first gleams of this at WWDC 2010? (We’d like the lost Tiger feature, the ability to send an SMS from your Address Book via a Bluetooth-connected mobile phone reintroduced, for example).
Mozilla just released Firefox 3.6 Beta3. This one features Component Directory Lockdown which will disable support for incompatible add-ons, theoretically making Firefox more stable. Make sure your important Add-ons are Kosher before installing. Other fun new stuff in this version.
Update: In other Mozilla/Apple News, Camino 2.0 has gone final.
The starting bid for the Apple-1 is US$50,000. What do you get with your winning bid? A non-working Apple 1 motherboard, the original shipping box (with the return address being the home of Steve Jobs' parents), and the original manual, complete with schematics on how to take the motherboard and build a workable computer out of it."
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