Linked List: January 21, 2009

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

From Macworld’s report on Apple’s finance conference call:

Though Apple didn’t provide sales figures for its Apple TV set-top box, Cook said sales were up three times what they were during the year-ago quarter, citing the addition of movie rentals to the iTunes Store. The company still describes the Apple TV, which lets you watch digital content on your television set, as a hobby, but Cook noted, “We think there’s something there.”

Double here, triple there, and next thing you know they’re going to have something. You wait and see.

Roger Kay, Soothsayer ★

Brian X. Chen, on the day Apple released the current MacBook lineup:

Despite a raft load of nifty new features, Apple’s new Mac notebooks will have a hard time moving off store shelves during the economic crisis, industry analysts say.

“There will be a lot of people looking at a lot of stuff at the Apple Store, and they’ll probably come out with [iPod] nanos or shuffles,” said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies. “That’s what people are going to feel like they’re going to afford this year.”

As a reminder, Apple’s laptop sales for the quarter were up 34 percent year-over-year.

Roger Kay doesn’t say outright foolish things the way, say, Rob Enderle does. But his record as an analyst regarding Apple is simply atrocious. He seemingly has no comprehension of what Apple really does, and why people buy Apple products.

‘Not Going to Just Walk In’ ★

Apple has now sold over 17 million iPhones to date, and almost 11 million in the last six months alone. Good time to recall Palm CEO Ed Colligan’s prediction regarding Apple’s prospects in the mobile phone business, a few weeks prior to the iPhone introduction:

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

Some Flop ★

Robin Harris, back in November, on Apple’s revamped lineup of MacBooks:

By investing in a costly feature no one asked for Apple is stalling its rapid growth in notebook marketshare. Whether it is a flop or a fiasco depends on how bad and how long the global recession is.

Apple’s laptop unit sales for the just-ended quarter were up 34 percent year-over-year.

Macworld’s Live Coverage of Apple’s Quarterly Earnings Call ★

Apple Reports First Quarter 2009 Results ★

Good news for Apple all around:

Apple sold 2,524,000 Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold a record 22,727,000 iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history — surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

I expected the iPod Touch to be the sleeper hit, but according to Apple’s data summary (PDF), while iPod unit sales are up 3% over last year, iPod revenue is down 16%.

The Big Picture: The Inauguration of President Barack Obama ★

Terrific collection of photographs, as usual. I like the one inside Bush’s helicopter as he departs Washington. It’s sort of like being President fades away rather than changes in an instant. It’s like he’s still part-President there.

QuickTime 7.6 ★

Media playback and encoding improvements, and a bunch of security fixes.

$999 White MacBook Gets a Speed Bump ★

Faster bus, better graphics card, and now with 2 GB of RAM (up from 1).

MacDev2009 ★

New U.K. indie Mac developer conference:

On the 16th and 17th of April 2009 The Mac Developer Network with Steve Scott (Scotty) and Tim Isted will be hosting the UK’s only independent Mac Developer Conference and we have very imaginatively called it MacDev 2009.

The Best Mac Ever ★

Macworld:

The 25th anniversary of the Mac is bound to spark debates, particularly when it comes down to the ultimate question for Mac aficionados: Which system was the greatest Mac ever?

Adam Engst, John Siracusa, and yours truly all picked the same answer. In my book, that’s definitive.