This is excellent news as Apple expands its retail push. Now designated as the fast growing retail chain in US history, the Apple retail stores puts hands on experience with a Mac within reach of millions of computer users.

As the economy continues to expand, computer buyers will take a renewed interest in the Mac and its seamless integration with the iPod. Coupled with the functionality of the iLife digital lifestyle solution set, the Mac is emerging as a very attractive platform for people serious about their computing life.

Another giant I told you so, 12 hours before the 2.5 GHz G5s were promised to ship on July 30, Apple sent iLemmings an email saying they'll ship on August 20. Check the facts:

http://www.macnn.com/news/25660

Reality Distortion Field goes off the chart in the Apple email by implying the delay is due to "incredible" demand, when even people who order immediately on the first day got this email. At least some iLemmings are beginning to see through the RDF and started an "Apple: Do Not Lie To Us" petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/Apple_G5/petition.html

Most of the gains are in Dell Apple and Sony. Maybe it's a flight toward quality. Gateway HP/Compaq and such have softened considerably.

Could it be that that Windows users are buying Dell. Laptop users are getting Sony. Those that are open to alternatives are going Apple. And the little producers are getting squeezed out. Good news for Apple even though we'll see what it does for unit sales. (According to the article the overall intent to buy is way down.) Unfortunately Dell, the least creative computer company around is also gaining.

Looks like the steady increase in unit shipments will continue. My guess is that part of the uptick is the great reputation that Mac machines are getting in terms of reliability. Some may have seen PC Magazine's latest Reader's Satsifaction Survey. Maybe we'll even see an uptick in overall market share numbers. I'm hoping that the new iMac will give them a boost...

The way the Mac Fans love Apple and Apple products. Even with the iPod phenomenon, Most people have a life, families hobbies, to put it simply; most people have a life. To buy into the I love Apple, I love SJobs, Windows suck, and my new iBook has brought new meaning to my life and now I am a not going to commit suicide....little bit of and exaggeration but you get the point.

Most people have a life beyond computing and computers, although there are the Gamers, in Europe they call them eunuchs.

Let get to the point if Apple is going to sell computers to the masses, Apple is going to have to be competitive, and utilize some basic economics 101 supply and demand marketing. Apples hardware refresh cycles are so few and far between to buy a current iMac it would analogous to downgrading your hardware as opposed to upgrading it.. and they still charge you $1,500 smackers!

Apple continues to bite the loyal hands of those that feed it, and there outcries are becoming more frantic and frequent. You better wake up Mr. SJobs and all your Apple Cronies….Al Gore…didn’t he invent the internet?

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Anonymous wrote:
Apple continues to bite the loyal hands of those that feed it, and their outcries are becoming more frantic and frequent. You better wake up Mr. SJobs and all your Apple Cronies….Al Gore…didn’t he invent the internet?

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John F. Braun wrote:
Looks like the steady increase in unit shipments will continue. Maybe we'll even see an uptick in overall market share numbers. I'm hoping that the new iMac will give them a boost...

Could be especially if the drop is concentrated in Windows sales and/or is a one month anomaly, which it very well could be. I do wish they had gotten the iMac G5 out before now. It would help them with consumer back to school sales. (OK, the real reason is that I want one).

Dell has been rather smart. They moved from being a "computer" company to a distribution company and focus on cutting costs everywhere possible. At the same time they leveraged their good name with heavy advertising to the point that a lot of people say "gat a Dell" instead of "get a PC". The older Dell consumers (like me) who used to strongly recommend looking at Dell when buying a PC have now encountered the shock of third rate customer support and now are recommending people first check out customer service ratings before buying a PC. Most people don't think of that and now "get a Dell' is the most common phrase in the PC world. Great marketing on Dell's part, pity the customer service isn't as good.

Apple has taken a different approach. They invest heavily in R&D for both hardware and software. They focus on developing a computer experience that is second to none and consider design elegance to be important. They Think Different when looking at new products and when they come out with something new, like the ipod, they don't just dump a product on the market, but spend the time and money to release a full experience.

Apple also does a lot of things that are leading edge, and struggle while component suppliers work to deliver. The G5 and drives for the iPod mini are good examples of the frustrations Apple and its customers endure to be on the leading edge.

Fortunately Apple's efforts are paying off with consumers. PC users who buy an iPod get their first peek at the Apple experience. They have the iPod and discover what design elegance is all about. They open iTunes and discover what Mac software looks like, how well it works. They go to The Music Store and see what Apple did to make legal music downloading worthwhile. That is why Apple is moving up in the polls.

The impact of all of this is going to be interesting. How many PC/iPod users jumped at the chance to buy Airport Express when they learned about it? How many have read about the G5 imac coming in a few weeks and are reading the Mac boards, eager to look (and maybe buy) the new iMac? (And how many PC boards have they regularly followed over the years?)

Great news for Apple and a sad time for PC trolls. Just look at how far from reality old Reality Check has gotten recently . . .

I don't know if Apple is suddenly experiencing an upswing in demand, but as a reseller in Australia I am having trouble getting eMacs at the moment. Whereas it used to take a couple of days now it is taking a week or two especially for the SuperDrive models. Could be the lack of an iMac or the keen pricing on eMacs maybe.

Also some of my customers now are going Mac after becoming fed up with problems and viruses etc on their PCs. Could be a trend... didn't use to have as many coming from the dark side as I do now.

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RealityCheck wrote:
Another giant I told you so, 12 hours before the 2.5 GHz G5s were promised to ship on July 30, Apple sent iLemmings an email saying they'll ship on August 20. Check the facts:

http://www.macnn.com/news/25660
...

Yes. Thank you. We know that. The news broke yesterday. It's all over the Mac news sites. Now are you going to comment on this story and not go off on a tangent about another story??

I think this is great news, personally, but Apple's supply problems could come back to hurt them. I'm expecting a slightly down quarter but a huge December quarter.

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Guest wrote:
….Al Gore…didn’t he invent the internet?

Knock it off with that crap. He never said that. It was proven beyond a doubt he never said it.

Shut up.

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Guest wrote:
Apples hardware refresh cycles are so few and far between to buy a current iMac it would analogous to downgrading your hardware as opposed to upgrading it.. and they still charge you $1,500 smackers!

They charge more because they last longer. I have an 800 MgHz G4 that performs just as well as my 2 GhZ PC. It's a 3 year old Mac and I edit video on it just fine. I've never had a PC be useful this long without needing some kind of hardware upgrade to keep up with software.

Of course it costs more. It lasts longer.

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John F. Braun wrote:
Some may have seen PC Magazine's latest Reader's Satsifaction Survey. ...

Actually one thing I found most interesting about the quality survey was how highly homebuilt computers compared to Dell et.al. It implies to me, IMHO, that Apple is the only Mfg. out there that is really innovating. All of the others are just pulling off the shelf components and putting them in a box.

Just bought an emac for my daughter. On the work side, the problems in WinXP with viruses and spyware are a daily headache (literally, there are daily updates from McAfee). I can see why people would want to dump Windows.

The boards are now saying that Apple IS shipping the 2.5 PMs - started today, which is still July.

Some of the units ordered after the initial run might be delayed, but those that ordered early are going to have theirs in shipment now.

Know that hurts - reality checks sometimes do . . .

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Guest wrote:
Just bought an emac for my daughter. On the work side, the problems in WinXP with viruses and spyware are a daily headache (literally, there are daily updates from McAfee). I can see why people would want to dump Windows.

intelligent computer users do not suffer from these problems. yes, even the PC intelligent users. besides, my virus software automatically updates itself behind the curtains, so who cares how often it does it.

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jonkroupa wrote:
intelligent computer users do not suffer from these problems. yes, even the PC intelligent users. besides, my virus software automatically updates itself behind the curtains, so who cares how often it does it.

That misses the point entirely - the fact that those virus updates have to be run daily, and that "intelligent" users have figured out how to overcome spyware and viruses does not address that both of these issues are nonexistent in the first place for Mac users. You don't need to know workarounds, and you don't need frequent virus updates - background or not.

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kenaustus wrote:
The boards are now saying that Apple IS shipping the 2.5 PMs - started today, which is still July.

Some of the units ordered after the initial run might be delayed, but those that ordered early are going to have theirs in shipment now.

Know that hurts - reality checks sometimes do . . .

Of course Steve Jobs was personally involved in this deception to make RC look like more of an idiot than he is:

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=575

Now, does RealityCheck get to label himself a Troll or does TMO give that honorary name to him officially? I suspect he works for TMO as a sketch character or something.

And he did imply he invented the internet. The internet started at the University of Minnesota in like 1969 with a program called gopher, lol.
The trolls are not doing to well around here these days, all they can do is nit pick...like, G5 computers are going to be late...please come back when you have something REAL,(which will be never). Just kiddin, there lame attempts are sometimes quite entertaining.
The mac is spreading like a cancer! MuhahahahahahahA

Apple and Sony both sell PCs optimized to handle digital media such as music, video and photos.

I didn't know Apple sold PCs?... I thought they sold Macs only??!

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DudeMac wrote:


I didn't know Apple sold PCs?... I thought they sold Macs only??!

I presume you're being sarcastic, but if not, a Mac is a PC. Just not a Windows-based PC.

I presume you're being sarcastic, but if not, a Mac is a PC. Just not a Windows-based PC.

I'm being a little bit of both. Though the term PC stood (and still does) Personal Computer, the generic acronym has evolved into identifying a particular computer platform, which utilizes x86 processors from Intel or AMD and either comes with Windows or Linux.

A PC, a Mac, and an Amiga are really considered the proper designation; "Desktop Computer" or "Home Computer". A PC is a PC, the same as a Mac is a Mac, and the same as an Amiga is an Amiga.

all of a sudden you jump into crap about the new high end G5s not shipping until later. oh so what? normal people dont buy them anyway. anyone who is going to shell out $3000 for bleeding edge technology will be willing to wait a few weeks.

demand is relative. the demand for apple's G5's is great compared to their supply. if the demand for apple ipods is great, yet if the same demand were placed upon microsoft windows, then obviously that demand would be flat. demand is relative!!!

you can wait a few weeks for a 2.5 ghz G5 or you could wait months for the rest of the industry to catch up.

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NoVaMac wrote:
And he did imply he invented the internet. The internet started at the University of Minnesota in like 1969 with a program called gopher, lol.

You're wrong.

Wrong.

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Guest wrote:

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NoVaMac wrote:
And he did imply he invented the internet. The internet started at the University of Minnesota in like 1969 with a program called gopher, lol.

You're wrong.

Wrong.

Although the Topic Police may go after me for this, I felt it would be useful to share this site with the TMO gang. There's a couple that runs an excellent site where they perform extensive research, dispelling the many urban myths that tend to float around on the Internet. Kind of like an anti-RC site. Check it out at:

Urban Legends Reference Page

And yes they have a specific entry on the Gore/Internet thing:

Gore Didn't Claim to Invent the Internet

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MChieh wrote:
Now, does RealityCheck get to label himself a Troll or does TMO give that honorary name to him officially? I suspect he works for TMO as a sketch character or something.

RC is the first, and far as I know, only TMO user who has been labeled as a Troll by the management. It allows folks to easily skip over his drivel.

When he first registered with TMO, he was put on the same level as everyone else, and was actually able to have reasonably civil, intelligent discussions about Mac topics. But it quickly became clear that his goal was not to try and convince people of his point, but to get feedback any way possible.

That is why his posts have reduced themselves to name-calling and making baseless claims about Apple and the Mac, since these are a much quicker way to provide the feedback he so desperately needs. This is when the Troll label was applied.

If there's any bright side, his drivel does generate hits, which is good for TMO, but if we had a choice, it would be that he just go somewhere else.

Welcome, MChieh. Hope you have a nice stay here at TMO.

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Small White Car wrote:
Of course it costs more. It lasts longer.

My dad always buys a diesel truck instead of gasoline. Not because of fuel savings, not even for the towing capacity. Because they last longer. You pay more, but you get more. It's nothing for a 'consumer' diesel engine to last 500,000 miles. His last truck he had for 25 years and had 620,000 miles on it. It's still going strong and has no problems. He paid an extra $4,000 for it though. You get what you pay for.

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John F. Braun wrote:

RC is the first, and far as I know, only TMO user who has been labeled as a Troll by the management.

There may be a semantic argument to be made about who applied the label but the very first TMO Troll was Nico.

-Dan

and I haven't liked either of them.

Not because they are stating a different view, it is how they stated it. Error-prone rants about the history and making-of that Apple is currently and formerly engaged in. Resulting to name calling, a very annoying holier-than-thou attitude, talking down to people and general unreasonableness when facts are pointed out.

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NoVaMac wrote:
And he did imply he invented the internet. The internet started at the University of Minnesota in like 1969 with a program called gopher, lol.
The trolls are not doing to well around here these days, all they can do is nit pick...like, G5 computers are going to be late...please come back when you have something REAL,(which will be never). Just kiddin, there lame attempts are sometimes quite entertaining.
The mac is spreading like a cancer! MuhahahahahahahA

Acutally, the LAN, WAN and Network concepts were created by the military in the mid 60's. It was created as a a joint venture between the Air Force and DARPA, the Defense Advanced Reaserch Projects Agency. It was devleoped as a more effecient way to share maitnence information between bases.

ARPANET officially started as a 4 node network over AT&T 50kbps lines between UCLA, Stanford Research Institute, UCSB and University of Utah. (first actual link between two sites was in 1965 it was a dedicated line. RFQ for the multi-node system was let in 1968). It was created originally as a research tool, not military. That came later. DCA (now DISA) took MILNET in the early to mid 70's.

Expanded to 23 nodes in 1971, same year that e-mail was started.

ARPANET went international in 1973 with Norway (NORSAR).

First virus hit it in 1980 (Windows was not involved )

Interesting history actually