Apple’s Mac App Store: A cool concept, with caveats

So, look, the idea sounds cool. And we admit to be looking forward to checking it out. But at the same time, we totally understand why some developers might be freaking out. If the app store is successful at changing the behavior of Apple’s biggest die-hards, it could turn consumers used to spending $20-30 on a program into people who routinely complain that an app costs more than $2. But if this thing is a hit, just think of the scale it could have! So, as you browse through the 1,000+ apps on the store today, keep that in mind before you go too crazy. source

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$20
billion Apple’s quarterly revenues, which happens to be a new record for them, by the way
$4
billion Apple’s quarterly profits, which is also a record for them – and up 70 percent (!); freaking show-offs

+28% increase in Mac sales year-over-year; not bad considering their light recent publicity
+28% increase in iPad sales from last quarter; pretty good but not particularly spectacular
-11% decline in year-over-year iPod sales, which admittedly was kind of expected source

» Investors somehow not impressed: Wait, what? Well, here’s why: They expected the increase in Apple’s iPad sales to be much higher, so as a result, Apple’s stock went down five percent in after-hours trading. You bastards can’t ever be impressed, can you?

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$2,495 cost of a Mac at its 1984 launch; Apple’s new machine was underpowered at the time
$2,499 cost of the newest version of the 15-inch MacBook Pro laptop; it’s considered top-of-the-line source

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They made the mouse cool At launch, the Mac was the first popular mass-produced computer that didn’t rely on keyboard commands to do everything. It focused on that clicking device that’s been a staple of computers ever since – the mouse. (Though they did hold onto that one-button thing for 24 years too long.)
Popularizing GUIs Remember a time where you had to enter commands for a computer at a prompt? Of course you don’t. And if you did, you’re old. It’s because of the Mac that graphical user interfaces are now the way that people deal with computers. They borrowed it from Xerox, sure, but they also made it their own, before Microsoft stole it.
First major Super Bowl AdTo launch the computer, Apple went bold, with a Orwellian vision of the future driving their first major commercial – a Ridley Scott-directed masterpiece that ushered in an era where the Super Bowl is just as much about the commercials as it is about who’s winning the dang game. source

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06 Jan 2011 11:14