Leopard Unleashed

In the first four days of release, Mac OS X, 10.5 (code-named Leopard) sold more than two million copies, eclipsing the sales records set by the previous edition of Mac OS X released in April 2005. Leopard accomplished in less than 100 hours what took Tiger more than one month to achieve, astounding members of the press and blowing away even the most ambitious sales projections. Although in nature the leopard is known a solitary cat, Apple’s version of the wild feline has won millions of friends.

The iPhone Phenomenon

Apple’s iPhone has quickly established its own market and has become the most popular smartphone in the United States. Set to storm the beaches of Europe later this month, the iPhone phenomenon continues to gain mass and momentum. Apple has secured contracts with service providers in most of the major European markets, and early estimates suggest the iPhone will replicate its early US success.

The iPhone Unlocked

The iPhone phenomenon has created its own extraordinary issue. Users are circumventing Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T to operate the phone on competitor networks. In response to demand for iPhones by end users who intend to avoid activation through AT&T, Apple is restricting retail sales per customer of the overwhelmingly popular digital device. Market watchers suggest tens of thousands of unlocked iPhones are already operating in Europe ahead of its official release in the EU nations.

Apple has chosen to restrict handset sales to protect its monthly service revenue from AT&T and Apple’s European service providers. How well Apple can stop the flood of unlocked iPhones from being used on competitor networks without materially impacting unit sales will be determined in time.

Should Apple restrict iPhone sales to protect monthly revenue from authorized service providers or seek to maximize handset sales no matter the complications from unlocked iPhones? Send your comments to rleitao@atpm.com.

The Red Sox of Tech?

In late October the Boston Red Sox won Major League Baseball’s World Series for the second time in four years and the seventh time in the franchise’s storied history. Has Apple become the Red Sox of tech? For decades the Boys From Beantown were overshadowed by the team’s archrival to the south, and for eighty-six long years the team and its impassioned fans suffered through a championship drought.

From the mid-90s until today, Apple’s success has often been overshadowed by its archrival from the northwest. The Mac, Apple’s flagship product, and its supporters suffered through many years of dwindling market share at the hands of the Windows dominated world. The Macintosh is the champion on college campuses, and the iPod rules the digital music player world. Similar to the fans of the Red Sox, Mac users became more devoted and Apple fans more resolute with each challenging year. Greeted with newfound success, the long years of waiting fall gracefully into the pages of history.

Big Blue Bested

On the last trading day of October, Apple’s share price hit a new all-time high of $190.12 per share. The closing price of $189.95 valued the company at $165.70 billion, surpassing the market value of Apple’s first nemesis and later chip partner, IBM.

The Numbers

For the three-months ended in September, Apple shipped 2.164 million Macs, 10.2 million iPods, and 1.119 million iPhones. The company ended the period with more than $15 billion in cash, no debt, and the rollout of the iPhone in Europe yet to come. For the fiscal year ended in September, the company had revenue of over $24 billion and net income of about $3.5 billion. It was a championship year for the corporate team from Cupertino.

Our November issue includes:

Bloggable: A Leopard Can Always Change Its Spots

Sun Microsystems’ ZFS filesystem sounds awfully impressive, but is it right for you? That’s a more loaded question than Wes Meltzer expected from a technical debate about the merits of possible file formats in future versions of OS X, but then again, just another day in the office when you’re a blog reporter. That, plus the fastest Leopard review this side of the Euphrates, the iPhone SDK, Eudora 8.0, and whatever else you can throw a bad pun at in this month’s Bloggable.

MacMuser: Phone Junkie Says iPhone Clunky

What if the “Gphone” is a real device? What if it’s free?

MacMuser: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Mark Tennent ponders his choices in Macintosh upgrades.

Photoshop for the Curious: Back in February

Photoshop for the Curious is going on a small break and will return in the February 2008 issue. In the mean time, Lee Bennett has links to some great resources to peruse.

How To: Creating iTunes Content Presets

Sylvester Roque uses Automator to gain quicker access to the music he wants to hear.

Desktop Pictures: Australia

Reader Graham Lindsay offers this month’s desktop photos from Australia.

Cartoon: Cortland

Just as all seems lost, our intrepid hero reenters the Mudrix to save the woman he loves in this month’s Cortland.

Review: Billable 1.2.3

Ed Eubanks tries out this alternative to iWork ’08 templates to gain more automation and ease to the process of invoicing clients.

Review: Graph Paper Maker 1.6.1

Graph Paper Maker is an exciting game in which you can learn quite a lot about sub-Saharan plant life. No, no, no: it makes graph paper quickly and easily—any kind that you want.

Review: iPhone Case Roundup

Three of ATPM’s iPhone-carrying staff members composed this round-up of cases to hold and protect their twenty-first century communicators.

Review: Luna

Stylish design, extensive configuration controls, iPod compatibility, and great-sounding audio make the Luna a splendid alarm clock radio.

Review: Nisus Writer Pro 1.0.1

In terms of core word processing functions, the latest product in the Nisus Writer family may be among the closest thing yet in offering Microsoft Word a run for its money.

Review: SuperSync 1.8.2

SuperSync attempts to take the pain out of managing music libraries across several computers.