No. 1 – Mac Expansion in the Enterprise
According to a report by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, 74 percent of companies plan to expand Mac use within their companies. 314 companies took the survey and only 2 percent said they would be decreasing the use of Macs within their companies. The survey cited both productivity gains and employee preference as the main reasons enterprises are adopting more Macs within their organizations. Lower cost of ownership is also playing an important role. Of the IT managers in the survey nearly 60 percent are managing more than 100 Macs within a wide range of enterprise-class companies. To read the full report go here.
No. 2 – Apple to preview iPhone OS X 3.0 at Town Hall Event
Apple invited press to a special Town Hall style event to take an early look at the iPhone 3.0 firmware update. Apple intends to show the IT press that the company plans to stay on the bleeding edge of mobile operating system software and not fall behind its key rivals such as the new Palm-pre with its advanced Web-OS.
No. 3 – Apple Set to Introduce Netbook-like Device this Summar/Fall
Taiwanese touch panel maker claims working order for Apple. Wintek, according to this post on Forbes, is set to supply touch panels for an yet-to-be-named Apple device. This maybe the long-awaited and anticipated Mac touch Architosh has written about in the past (see images).
Apple is not the same position as its OEM computer-maker competition. The company’s regular-sized laptops continue to be hot sellers, meaning the company is not under pressure to deliver and compete in the low-cost Netbook market. This means Apple will likely wait to deliver something that changes the overall game for a device that is touch-based and fits between its popular iPhone and iPod touch devices and its wildly popular Mac mobile lineup. This future device may also be powered by a chip from Apple’s PA Semi division.
No. 4 – Apple’s App Store Now at 25,000 Applications and Growing
Apple’s App Store is now at 25,000 applications and still growing. A report on AppleInsider says the store is nearing a pace of $1 billion in annual revenue. Apple has accomplished with the App Store in just nine months what Microsoft has taken nine years to accomplish.
“The iPhone App Store has redefined the smartphone industry,” said Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf. “In a game of ‘follow the leader’, most operating system platforms, including Android, Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian, announced they were opening similar online stores.”
No. 5 – Snow Leopard to launch June 8
Infoworld.com has a report claiming that Apple’s next operating system, Snow Leopard, will be rolled out June 8 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which takes place June 6-12, 2009.
Is Snow Leopard Apple’s Secret Business Weapon? (see Infoworld report).
Apple has not published the schedule for WWDC 2009 yet. However, reports are coming out of information listed at the Moscone Center.