An ipad also has fast boot and long battery life. It's easy to hold in a variety of positions and environments. These factors are desirable for home or travel use.

I've had netbooks before and I don't like them. They may be cheap but you get what you pay for.

Just goes to show what great marketing and user friendly products can do for a company.

I only mentioned the profits because it was not mentioned, and it wasn't mentioned in the article (so you "forgetting," it isn't a big deal). I expected income to be high because sales were high and Gross margin remained about the same. So long as operating expenses were about the same, they'd be fine.

I do find this "tablet," market funny. Ipad is the only product I've seen from it. I also don't think it feels a niche. First quarter sales were good, but we'll have to see the long tail sales.

This is so sad. I am so upset. Nearly everyone I see out there in my everyday life has a freaking Iphone.

Apple surpassed MS in revenue some time ago, correct? I bet their profits are close too.

With those resources, their hardcore fanboys and the immense strength of the brand among the masses Apple will just dominate. You can't outcompete them anymore. MS is so left behind that it's not even funny. Beaten by something that used to be a little dwarf.

8 million iPhones sold in just one quarter. That's like 30 million units per year. And those things cost like $600 a piece, twice as much as a whole PS3 console. In revenue it's the same as selling 60 million PS3's per year! Crazy.

Seriously, android phones are the biggest competition that the Iphone has ever had, and are really catching up with the amount of apps and whatnot to add.  If google tried harder, they could take apple to town in a hot minute.

Also, apple is going to be losing a bit of marketshare now that windows 7 is getting good reviews, and people stop having vista as a reason to migrate over. 

Even with the Ipad, android pads are expected to really give them some competition.  So, i'm betting that we'll see a big down grade in apple profit a year from now.    2 categories:  Iphone and PC sales show a lot of losing potential.  1 shows potential to lose as well: Ipad.  

I'm going to short apple with my play money, mabey 6-700

That's just with 6 days of iPhone 4 sales.... analyst are expecting 42-48 million iPhone units this year and they also upped the iPad forcast to 13 million this year... >_>

http://www.pcworld.com/article/199237/iphone_sales_forecast_to_hit_100_million_by_2011.html
http://www.isuppli.com/Display-Materials-and-Systems/News/Pages/iSuppli-Hikes-iPad-Forecast.aspx

I don't see android hurting Apple as much as RIM, Nokia and Windows Mobile.

I don't see Windows 7 as a reason Apple computer sales will slow either.

While other companies are playing catchup to Apple in phones and Tablets, Apple will be working on exploiting another market such as TVs. That's what makes Apple different. Rather than trying to chase other companies, it develops new markets better than any other company in the world.

The tablet market has been a niche that various companies have tried to break into the mainstream since the early 90s. Apple tried back then with the Newton, but the technology wasn't good enough or cheap enough at the time. No wireless networking, no colour LCD, and an interface that relied on a stylus and awkward handwriting recognition. Apple ditched the Newton and lot of those engineers formed Palm and forged a decent success in the now-dead PDA market.

From the late nineties onward, Microsoft has worked with various hardware partners to sell tablets that are basically laptops with a resistive touchscreen. Success has been pretty marginal because the stylus is still cumbersome, Windows is optimised for mouse input rather than touch, and consumers don't like the high prices, bulk, and low battery life that comes with laptop-class hardware in this form factor.

The key is smartphone-class hardware for lightness and battery life, paired with software designed from the ground up to interact with human fingers. The technology is finally good enough to address this market and bring tablets beyond the realm of niche uses and geek enthusiasts.

Android is basically an improvement over windows mobile as android is *rapidly* taking away marketshare from MS.  Sorry, but you're incorrect here.  Soon, android will be taking away marketshare from apple as well with its faster speed, plethora of apps available, and Iphone like versaitility without the added cost of buying an Iphone just because it's the coolest thing around. 

Again, sorry.          

Without a doubt, Android is growing faster than iPhone right now. But smartphones in general are a rapidly growing market, so Apple could tread water in marketshare and still see their bottom line swell. Realistically, what's going to happen is that iPhone and Android both continue to erode Nokia and Blackberry marketshare as they have for the past few years. Windows Phone 7 is a bit of a wildcard, here, but there's really no evidence that iPhone sales are slowing or will slow in the forseeable future.

This goes double for the iPad. It's a market that will grow rapidly in the next few years, and Apple is racing ahead with no concrete sign of a serious competitor in sight right now. Android will likely seize a good chunk of the tablet market eventually, but the growth of the market itself will fill Apple's coffers, even if they don't end up with a majority share in the end.

As for the Mac, it grew 33% YoY during a period when the PC market in general grew 22%. Mac sales have outpaced PC market growth for the past 17 quarters, including the past 3 quarters when WIndows 7 has been available.

You can do what you want with your money, of course, but I just can't see all these weaknesses in Apple's business that you are seeing.