By now the success of the new iPods nano and video is secure. The iPod growth curve has continued its march into the stratosphere. This leaves Apple with a big hunk of both money and buzz to tide it over while transitioning to Intel Macs.
There's tons of action at my local Apple store and that was before black Friday. Between the iPod money and buzz, Apple has nothing to worry about.
Sounds like we have a good chance of seeing an Intel Mac at Steve's Keynote at San Francisco's MacWorld Expo this year. That would be great. I won't buy one but the curiosity is killing me. I want to see the rumored new wide screen iBook or the thinner Powerbooks.
I suppose I should also mention that speculation has been swirling from the beginning that Apple really wants (1) to sell Macs that can run PC programs and (2) to have OS X run on PCs. Steve has said they don't want to do either. The fear of some Mac users and I have a little of it is that Apple will gradually phase out its Macintosh as we know it today. I'm kind of listening for that I guess.
The one thing Steve said recently that worried me a little is that Apple's fantastic success with the iPod shows what Apple can do when they aren't working against a Microsoft monopoly like they are with the Mac. Other than that one comment, though, everything is still fine. Probably I and you should put that little thought away somewhere since we all really have no idea about it and Apple probably doesn't either.