rather cool advert

Is it just me, or have the iPod ads always been better than the iPhone/iPad ads?

I wish they'd do more about their computers. Just what is happening with the MacPro model?

I don't know, but I seriously can't carry on with my g5s for much longer. Been thinking minis to tide me over, but it seems like a waste of money if there actually is a pro on the horizon. I realise they're now a consumer company, but those of us who supported them through the bad times deserve at least some sort of guidance as to what's happening. If I need to go pc, I would like to know sooner rather than later as decisions have to be made.

you are almost irrelevant to Apple as a company. You only have to look at where Apple is making its money and its not in that field (well ok they are still making money but its less than peanuts compared to other revenue streams), they are making more in Other music related products and services eg iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore in addition to sales of iPod services and Apple-branded and third-party iPod accessories than the combined imac, mini and Pro sales.

The iTunes store apparently makes a profit but not anything very much on the scale of Apple's corporate numbers - Apple don't take a 30% cut of that, they get whatever the deal with the media company who owns the content states they get. The iBookstore... I suspect it may break even. It's not even a factor in the eBooks market compared to Amazon. The app store's economics are harder to work out without detailed numbers, as they obviously sell an awful lot of apps (and make 30% off each sale) but you have to offset that against bandwidth costs for all the free stuff people download from the app store, which represents a cost rather than income. Let's assume it's healthily profitable for Apple.

With hardware the thing is margin as much as anything. The margin on iDevices is apparently pretty ludicrous - something approaching 40%. I doubt the margin on Macs is too close to that.

last time I remember reading the numbers the 'Apple computer' business was something like a quarter of Apple's total revenue. Given the lower margins on it, you'd assume it's significantly less than a quarter of profits. Say 1/8th? 'Back of a fag packet' number admittedly. Last quarter Apple's reported numbers were $35billion revenue, with a profit of $8.8 billion. So by our fag packet calculation, Apple made just over $1billion profit from Mac sales. Over the same period, Dell made $3billion and Acer made 115billion Taiwan, which apparently at current exchange rates is about the same.

I think it's fair to say Apple's PC business is profitable enough for Apple to not ignore it - although it says a lot that they've very much concentrated on 'SOHO' tech rather than 'enterprise' tech and I have read reports that the biggest profit centre for Apple 'pc' is laptops - but it's not a business they are genuinely competing at an even level in. There will probably always be Macs at least while there are PCs at all, but even a rough guess at the numbers does suggest it's not what Apple should be throwing their efforts behind.

from Apples last quarter filing iphone and ipad net sale value was 19 times that of the desktops (25.4 billion vs 1.3 billion).
assuming all the revenue from computers, peripherals and software (putting net sales from app store,books and itunes in this as well) is to do with computers its only 24.4% at the most (its lowest it could be is around 18%) of their net sales the rest 26.5 bill is from ipod, iphone and ipad. You can see why Apple dropped Computers from its name. Its a consumer electronic device and services company now with a computer division which in the numbers game is becoming more and insignificant, though any other PC company would give their souls to have their profit margin and money.
Are apples computers now there to support and drive people to buy the ipad and iphone devices?

They've always claimed it's the other way around, that the iDevices provide a 'halo effect' which drives migration from windows PCs to Macs (could also explain why all their windows software is utterly crap).

I think you're rather mis-stating it. yes, it's now not their core profit centre but it still makes them an awful lot of money - as you say, a fair portion of the PC manufacturers would give a random limb to get the numbers Apple make off Macs. The way I look at it is this - Are Apple concentrating on the Mac? No. Are Apple scrapping the Mac? No. Are Apple running a PC business and giving that the amount of support & etc it justifies given the profit it generates? I suspect yes. They aren't putting any effort into Mac Pros because, chances are, Mac Pros make up a comparatively small part of their PC business (let alone their business as a whole). That's infuriating for people who want a new mac pro but it's simple economics. Have a look how many laptop refreshes we've seen since the last mac pro refresh. Apple plainly are spending time on the Mac, they're just spending it on the Macs that sell.

Essentially, there's difference between 'ignoring' and 'spending an amount of time proportional to the amount of money it makes us compared to the business as a whole'. The latter is what pretty much anyone in any commercial business with any sense would do. Unless/until they've got something which would radically increase Apple's PC market share, which at this point I don't think is ever going to happen.

The Mac business also helps with ideas that switch to and from the mobile business. I still have an iPod and use it as it holds more music than my iPad or iPhone. Though I have deliberately kept music off both devices. Longer term where can phones go? It will eventually become a saturated market if not already in the UK and the US. They definitely benefit from links to the computer side.