Barkings! | The Small Dog Apple Blog

Apple unveiled its “latest creation” this week, the massively anticipated iPad tablet. First things first – we’re blown away by the iPad’s potential. It’s beautiful, extremely functional, and relatively affordable, starting at just $499.99. When Apple says it’s their “most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” they’re really not exaggerating.

But we have to be honest – we’re still adjusting to the name. “iPad” doesn’t convey the elegance of the device. In a worse-case scenario, it might even remind some people of certain other products. However, it’s not so bad when a product’s name is its most questionable feature. Certainly Apple has the market research to select a winning name – even if it seems weird to us right now. The name “MacBook” used to sound corny, but now we like it.

In our opinion, the iPad is going to be wildly, massively, amazingly successful. Why? First, and perhaps most importantly, this device is incredibly useful. Full iWork access, full iCal and email access, full-screen web browsing, and a larger keyboard are just hints of the beginning of the iPad’s utility.

We think the true groundbreaking aspect of the iPad continues to be the app store. As long as “there’s an app for that,” the iPad will rule.

There are already tens of thousands of specialized apps for every type of professional – doctors, lawyers, writers (and in this Internet-powered age, who isn’t a writer), and so on. Personally, there are many writing, photo, and video apps I’ve wanted to use on a larger screen, powered by a more powerful processor than is available in the iPhone. The iPad is just the device for that.

Second, the iPad is going to be fun. It’s perfect for watching movies, YouTube clips, or TV shows, it offers a novel gaming platform (and tens of thousands of games in the iTunes Store), and it’s a knockout ebook reader. It’s ideal for any room – following a recipe from the Epicurious app in the kitchen, reading in bed, watching “Lost” while your partner watches “Knots Landing,” and so on.

The iPad fills a niche between a full-sized, full-featured notebook computer and an iPhone / iPod touch. It’s great for people on the go. By “on the go,” I don’t just mean on the road, traveling (though it will be great for many people on short trips). I also mean “on the go” around the office, home, or around town on a busy day of appointments.

Sure, there have been Debby Downers on the iPad. Some people are claiming to be underwhelmed, or disapointed by the iPad. Really? By what? Lack of camera? We’re calling them out. These are the same people that poo-pooed the original iMac, original 5GB iPod (which originally cost the same as the entry-level iPad) , even the iPhone. Maybe we’d agree with them if the iPad cost the rumored $999. But even the top-of-the-line model iPad tops out at $829.

iPad rules. Apple hasn’t announced firm ship dates yet, but we hope to be carrying them as soon as they’re available. We can’t wait.

We’ll give a full report about the iPad, including our analysis of the utility / projected success of the device after the keynote, which is still ongoing. More soon!

More soon. We’re following along on Engadget.com

Photo from Engadget.com

Today is the day – Steve Jobs is giving his Slate of the Union Address in California, where he’s expected to unveil all-new Apple tablet, potentially along with some other goodies.

We’ll be following the event as it unfolds, and then will immediately update our blog after the event.

Want to follow the event live? These sites will be live blogging:

Our good friends at MacLife.com will have a live feed on their site. MacLife will also be Tweeting the event live; follow them on Twitter by clicking here Other sites to check out:

Macworld.com

Engadget.com

The Loop

Arstechicha.com

More – much more – soon!

With analysts estimates for Apple’s first Quarter (Oct-Dec) hovering around $10.4 Billion in sales and earnings of $1.77 per share, Apple announced their actual earnings and once again posted best ever revenue of $15.7 Billion and profit of $3.4 Billion or $3.67 per share. While some of that difference is due to an accounting change where Apple no longer needs to report iPhone and AppleTV sales over 24 months.

Nevertheless, Apple sold a record 3,360,000 Macs during the three months which represents a 33% year over year growth. They sold 8,700.000 iPhones and 21,000,000 iPods! With all eyes on Wednesday’s announcement which was hyped by Apple during the analyst’s call, one analyst said dryly that the financial report was “not bad for a warm-up act.”

The big news was the overseas strength of the brand for Macs, iPhone and iPod with 58 percent of Apple’s revenue coming from international sales. Mac sales grew over 40 percent in Italy, France, Switzerland and Spain while Australia was up 70 percent and China up 100%.

Apple added about $5 Billion in cash to the war chest, which has swollen to just under $40 Billion. Hapy speculated that Apple may be doing its shareholders a disservice by hoarding all that cash and not either paying dividends or investing it in more than low-yield short-term investments. I disagree and feel that in addition to the intrinsic support of the shares value that this cash represents, it also gives Apple unprecedented flexibility in terms of new product development, acquisitions and new initiatives.

While the number of iPhones sold appeared to be less than some analysts were expecting, the impact of 8.7 million iPhone is significant with Apple now reporting that over 70% of the Fortune 100 are deploying the iPhone and this is double the penetration since the iPhone 3GS was shipped in the summer of ’09.

While iPod sales were down year over year, Apple sold almost 21 million iPods with increased revenue. Their MP3 market share remains steady at around 70%. One particularly bright spot was the iPod touch with 55 percent growth.

Apple reported that it now has 283 retail stores with average revenue per store at $7.1 million and a record 50.9 million retail visitors.

Steve Jobs seemed pleased and said “ If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ Billion company. The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product the we’re really excited about.”

Apple is growing at nearly twice the industry’s 17% rate and with about 50% of the Macs sold at Apple retail (and most resellers as well) to new-to-Mac customers the prospects for market share growth are spectacular. On the other hand, you do not need market share when you can invent new markets the way that Apple has done with the iPod, iPhone and now a new game-changing product to be announced tomorrow.

The Apple story just keeps getting better and better and as a shareholder and Apple reseller I have to put the credit for this spectacular story on the extraordinary management team at Apple. The success story is fascinating alone but to continue to post record revenue and earnings during the worst economic conditions in decades is simply remarkable. Thank you Steve and the whole management team at Apple. Keep us smiling with new greatness!