As industry recovers, Mac growth beating PCs
Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty says Apple is outperforming the PC market in sales growth, and this was before Apple released its new MacBook Pros in June, according to a report on Fortune's Apple 2.0. Of course, releasing a new notebook would only spur sales for the months after its release.
Huberty said that in May, Apple shipments were up 25 percent over April. In comparison, PC shipments for the same period were up only 1 percent, according to Fortune. As a result, she is raising her forecast for the this quarter to 2.5 million Macs.
In its fiscal second quarter 2009, Apple sold 2.2 million Macs, a 3 percent decline for the company over the year-ago quarter. While down, this isn't a significant decrease considering the economy.
However, if Huberty's predictions are true and Apple does sell 2.5 million Macs in the third-quarter, the company will see a nominal increase from the 2.496 million sold during last year's third-quarter.
Consumer interest in its products led Apple to the top of Nielsen's report released on Tuesday, documenting the most trafficked hardware Web sites. Apple more than doubled the traffic of its nearest competitor Hewlett-Packard.
Windows 7: Free Upgrades End With SP1
Microsoft will discontinue a program under which businesses can upgrade XP-based PCs purchased after October to Windows 7 for free once the first Windows 7 service pack becomes available.
After Windows 7 ships, organizations needing to buy a PC deployed with Windows XP will be allowed a free upgrade to Windows 7 only until SP1 becomes available (or 18 months, whichever is earlier).
Microsoft plans to release Windows 7 on Oct. 22nd. The company has not stated when the first service pack might become available but it would likely not arrive until late 2010 at the earliest.
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Microsoft unveiled details of the Windows 7 upgrade program it kicks off for buyers of new PCs
Called "Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program," the deal provides free or nearly free upgrades to Windows 7 for people who purchase a new Vista PC between June 26, 2009 and Jan. 31, 2010.
Because the retailers and OEMs are doing the scut work of the upgrade program, customers will see a variety of deals and delivery dates. The soonest someone would receive an upgrade DVD is Oct. 22, the retail availability date for Windows 7. It may be weeks later, however, before buyers see those discs.
Retail Vista packages may also qualify for an upgrade to the equivalent Windows 7 product, Microsoft confirmed in an FAQ it published on its site. It's unclear, however, whether those upgrades to Windows 7 will be available to buyers of Vista upgrade editions or only the more-expensive "full" versions. Microsoft also confirmed today that it will offer a Windows 7 upgrade to people who buy PCs during the program's run that have been factory-downgraded to Windows XP Professional.
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Google Grabs 1 Million Phone Numbers for Google Voice
Google last month reserved 1 million phone numbers with Level 3, signaling that it may finally be ready to roll out its long anticipated Google Voice service. The free service lets users unify their phone numbers, allowing them to have a single number through Google Voice that rings a call through to all their phones.
Google Voice has a number of unique features including call transfer between a user's devices, multi-party conferencing, conversion of voice calls to text messages, cut-rate international calling, and call transcription. But the gem is the fact that a user can have one phone number people can dial to reach them regardless of where they are located, either home or mobile. Google Voice uses VoIP to link collections of phone numbers.
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Google Grabs 1 Million Phone Numbers for Google Voice
Google last month reserved 1 million phone numbers with Level 3, signaling that it may finally be ready to roll out its long anticipated Google Voice service. The free service lets users unify their phone numbers, allowing them to have a single number through Google Voice that rings a call through to all their phones.
Google Voice has a number of unique features including call transfer between a user's devices, multi-party conferencing, conversion of voice calls to text messages, cut-rate international calling, and call transcription. But the gem is the fact that a user can have one phone number people can dial to reach them regardless of where they are located, either home or mobile. Google Voice uses VoIP to link collections of phone numbers.
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