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Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) annual shareholder meeting dominated the Apple blogosphere this week, despite being a rather lackluster hour. However, the beta release of Safari 4 has shown some staying power.
Plus, MacBook Pros seem to be selling well. Also, might we have a Verizon iPhone in our future?
What a Difference 4 Years Makes
Even though Apple released its Safari 4 beta on Tuesday and Apple's shareholder event was on Wednesday, the shareholder meeting was clearly hotly anticipated. How are things going with Apple now that CEO Steve Jobs is on medical leave?
COO Tim Cook delivered the state of Apple address in lieu of Jobs, noting that four years ago Apple's revenues were at US$8 billion and jumped to $32 billion last year. Net income? It increased to $4.8 billion, 18 times greater than it was four years ago. So yeah, Apple appears to be doing well.
Cook, according to AppleInsider, also said that Mac sales 
reached 9.7 million last year, with iPod sales coming in at 55 million. The iPhone reached total sales of 13.7 million last year.
Due to four politically motivated shareholder proposals that dominated the meeting, there wasn't time for many really good questions by shareholders. Last year, a shareholder asked about the MacBook Air getting a DVD drive, and Jobs basically nixed the issue by simply stating that Apple's other MacBooks had drives. And that was that. But at least it was an answer.
Still, Apple employees and shareholders sang happy birthday to Steve Jobs, who turned 54 this week.
Perhaps most importantly, Apple said nothing has changed in Jobs' plan to return to work after his six-month leave of absence.
"Nice to hear that Steve Jobs is not at deaths door as Enderle reported just the other day and that people regularly comment about on this forum. Take that, all you losers that regularly drop hints that you 'know' that Steve Jobs isn't coming back to Apple," commented Virgil-TB2 on the AppleInsider.com post on the subject.
Safari 4 Fastest Browser in the Land
Apple released Safari 4 in beta form, proclaiming that it was now the fastest browser in the world. It runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3, three times faster than Firefox 3, and 30 times faster than IE 7, according to the company.
In addition to the speed, Apple rezoned the real estate at the top of the browser by moving tabs to the title bar, giving users more vertical room for page content. In addition, Apple introduced Cover Flow for visual history browsing as well as a new Top Sites page display that shows off visual images of the sites users visit most.
"It's nice, I'm glad they didn't change the interface much. The tabs (+) button is nice and the 'Top Sites' button is helpful. It makes it easier to go to a favorite site without having to make a new bookmark (which takes up space across the page)," commented mik34 on the MacRumors.com post on the subject.
Most users seemed to appreciate the Top Sites feature, but the new tab position was another story.
"The new tabs are awful. If only there were an option to have them the old way, or to make them the old size," commented Agathon.
Since Safari 4 is in beta, there's still time for Apple to add a few preferences for tabs, though Apple's betas are usually close to final delivery.
But what about those speed boosts?
"I'm a Firefox man by trade due to its extensive plug-ins, but I have to tell you, I'm impressed with Safari 4's speed improvement," SvenOnTech.com blogger Sven Rafferty told MacNewsWorld.
And the tabs?
"While others despise the new tab position, I love it. Safari seems less cluttered and much more spiffy than any other browser I've used in the past. It just may be the final straw for Firefox," he added.
MacBook Pros Outselling MacBooks?
The expensive MacBook Pro seems to be a top seller these days, despite the economic downturn, according to a survey by The Channel Checkers. The Channel Checkers surveyed 15 Apple stores, and 73 percent reported that the MacBook Pro was the top selling computer.
"This latest survey doesn't try to offer sales figures as many other companies have been doing, but it does indirectly give us some information about what Apple's revenues, gross margin, and average Mac selling price may be," noted Ars Technica's Justin Berka, who added that Apple's prices might be holding up.
Most seem surprised at the report, but not everyone.
"I just purchased the new 17" MBP (very nice machine, the placement of the lock is less than ideal, but that's the only complaint) and as a grad student, I'm not sitting on massive piles of cash. I replace my laptop every 4-6 years, so if I'm going to drop some serious coin on a machine, it needs to be damn near perfect and not lacking a feature I may want/need later," AppleInformatics commented on the Ars Technica post.
Still, what gives with the survey? Can it really be accurate if it consists of employee impressions from a handful of stores?
Stephen Baker, The NPD Group vice president of industry analysis, was skeptical of the results. "Our numbers indicate the MacBook is consistently the best selling Apple SKU (stock-keeping unit)," he told MacNewsWorld.
Verizon on the iPhone?
The Apple Blog posted a speculative/rumor note about Apple shacking up with Verizon this summer, which would coincide with the rumor that Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T (NYSE: T) could end after two years.
"There's also the corroborating evidence that Apple has been looking specifically for EVDO-CDMA (evolution-data optimized-code division multiple access) engineers, which is exactly the standard Verizon uses for its wireless network," wrote Darrell Etherington on The Apple Blog post.
"Were Apple to announce Verizon availability alongside a new iPhone product launch in June, they would stand to sell a lot more handsets than if they stuck with AT&T, where many customers locked into long-term contracts might be unwilling to upgrade just yet," he added.
Of course, carrier choice will likely make most consumers happy.
"I hope this rumor is true. I would love to have an iPhone but not at the cost of switching back to AT&T. CDMA is also the standard used by my carrier Sprint," commented Twist on the post.
Hmm. So might this happen any time soon? What's needed? What are the key benefits beyond customer choice?
"Apple and AT&T are both mum on how their U.S. exclusivity contract runs, so hard to tell. I think Apple knows it can sell a lot more devices in the U.S. if it is on more carriers," Chris Hazelton, research director of Mobile and Wireless for The 451 Group, told MacNewsWorld.
"There were rumors of Apple hiring CDMA engineers last year, but if Apple is interested in having an 4G device before 2011, it will also need to be CDMA compatible to run on the first U.S. LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks being deployed by Verizon Wireless," Hazelton said, noting that the 4G Verizon LTE networks are slated to become available in 2010.
If Apple were to wait for AT&T's 4G networks, Verizon and its mobile phone partners could conceivably gain a competitive advantage.
Still, "Verizon is known to tightly control the services that run on its devices, so it will be interesting to see the operator forgo any revenue share from the Apple App Store," Hazelton said.
Business issues aside, there don't appear to be many daunting technical challenges standing in the way of a potential development, Hazelton said.
"Apple would just need to license CDMA from Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), so there may be an increase in BOM (bill of materials) cost over current iPhone 3Gs. Almost all device vendors, even Nokia (NYSE: NOK), offer CDMA devices in parallel with GSM/WCDMA," he explained.
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