POLL: Verizon iPhone 4?

This past Monday, Steve Jobs announced a second medical leave of absence from Apple. In a companywide email published on the company’s “*PR page*”http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/01/17advisory.html Jobs announced the following:

__Team,__

__At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.__

__I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.__

__I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.__

__Steve__

The expected duration of this leave is unknown, but Jobs makes it evident he plans to maintain his role as CEO. When Jobs underwent a liver transplant in 2009, Tim Cook oversaw Apple’s day to day in the interim. As the announcement is still new, it is unknown whether the complications Mr. Jobs has encountered with pancreatic cancer in the past are connected to his current ailments.

The brand new Mac App Store is a great way to discover and install fresh applications for your Mac. Though millions of MAS apps have already found their way into the docks, stacks, and folders of many OS X users, not all apps are winners.

If you download a clunker, and decide that it’s not worth the space on your hard drive, how should you go about properly deleting it? The answer is a simple one, and likely a process you’re already familiar with. Although MAS apps are installed a bit differently from traditional applications, they’re deleted in the same way–by being dragged to the trash.

While it can vary from app to app, this method typically deletes many, if not all, installed components of a piece of software. Since Mac applications come in packages, their frameworks, resources, and other essential files are stored in one place on your machine.

In the case of many apps, simply trashing the icon and emptying the trash will remove the application from your computer. If the app being deleted was purchased through the MAS, you’ll notice a “Not Installed” icon next to it in the Purchases menu. Should you ever need the app in the future, it can easily be reacquired and reinstalled from the within the store.

This process is typically sufficient for most Mac users, but not all applications come bundled in such neat and succinct packages. Especially when dealing with larger applications, preference, cache, and support files can clog up areas of your hard drive even after the app is long gone. If you’re an app fiend and leave these files unchecked, they can consume valuable disk space and in rare instances slow system performance.

To aid with this dilemma, numerous third party developers have stepped up to offer comprehensive uninstaller solutions. Among them, *AppZapper* and *AppCleaner* stand out. The former ($12.95) and the latter (free) scour your system for stray files related to the app being deleted. Any items discovered are sent to the trash to be reviewed and deleted.

Though each app contains a number of safeguards to prevent from deleting apps unintentionally, it’s always best to double check the files being deleted and keep a recent Time Machine backup of your system. (Ironically, neither app is currently available in the MAS.)

Download AppZapper “*here.*”:http://www.appzapper.com/
Download AppCleaner “*here.*”:http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/

Here’s a little Bears/Packers history to show you the depth of the rivalry of these teams. The two teams have been playing each other since 1921 and have only once before faced each other in a championship game.

In 1941, the Bears beat the Packers 33-14 to win the Western Division championship. The Bears went on to beat the NY Giants for their 4th NFL Championship. The Bears and Packers have faced each other 181 times with the Bears holding a 92-83-6 record over the Pack.

It may be below zero outside on Sunday but the game between the Bears and Packers should be fantastic as my Chicago Bears take the next step to the Super Bowl!

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali, Ed & Ben_

_Dear Friends,_

The deep freeze is heading our way as low temps for Saturday and Sunday night may reach as low as -30 F. While those are dangerously low temperatures, I actually enjoy the noises and crisp (and I do mean CRISP) fresh air. Just walking to the car, the crunching of the snow makes a different sound when it is that cold and my house creaks and groans as if it were stretching to keep warm.

I always make it a point to take a hot tub outside on the coldest night of the year where the steam coming off the tub combines with the creaking of the house and trees and a clear sky watching for a shooting star while my hair freezes like one of those “old hats the band DEVO used to wear.”:http://store.clubdevo.com/store/product/black-pompadour-wig

The big news from Apple this week was the unprecedented financial results from the holiday quarter that shows Apple firing on all cylinders and posting numbers that were beyond the most bullish numbers from the analysts. It was all good financial news from Cupertino and I have given the highlights and analysis of the financial results below in this issue of Kibbles & Bytes.

It was also announced that Apple CEO and visionary, Steve Jobs will be taking a medical leave of absence to allow him to concentrate on his health. Steve deserves both the break from the day to day grind of leading Apple and the privacy and time to deal with his health. Apple is much much more than Steve Jobs and I think it would be very foolish to think that Apple is not prepared to thrive even while Steve is reducing his workload.

There is a very deep bench of leadership and vision at Apple and I think you will find that 2011 will be another year of innovation and record-setting performance for Apple. Who knows what Steve will cook up while he’s resting, the last time he came back from medical leave we got the iPad.

Apple released their financial results for the holiday quarter (Oct-Dec), and once again, they posted both record revenues and record profits. The company had $26.74 billion of revenue for the three months, which is over $11 billion more sales than the same period last year. Their profits were also up as Apple made $6 billion in profit (I remember not too long ago, that Apple’s stated annual goal was $5 billion in sales!). This profit was nearly double the $3.38 billion last year.

Apple sold 4.13 million Macs during the quarter. That is simply an amazing number and represents an unparalleled growth of 26% year-over-year. They sold 16.24 million iPhones, which is an 86% growth and that is before expanding their market to Verizon. iPod sales were down 7% in unit sales but Apple sold 19.45 million iPods and maintain a massive market-share lead in the music player business. Of note was that iPod touch sales were up 27% year-over-year.

The new iPad also had stellar sales with over 7.33 million iPads sold during the quarter. Apple could have done even better if it had not had some inventory shortages towards the end of the quarter, especially with iPhones and iPads. Overall, there have been over 160 million iOS devices sold–an astounding number for a new operating system.

Apple’s cash stash increased by about $10 billion and they were left with about $60 billion in the bank and no debt at the end of the quarter. During the conference call, Tim Cook referred to spending some of that money to secure long term supply contracts on some unidentified key components.

Apple’s initiatives internationally, especially in China, resulted in about 62% of this quarter’s revenue being generated by international sales.

There were questions about whether the iPad is cannibalizing Mac sales. Clearly with a 26% increase in Mac sales that does not seem to be the case; this is about 8 times the growth rate for any other computer manufacturer. With Apple’s market share still hovering around 10%, there is a lot of room for iPad, iPhone and iPod sales to generate the “halo” effect that gives buyers exposure to Apple’s products and stimulates Mac sales. Tim Cook said, “so if this is cannibalization, it feels real good.”

Apple guidance for the next quarter is $22 billion in sales and earnings per share of $4.80. This represents guidance of 50% growth year-over-year, which is simply unprecedented. Apple sees increases in iPhone sales and declines in Mac, iPad and iPod sales as is the historical trend coming out of a holiday quarter.

The other remarkable news from Apple with these financial results is that the iPad is driving enterprise penetration. Over 80% of large companies are deploying or piloting iPad use at their companies.

The most incredible story in the history of American business continues to write history. As Steve Jobs takes a leave of absence to deal with his health, it is clear that an important part of Steve’s genius is that he has (as Tim Cook puts it) “driven a culture of innovation into the company and excellence has become a habit.” Those that clamor for a more defined “succession” plan simply do not know Apple.

First off, Tim Cook is as responsible as Steve Jobs for the phenomenal success of Apple. I have seen the nitty-gritty of Apple in terms of inventory planning and basic operations both before Tim and after Tim and it is a night and day difference. Tim Cook is just one of the very deep Apple management bench and is a world-class CEO on his own.

Congratulations to the entire Apple team for yet another stellar and unprecedented quarter of growth and excellence. Apple’s innovation, design and business continue to show the world how it is done and we cannot be prouder to be an Apple Specialist.