Dear Friends,

I think I might be too old for red-eye flights. Boy was I beat by the time I got back to Vermont on Tuesday. I headed out to California on Sunday for meetings in Cupertino on Monday, and left that evening for the flight back east. By the time I got back to Vermont at 10 AM on Tuesday I was a zombie. Matt was smarter and stayed another day in California before making his way back east.

One of the things I like to do in airports and on planes as I travel is watch how many people are using Apple products. My unofficial poll taken over the 25 years or so that I have been observing, is that Apple is really firing on all cylinders now. I saw iPods everywhere, I saw more people with iPhones than any other phone, and for the first time, I saw a good percentage of folks pulling out iPads to read, play games, etc. on the plane. It used to be that I had the latest technology, and people would want to see what I was using, but now everyone is using Apple gear!

This is even the case down at the Vermont Legislature. I have been down at the statehouse the past two days testifying on health care reform and how the legislation they are debating is really an economic development bill disguised as health care reform. I was in a meeting in the President of the Senate’s office, John Campbell, and I noticed a Dell on his desk. I made some sort of snide comment about the Dell, and he said: “wait a minute, here’s my REAL computer” and reached into his briefcase and pulled out a MacBook Pro that he told me he purchased at our South Burlington store.

I am still amazed at the accessibility of the Vermont Legislature. Today was a busy day at the state house and I drove up, parked directly in front of the state house, put a few quarters in the meter and walked into the the people’s building where citizen legislators were doing the people’s work and working hard to solve our state’s problems. I have never been prouder of these public servants or my state.

It has been iPad mania once again as we received the first shipments to each of our stores which promptly sold out within an hour. We have been getting additional shipments but we have such a long back order list, that just as soon as they come in they fly out. It is simply amazing how popular this product has become in such a short time. One of those back orders lost out on instant gratification because I upgraded my iPad before I went to California. One of my promises to myself was that I was going to be one of the first to play with all the new toys from Apple, and I intend to keep that promise.

My first impressions of the iPad 2 are all very favorable. It is lighter, thinner and faster! I love the new cameras and used FaceTime to talk to Grace from California. I’ll be taking the iPad 2 with me to China in April to try out new accessories and to take further advantage of FaceTime to show products to my team, and to communicate with Grace.