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The Fourth Quarter was Apple's most profitable quarter ever. Yesterday's earnings call was about two things. One, the iPhone Platform continues to deliver the goods. Two, the continued impressive growth of the Mac, especially MacBooks. As such, it was about the power of the platform as much as it was about the device itself.

Yesterday, Apple announced that they are now allowing In-App Purchasing within free apps. I think that this is a big deal, an entree into what I refer to as 'land and expand,' and yet another reason that Apple remains the gold standard of mobile computing.

Apple's iPhone Platform is a runaway success relative to just about any metric that you can throw at it, save for one. Where are the breakout successful developers for whom the platform is a 'True Wealth' inducing moment? On the one hand, it is humorous to listen to the woes of 'aspiring' millionaires quibble. On the other, there is a valid argument that Apple's push to drive volume and ubiquity via "cheap" comes at the potential cost of cultivating breakout, transformational apps that cost more, require a longer sales cycle, and thus, more evangelizing to find their beachhead.

The iPhone is the first truly 'personal' computer; more personal to its owners than the PC ever was. Talk to iPhone owners (not to mention, the 20M iPod Touch owners), and this truth bubbles to the top again and again.

Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" iPod event yesterday had the feel of a paint-by-the numbers session. All tactics and little magic. Here's why...

A week ago last Friday, Apple unleashed Snow Leopard (aka OS X 10.6) on the world. So far, there haven't been many rumblings either way, although the trade press has been generally kind. We thought it might be a good idea to check in with Chris Seibold, author of the upcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide, to get his take on how things have been going.

It seems that Apple is poised to launch its Tablet Computing entry later this year for a (rumored) price ranging between $500-800; wedging it from a pricing relativity perspective at about a grand less than a MacBook Air with solid state memory. But, perhaps the real story with respect to the forthcoming Apple Tablet Device is that Apple has already released a tablet computing device. It's called the iPod touch, and because it's often overshadowed by its noisier sibling, the iPhone, we sometimes forget that it has already sold 15M+ units.

Fair or unfair, Apple has done such a good job of delivering technical wizardry over the years that when they merely execute, we hammer them because...well, we expect magic. With that in mind, this analysis of Apple's WWDC Keynote yesterday tries to make sense of the key storylines likely to play out for Apple in the coming months.

Dear Apple and AT&T, By this point, we of the early adopter/loyal customer community have come to expect, nay to cherish, the abuse that you rain down upon our heads. What other alliance of companies would take the bold step...

John Gruber's "Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer" is cutting satire of the arbitrary decision making and capricious censorship that is generated by Apple's opaque App Store approval process. Read more about this brilliant commentary on the absurdity of the relationships between the Censor, the Censored, and "objectionable" material.

When you think of companies that are not only built to last, but rather, built to thrive - in good times and bad - what companies logically sit at the top of the pyramid? Equally important, what should be the criteria for assessing them? Let me propose a straw man for assessing the "Built-to-Thrive" bunch...

On his personal 'blog, former OLPC security director Ivan Krstic reveals his new position within Apple Core Security

My 1st generation MacBook didn't like the 10.5.6 update. And, now it doesn't like the 10.5.7 update. Fortunately, the Combo Update file for each release saved the day in each case.

Apple crushed it (earnings in the most recent quarter). So much for the recession prompting consumers to stampede away from Apple's "high-end" products, as the prognosticators predicted (and the stock market priced into Apple's stock). So what's the moral of the story? Read on...

Taking a look back at a Steve Wozniak interview is a window into a time when the industry was completely and utterly dependent upon hardware innovation; before it became such a commodity at the hardware layer that the software could only be so differentiated. That is, until iPod and iPhone. The iPod accessory business itself is already a $2B market, and there has really been no such thing as "software value-add" to the hardware accessory itself. With iPhone 3.0, this changes.

Today's iPhone 3.0 Developer Preview was what I call a "block the kick" announcement. What's a block the kick? It is an effort to do such a good job of persuading your core constituency that any perceived momentum of the competition pales in comparison to your own that you block the competition's nascent momentum in its infancy. With 30M units sold across the iPhone + iPod touch line of multi-touch handhelds, and 800M downloads across 25K developer apps, today's event is about running up the score BEFORE the competition finds its footing with developers.

On Tuesday, Apple is previewing its iPhone OS 3.0 to developers. While I have no idea what they will present, I will say this. The fact that Apple is stepping on the gas pedal and pushing 3.0, while the new kids on the block (read: Android and Palm Pre) are barely 1.0 suggests that they have learned the lessons taught them oh so painfully by Microsoft in the PC wars; namely, that he who wins the hearts and minds of developers, wins the war.

This week, Apple finally announced a long-awaited upgrade to the Mac mini product line. If you're an Apple watcher, you may recall that at MacWorld earlier this year, anticipation was high that Apple would be announcing an update to...

Raven Zachary and Bill Dudney are co-chairs of the one-day iPhoneLive conference in San Jose. O'Reilly recently talked to them to answer the questions "What's interesting about the iPhone to developers?" and "What hints does the iPhone give to Apple's future plans?"

Is Apple using malicious software installation tactics to market products to us we never had any intention of installing on our system? Seems that way to me...