Amidst the ongoing macroeconomic malaise (is it over yet? Can we come out from under the covers?), the PC industry's sales have been suffering as big corporations and cash-strapped consumers postpone those discretionary purchases of shiny new gear. The expectation, based on 2008's results, was that this quarter would be tough sledding.

Results from analysts Gartner and IDC, however, both show an uptick in unit sales across the PC market year-over-year (2.3% higher globally per IDC, 0.5% higher per Gartner). Any pickup in sales comes as a surprise to Gartner, which had predicted a 5.6% decline in unit shipments.

For Apple specifically, the news is also good: both firms predict a boost in unit sales and share percentage for Apple's CPU shipments, with US numbers up from 8.6% to 8.8% share (Gartner) or a blazing 9.4% share (IDC). For the unvarnished results, you can tune in this coming Monday, 10/19 at 2pm PT to hear Apple's quarterly earnings call.

[via BrainstormTech]

With Microsoft Office for Mac still owning a hefty portion of the Mac software market, it's always news when the Mac Business Unit decides to spill the beans on their product plans for the future.TUAW's Michael Rose was on the press call this morning and noted the headlines, with details in the press release in the 2nd half of the post:

• Next month, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac will be trimmed down to 2 editions: Home/Student and Business Edition. The new SKUs for Business Edition 2008 will be available next month. This makes more sense than the 3 editions currently available.
• The Office 2008 Business Edition includes Entourage Web Services Edition & Microsoft Document Connection
• Entourage Web Services Edition ships today (August 13, 2009)
• Office 2008 Business Edition has extra templates, clip art and bundled Lynda.com training lessons
• Upgrade costs for 2008 Business Edition $240, full licenses $340; Entourage Web Services update will be free for existing Office 2008 users
• One More Thing: The next Mac Office version will be ready by holiday season 2010, and includes a 'brand new application' -- Microsoft Outlook for Mac (!)
• Outlook for Mac will be a Cocoa app, will sync tasks and notes, and has a new database supporting Spotlight searches; IRM for confidential data controls.
• There was no announcement from Microsoft on any Office for iPhone development to date
• Visual Basic returns in Office 2010

See the continuation of this post for the full press release from the Mac BU.

If you make your living with words, and some of us around here at TUAW do, then a good dictionary is what you need.

The mother of all dictionaries, the Oxford, is now available for Macs (PPC and Intel) on CD with half a million words, and the ability to trace word usage through more than 2 million quotations. This version 4 edition CD has the full text of the OED 2nd edition, plus supplementary volumes, full text search, options to customize the entry display, and a variety of ways to display the results.

The Dictionary is designed to be copied to your hard drive, and requires at least a G4 processor with 867MHz or greater or an Intel Core Duo 2.13GHz or faster. The dictionary can run on either OS X 10.4x for 10.5x.

If memory serves the OED hasn't been on the Mac since version 1, and this is a welcome return. The CD is pricey, US$295.00, but buying the printed version is more than $900.00 and takes 20 volumes. Amazon has the CD version for $212.40.

You're probably saying "hold it -- my Mac has the Oxford Dictionary built in!" You'd be right, but it is a cut down version, with about 2/3 of the definitions missing, and for U.S. users, we get the Oxford American Dictionary, not the English Dictionary.

The CD release is not perfect. It has no way to save searches or info out for later research, and the dictionary does not integrate into the existing dictionary on Leopard, so the two don't talk to each other. The GUI is ugly and not Mac like. If you are looking for the last word in dictionaries, however, this is it.

With all of the iPhone news lately, some of you may have worried that we're forgetting what got us here: Apple computers, not the other gadgets and doohickeys they sell. But worry not -- we're still Mac-crazy, which is why we'll still link to a Grade A smackdown on the old argument that Macs are more expensive than PCs.

After a few analysts question whether or not Macs are worth it (as if buying a powerful and easy-to-use computer was ever not worth it), MacsimumNews' Dennis Sellers pulls out the big guns, and shows that report after report will make it clear that when you compare the quality vs. cost that you get with an Apple to what you get with a PC, the Mac will almost always win.

Sure, if you compare a new MacBook Pro with the bargain laptops you'll find on the shelves at Best Buy, you'll be seeing a smaller charge on your credit card. But when you compare the total cost of ownership due to what's actually in those laptops (and the experience you'll have with each computer), the Mac is cheaper than ever.

[via MacBytes]

A quarter of a century has passed since the Macintosh was first unveiled, and we're happy to celebrate the silver anniversary of the computer for the rest of us. Here's a look at some of Apple's hits and misses when it comes to the venerable platform.

For a contemporary perspective, check out this story from the April, 1984 issue of Compute! magazine, where associate editor Fred D'Ignazio writes of the January 30 "coming out party" for the Mac at the Boston Computer Society.

When was the first time you heard of the Mac? Our team will be sharing their reminiscences later today.

Most people are split on the decision to buy an extended warranty on their electronic devices. Some think it's the best "accessory" that you can buy for your gear, while others think it's a total waste of money. Speaking from my personal experience with AppleCare support -- it has been a worthwhile investment.

While I have never experienced a major problem with any of my Macs, iPod, or iPhone, AppleCare has definitely been there to solve those minor glitches. Case in point: this weekend my Mighty Mouse's scroll wheel stopped working (this is the 3rd Mighty Mouse in less than one year). I simply called Apple's support and told them what was going on. "My Mighty Mouse stopped scrolling," I said. The Apple representative gave me some simple troubleshooting tips to make sure that my computer wasn't doing anything strange. I was asked to check the scroll speed and then they asked me to reset the PRAM (I don't really understand that one, but OK). After that, the representative said that my mouse was, in fact, defective (no duh), took my address and said they would have a new one out to me in "5 to 7 business days."

That was on Saturday. On Monday I got a knock on the door from a DHL delivery guy with a box in his hand -- you guessed it, Apple overnighted me a wireless Mighty Mouse! The cost to overnight the package: $70. This is just one example of AppleCare's good service.

Here's a great collection of Apple print ads from the past twenty years.

What I've found interesting is that trademark aspects of today's Apple machines can be found in these old designs, like fan-free heat dissipation, the tendency to shrink things and ads that show disembodied hands holding their hardware.

While you're there, check out this great 39-page advertisement for the Macintosh. Talk about hype.

My favorite campaign is the Think Different series of TV spots and posters. What's yours?

[Via Coudal Partners]

24 years ago today the public could, for the first time, buy themselves a Macintosh computer. This little computer, which cost $2500, changed the way people interact with machines on a very real level. It is also the reason that TUAW exists. Without the Macintosh 128k there would be no TUAW, no Mac, and (most likely) no Apple.

Sound off in the comments if you bought one of those first Macs and share your story of how it impacted your life.

Thanks to everyone who reminded us about this.

Fortune has the latest market share figures for December (according to a survey by Net Applications), and it's good news all around for Apple-- Mac systems jumped from a 6.8 share to 7.3, a 7.35% increase. Which is actually nothing compared to the iPhone, which jumped 33%, or even the Playstation, which jumped 50%.

Wait a minute, the Playstation? Where are they getting these numbers from? Apparently Net Applications gets these figures by monitoring browser information from sites tracking their hits through their products (of which Hitslink is one). So a jump for "Mac" systems doesn't mean a jump in sales figures, or even ownership-- all it means is that more people whose browsers reported them as Macs visited Hitslink sites in December than in November. And more people whose browsers reported them as the iPhone did the same. Not quite the definitive numbers they first claim to be, but Net Apps says (of course they would) that these numbers do correspond to trends found by more objective studies.

And as long as they're firing up the flames on both the OS wars and the gaming platform wars, Net Apps goes ahead and swings for the triple play-- they also report that, according to their numbers, the map of people reporting as Mac owners corresponds extremely well to the blue sections of the red/blue maps of the last US elections. Um, yeah-- we're not touching that one. You guys can fight it out in the comments.

When we first got tipped this story (by RP-- thanks!), I was like "Oh boy, another guy who found a Newton on eBay and calls himself a Mac collector." But no, this guy is the real deal. He's got 100 Macs in his basement, including 30 Mac Classics and 18 original iMacs, as well as both a Lisa and a 20th Anniversary Macintosh. And these aren't just sitting around on shelves with cords all over the place-- oh no. These are set up just as Jobs would want them to be-- booted, running, cleanly placed, in an immaculate workspace, gently lit from above. If there's a Mac heaven, it's in this guy's basement in Missouri.

The guy, named Jeremy Mehrle, says he started buying them when he was single to fill the space in his house. I don't know if he charges admission, but if so, I'd pay.

Here's a great video of Steve introducing the famous "1984" ad to a boisterous crowd (we're guessing the Macintosh team) a week before it aired during the 1984 Super Bowl. I'd say they liked it.

If Steve's good at one thing, it's making a persuasive speech.

Thanks, Callum!

Update: Reader cuda440 says, "That was at the January 1984 annual shareholder's meeting, held at the Flint Center, De Anza College, Cupertino. I know because I was there, as were nearly all of my fellow Apple employees. Obviously this was before MacWorld, and the shareholder's meeting was where major product announcements were made."

Cool! Thanks for the info, cuda440!

If you're a Mac geek in Menlo Park, California, listen up. TechShop on Independence Drive will host an evening with Daniel Kottke, Apple Employee #12, and the only employee to have worked on the Apple I, Apple II, Apple III and the original Macintosh. Mr. Kottke will speak on "The features that made Apple's products winners in the market place," and working versions of each of those classic machines will be on hand. It all starts at 7:00 PM PST.

As TUAW tipster Taylor points out, Woz himself has a tendency to show up at these public "nerd events," but we aren't making any promises.

Thanks, Taylor!

You've heard about the Apple bubble, right? The prevailing belief that Apple's stock is overpriced and about to explode? Turns out there's definitely a Microsoft bubble, too. Different kind, though. One that surrounds Bill Gates in his day-to-day role at Microsoft.

Microsoft employs a technical assistant dedicated to deleting Mr. Gates' email. "It is a corporate policy not to make a permanent record of Bill's works...The job duties of the technical assistant require him to delete email files from Mr Gates' computer weekly." Apparently this directive appeared after the recent US Government antitrust case, where many emails showed Microsoft's anticompetitive policy.

Still waiting to get to the Apple punchline of this whole post? Turns out that in a (non-deleted) 2004 email, a senior executive told Gates that if he didn't work for Microsoft, he'd buy a Mac. Which shows that you really can find good people for senior management. It also makes you wonder how many deleted emails discuss the preference for iPods over the Zune.

Link may require registration.

These days it seems like any analyst with an axe to grind or a website to build pageviews with is taking a dig at Apple, making any claims that zing well in a headline, deliberately misinterpreting any data they can to make it look like the Mac is receding into unappreciated obscurity. Fortunately, Switch to a Mac has done their research and laid the smack down, calling out the falsifying data and proving that Apple's market share in the computer market (hooray! Finally talk of 'market share' without 'iPod' in the same sentence!) has been expanding. The article analyzes data from various market share studies, Wall Street announcements (for what those are worth), Apple's own releases and more to see through the fog and find that Apple is really doing quite well. If you need some cold hard numbers to convince family/friends/your boss that a Mac is a good purchase, head over and soak up more statistics than you can probably remember.

We all know that his Steveness is a master showman. His patented Reality Distortion Field often gets people to take out their wallets before he has even uncovered whatever product he is showing off. That is why it should come as no surprise that his 1984 keynote, introducing the Macintosh, made this top ten list of presentations. Martin Luther King Jr also made the list, so Steve isn't in bad company.

Dear TUAW'ers, I thought it would be fun to ask you what your favorite Stevenote was. I have to pick the 2006 MWSF Stevenote, since that was the first one that I saw in person. How about you?

[via iFlipFlop]