Apple Computer, Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) welcomed another strong quarter of bringing brand new Mac users into its fold. At its most recent quarterly earnings report Apple told analysts repeatedly that this quarters percentage of Macs sold to first time Mac owners or users was up over 50%, a figure that they found very exciting. At the last quarterly report Apple said that 'nearly 50%' of its users buying computers in the retail stores were new to the Mac. The signs that this percentage is holding, and even growing, is a very positive sign for Mac all around.

The company reminded analysts that it had over 1 million Bootcamp downloads, the software that allows users to dual-boot Windows on their Apple machines, and that it had plans to further integrate Bootcamp into their software. This is no doubt an important part of the reason many felt comfortable enough to make a switch to Mac.

Tobias Buckell is an author, freelancer, and professional blogger. He owns shares in Apple.

Apple ended the day down 72 cents to close at $67.24 as rumors about an Apple phone made their way all across the internet. In Apple's last conference call the company all but admitted that it was working on an Apple phone. T3, a gadget mag, notices that Apple has tossed its hat in with the group that standardizes mobile phone applications, indicating Apple wants to have a say in those standards. Meaning Apple is getting very serious about the iPod/phone combination. T3 notes that the last time Apple did this it joined a Windows benchmarking group. Then just over a week later Apple announced Bootcamp, the software that allows Intel-based Apple machines to dual-boot Windows and OS-X.

But when will the phone be announced? No one is sure, that's half the mystique around Apple when it comes to announcements. But something interesting is coming at WWDC. Robert Scoble, previously blogging as a Microsoft evangelist at his site Scobleizer, drops an awfully interesting hint in a post about delayed Vistas ship dates. He talks about an Apple product announcement there that makes him wish he could "camp out at an Apple store on August 7th." Color me more intrigued than usual. Scoble is more plugged in than most Apple rumormills, is this a reference to an iPod/phone, or to other Apple equipment? We'll find out in seven days.