Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) may be planning a touch-screen netbook computer, according to several sources. Apple, which has had a ho-hum stance on the rapidly-growing netbook market in the past, may be close to deciding that it could indeed enter into the fray and probably take some sales away from the $500 or $600 netbook (and notebook) market.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has made one of the business world's most triumphant returns ever in the last 10 years. Company founder Steve Jobs has put the company into its most profitable and envious position ever, and it seems very little can go wrong for Apple in any sense. We'll count the company as being named to Fortune's "The World's 50 Most Admired Companies" list for 2009 among its huge list of accomplishments in the last half decade.

With most Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone App Store applications gathering dust after a very short period of time, one has to wonder if the ultimate application store for the iPhone is all what it's cracked up to be. If most of the applications have very limited usefulness (one the novelty wears off), is the iPhone more than just an expensive applications platform with a mobile phone attached?

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is slicing $10 off the price of the 8GB Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 3G, cutting its price to $189.99 through January 3rd. In addition, the 16GB version of the iPhone will drop to $289.99 as well. Wow! A measly $10 off a new iPhone! Stop the presses!

Best Buy's Scott Moore indicated that "we thought this would be a way to help customers right now." What a generous gift, yes? Truth be told, it's Apple who dictates to its retailer partners the prices they can sell Apple goods. This is why you'll see almost the exact same price for any Apple product no matter where you purchase it.

But, if Best Buy thinks whacking $10 off the price of an already-overpriced piece of hardware is doing customers a favor, something's in the food in Richfield. And, a $30 "setup fee" for the iPhone? What kind of nonsense is that? At least this fee is being waived along with this huge price reduction. Since Best Buy gives a free "walking out working" setup to all the other cellphones it sells, why on earth is there a $30 fee to setup the iPhone -- which is heralded as one of the easiest phones to setup anyway?

It's no secret that Best Buy has been hurt by the holiday season retail sales slowdown -- it has said as much -- but I'm not sure this is any way to help that situation. That is, unless customers are expected to line up to save the cost of a single movie ticket to a device that locks them into more than $1,600 in calling and data plan contract fees over a 24-month period. What a mark that $10 will have, yes? If Apple and Best Buy really want to "help out" more customers, it sure needs to be more than a measly $10 pittance.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) continues to be on a roll. The electronics maker and master marketer is somehow selling its PCs at premium prices compared to the competition and taking market share at the same time, and it has successfully passed the torch from the iPod to the iPhone and has continued selling those devices like hotcakes.

What else is on tap for Apple to keep wowing its crowd, you ask? How about a MacIntosh operating system on a future Apple Mac that has a 3D desktop? The Cupertino, California, company filed information on a 3D interface that on the surface seems like a radical shift in the way most consumers and businesses interact with their computers. See the Patent and Trade Office image to the right -- look interesting?

The filing by Apple, which was actually set on record in June 2007, shows a regular PC desktop joined with a ceiling, walls and a floor -- each of which joins the regular desktop to form a 3D desktop. While Apple's filings did not list a new type of display -- this 3D desktop would work on a normal 2D computer monitor -- leave it to Apple to create a new type of display to correlate with a new way to interact with your computer should it transform this filing in the near future into a realizable product. If any company could convince customers that interacting with a new PC using 3D would be a paradigm shift in computer interaction, it would be Apple.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) may be defying the economic slump (err, recession) by signing up more wireless subscribers even as those same customers tighten up their wallets and purses. Analyst Will Power with Robert W. Baird & Co. indicated that the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. may snag up to 1.5 million new subscribers in the current quarter compared with the 1.2 million subscribers AT&T gained in the year-ago quarter. Impressive prediction, yes?

Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone may be the variable that makes this happen. Yes, there are now touchscreen wireless handsets from all the major wireless carriers, but the iPhone still was the first to market and set the standard in whiz-bang marketing to help AT&T nail these impressive numbers. The iPhone is not a phone, nor a hand-held computer nor a music/video/television player: it's an icon. And, that's all that counts.

Just like the iPod before it, the iPhone's biggest draw isn't the mind control it has over its fans -- it's the icon status just like the groupthink materials citizens feel they need to have. Nothing wrong with that -- it's present human nature. Apple is just exceptionally great at creating the perception that customers "need" these devices. The good news for AT&T is that it gets all the subscribers from Apple's marketing efforts.

When Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) starts discounting the normally un-discountable Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) MacBook laptop computer, we know it's a tough selling season. That's just what the largest consumer electronics retailer has done, though, as the cheapest MacBook being sold right now comes in at under $900. Until now, that's an unheard of price from any retailer.

Apple's grip on the MAP (minimum advertised price) for all retailers is strong. It's not known for heavy discounts -- or any discounts at all, actually. Apple's pricing arrogance, though, is part of what makes it so desirable. Talk to any salesperson who sells premium-priced products for a lecture on this if you'd like. Even so, Apple has had to cool its jets just this week on pricing at its own retail stores.

Then again, this is no normal retail landscape. Holiday retail sales are expected to be very bad and sales will be necessary to keep inventory turns up and product flowing. Sometimes they have to be made at any cost. The older Apple MacBook, which is still being sold even though newer models were just announced and released in October, is now being sold for $899. That's a full $100 under Apple's suggested list price. While it doesn't sound like a big discount, it is for an Apple system.

You'll notice that usually you don't see iPods or iPhones being discounted more than a dollar or two off Apple's list price. There's a reason for that, but it makes this $100 cut even more interesting. And some of the more pricier MacBooks being sold at Best Buy saw $100 and even $150 price cuts as well. Even Apple can't maintain its pricing smugness in this economy and keep sell-through where it needs it to be. Yes, there are market and purchasing conditions that can even pinch Apple, folks.

If you're seeking out a new PC for your own holiday gift or for someone near and dear, some research says you're probably looking at Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) or Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to fill your need. ChangeWave said yesterday that two-thirds of those looking to buy a laptop PC this holiday season have visions of Steve Jobs or Michael Dell dancing in their heads. Interesting, since Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) outsells both of them by a huge stretch in the U.S. market.

I'm not sure where ChangeWave conducted its survey (perhaps college campuses?), but it revealed that 33% of the 3,699 respondents stated they would be buying an Apple Mac if they would be buying in the next 90 days, while the same amount -- 33% -- indicated a Dell laptop purchase was on the radar this season.

Since the consumer market is the one keeping PC makers in business (as businesses have stopped almost all PC purchasing), it's just astounding that HP and even PC makers like Sony, Toshiba and Acer weren't mentioned in this research. Regardless, it's good for Apple. The company has continued to defy expectations by selling higher-priced laptops at an increasing rate every quarter throughout 2008.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stepped up its market share in Q3, lifting its personal computer sales to nearly 10% of all PCs sold, according to research firm Gartner, Inc. For Apple, this is great news -- it's steadily taking sales from larger competitors Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and global PC sales leader Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ). Its laptop PCs continue to sell like hotcakes, even with prices that are much higher than the discount prices you would normally see on Windows-based laptop PCs.

Although Apple CEO Steve Jobs said last week that the company won't be getting into the "netbook" business (tiny notebook PCs with limited features), a Gartner research analyst said the company could be in trouble for not having a product to address this market. I think Apple is right here, though; just because there is a market doesn't mean Apple needs to play in it. The laptop PC industry continues to try and find the next big niche so that product segments like fully-functional laptop PCs won't see decelerating growth. When there is a lack of demand, create it; that must be the PC industry's rallying call.

With Apple releasing quarterly earnings in just over an hour from now, my prediction is that the current quarter's results will reflect a company that is timing its product releases, refreshes and entire product line transitions with great precision. It has shown that it can grow market share without being involved in trends that others create. Rather, it creates its own trends and gives birth to new industries as a result.

After getting overloaded with economic bailout reading over the weekend, something techie floated to the top of the pile that caught my attention. It seems that Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is rejecting quite a few submissions to its App Store, where aspiring iPhone application developers send their programs so that iPhone customers can buy them.

The only problem is that Apple is not telling rejected (and dejected) application developers why their programs are not being approved. Also, the non-disclosure agreement the company is sending out prevents these developers from talking about their rejected iPhone app situations. Is this Apple being its usual self: controlling, closed and mum? The company really (really) knows how to design something the consumer wants and markets its sleek goods in a way other companies just can't figure out. But in addition to that, it retains a tight control on the entire ecosystem in which its products exist.

Perhaps it's the best form of quality control -- but it's not freedom. And developers want freedom, or, at the least, communication. Apple seems to be extremely tight-lipped, which is odd but not surprising.

On another Apple-control-freak note, Apple is now restricting reviews of iPhone Apps to people who have paid for them. It seems that the Wisdom of Crowds argument, which says that putting people in control leads to wisdom, isn't working here. Of course, there is also the vocal minority which can't be pleased by anything and trashes everything that doesn't fit a preconceived notion. Apple is turning on the quiet switch in this situation as well. So here's my proposal for a new motto: Apple: Think Different (but don't communicate it).

Michael wrote yesterday about Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) announcement of newer iPods plus a major update for the iTunes music/TV/movie store -- and how the market seemed to not care about anything other than the health of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. I say, enough already -- can the analysts and pundits get off Jobs' case and let the man lead his company without distraction?

This seems more like checkout line magazine idiocy and entertainment smut more than anything. Instead of talking about Apple's growing dominance in the cellphone, PC and music marketplaces (where it is incredibly strong already), the entertainment media street analysts continue yakking about Jobs' health. Do they not know that Jobs has lined up such an incredible design and execution team that Apple would, umm, continue to be a market powerhouse even when Jobs eventually retires or leaves the company? Ever hear of Phil Schiller? How about Jonathan Ives?

It's true that not one executive on this planet embodies a company like Jobs does to Apple. That's the trick -- but that doesn't mean Apple would implode five years after Jobs leaves (when he does, by any method). Although Jobs looked gaunt yesterday when introducing all these new products, he was energetic (very much so) and continued to decline comment on his health. Get over it, folks. Let's talk about Apple's business prospects and results, not about the health of its evangelical founder and CEO.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) were named as two of the top companies in customer satisfaction recently by an ACSI index released out of the University of Michigan. This is the same study that pounded U.S. automakers in favor of foreign auto brands.

In the index that measured e-business companies, two of the most powerful brands in technology rose to the top. It's no surprise Apple made the top of the list, with its capability to mesmerize iPod, iTunes and iPhone customers. The company is also selling more Macintosh computers than ever -- and customers are buying them as fast as Apple can make them.

It's also hard to think that any web company can catch Google. The world's largest internet search company has such a large first-mover advantage that it's next to inconceivable that any competitor will be able to offer a better product in such a way that Google will lose a decent chunk of market share. It, along with Apple, has an extremely high customer satisfaction rating. Even if there are better products, perception is reality -- and the perception is that Google offers the information as fast as it can and connects the searcher with the information they need, and with quality.

At least two U.S. brands top their respective list, while U.S. automakers slide further down the pile of irrelevancy in a changed age of fuel efficiency and the perception of better foreign brand auto quality.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported stellar, above-expectations quarterly results yesterday after market close. One would have thought that this company, in the midst of U.S. economic uncertainty, would have reported a mediocre quarter at best, but that wasn't the case. Apple outpaced expectations by $0.11 per share, shipped more Mac computers than during any quarter in its history, and saw a 38% revenue jump from the year-ago quarter.

As a nice reward for such a stellar quarter, the market took Apple out behind the woodshed and gave it a sound whipping. The reason? Apple's murky guidance for the fourth quarter. This from a company that almost always shoots low with guidance only to blow the numbers away. Add that to ongoing concern over the health of CEO Steve Jobs and you have a 10% drop in AAPL shares before the market opened this morning.

Is Apple the victim of outsized expectations? You bet. Just like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) the other day -- which also reported a fantastic quarter but saw its shares pummeled right after results were announced -- Apple may be losing the ability to impress. In reality, both companies are doing excellent business in the face of gas and energy price spikes in addition to a six-month string of job losses in the U.S. Yet, the market slapped huge losses on both stocks based on what could be considered shaky speculation for future growth prospects.

On the other hand, Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) saw stock gains after reporting a better-than-expected $2.5 billion dollar quarterly loss last week. Talk about twisted.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a juggernaut that just won't stop being successful. Although sales of its iPod digital music players have waned a bit in recent memory, the company is selling boatloads of its newer iPhone 3G, which are also iPods in case you have forgotten. But one area that just won't get as much mainstream press is the incredible success Apple is having getting more customers to buy its computers.

Apple moved into the third spot in the U.S. in PC sales recently -- overtaking Taiwan's Acer -- and now is the world's sixth-largest seller of computers in addition to the third place ranking in the U.S. For Apple to make these kinds of strides among the commodity companies that all pretty much sell the same product with Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Vista operating system is quite the achievement. And remember, on all those new Apple machines comes Microsoft's main consumer nemesis -- the Apple Mac operating system (also enjoying leaps in market share).

If Apple CEO Steve Jobs planned on the iPod and iPhone causing so much market stir that it would actually lead to more Mac PC sales, he was right. Apple has never had the market share it has now and it's done nothing but grow for over a year now. IDC analyst Loren Loverde told CNET, "They've got great products and they are executing well ... they are benefiting from the excitement and press over their other products." That quote describes the halo effect Apple continues to have right now which is benefiting more areas of its business than just the iPod/iPhone universe. Jobs:1, Microsoft:0. For now, at least.

You would think that companies making standalone GPS devices would be making bank right now. The devices that never let you get lost when driving are important to many travelers, especially when you don't want to fumble with maps, let alone get lost and waste a bunch of expensive gas getting back on track. Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), one of the leading GPS makers, though, has seen tough times recently. Its shares have declined 56% recently. Why I'm not sure. I do know that it has nothing to do with Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iPhone that's about to be released in a few weeks.

Apple's new 3G iPhone will have embedded GPS, which will make the gadget all the more useful. Regardless, though, will consumers be using their iPhones as replacements for full GPS devices in all those vehicles? Unless there is a decent vehicle mount kit available, it's hard to believe so. The iPhone does have the best chance at displacing more units from Garmin and other GPS makers like TomTom in the car navigation arena, but the entire GPS experience is what some folks probably forget about.

If you've ever used a GPS navigation program installed on a normal cellphone or smartphone, does it works seamlessly like a standalone product? Can you take and make calls while the GPS continues working in the background, giving you all those voice directions? What makes standalone GPS devices so valuable is that they work even when we're multitasking with phone calls. That's the kicker: the first time you miss a direction by voice because you're busy chatting on the phone, a GPS solution on top of a cellphone -- at least for driving purposes -- would become useless to the average consumer. I doubt Apple's upcoming solution will be this drab, but I continue to see a bright future for standalone GPS device manufacturers (although profits will continue to dwindle). Apple, as always, is not the only game in town. It will still be big for non-driving GPS uses, though.