Apple COO Tim Cook
As the company unveiled new laptops in time for Christmas, it boasted of building sales momentum despite the tumultuous financial markets.
Macs now make up 17.6 percent of shipments into the U.S. retail market, and, in terms of dollars spent at retail, almost one in three dollars spent, the company’s COO Tim Cook said.
The reason has to do with better success in the education market, he said. But it also is due to the failure of Microsoft’s Vista. “I think it is fair to say Vista hasn’t lived up to every thing Microsoft hoped it would,” he said.
Apple is growing two to three times the overall market, he added.
To provide more powerful graphics, Apple worked with Nvidia to develop the GeForce 9400m and 9600m GT, products designed for Mac laptops. The 9400m combines the graphics core and the chipset in a single product. Jobs said graphics performance can be five times faster with it.
We are thrilled with the performance of this chip.” Jobs said.
The new tack pad for notebooks, includes a multi-touch glass material that eliminates the click button. The button is now incorporated throughout the pad; the pad itself is the button. Multi-touch gestures have expanded to include a four-finger drag, which clears the laptop’s screen. A right click button can be added with software.
[...] reported yesterday here, Apple new Macbooks are using Nvidia’s GeForce 9400m chipsets, top to bottom, replacing [...]