Plus Ca Change And About Time Too.

Apple laptops are selling twice as fast as PC laptops, Wii is out-selling PlayStation, Dell and Toshiba are using AMD processors, Apple is expected to show Nokia and Motorola how to make cellphones.

The success of Apple in laptops comes even before the company launches its solid-state based laptop which is expected anytime soon, and which is expected to be stunning.

The style of current Apple laptops already make most PC laptops look drab and boring, with a few notable exceptions such as the Fujitsu Lifebook, which I have myself, and which everyone who sees it admires.

Dell's move into glorious technicolour for its latest line of laptops shows that it has finally woken up to the fact that it's notebooks look dreary.

But with the new form factors allowed by solid state storage, which Apple more than anyone is qualified to take advantage of, it is likely that Apple will increase it’s rate of market share gain at the expense of PC laptops which have, so far, failed to make much capital out of the availability of cheap, dense, chip storage availability.

Even before Apple's solid state laptop arrives, its laptop sales are growing twice as fast as PC laptops. In May, Apple's laptop sales grew 65 per cent, while PC laptop sales grew 37 per cent.

Just as surprising as the rise of Apple's computers, is the rise of Nintendo with its Wii games console outselling the Sony PlayStaion3 by 3-1 in Japan and 2-1 in the US.

While Sony expensively concentrated on Cell microprocessors and blue laser DVD read-heads, Nintendo has made imaginative use of cheap-as-chips sensors to woo the gamers.

It goes to show that when you’re dealing with a whimsical no-brainer like the consumer, there’s no point betting that superior technology is all it takes to win hearts.

Sensors also appear to be at the heart of the upcoming iPhone. Sensors will not only enable the touch-screen commands but will, apparently, switch iPhone modes depending on which way up it’s held.

Then there’s the defection of Dell and Toshiba from the Intel camp after some 20 years of staunch, exclusive loyalty. It all goes to show that every dog has its day.

If anyone had said a year ago that Dell and Toshiba would buy AMD PC processors, that Apple’s laptop sales would grow twice as fast as PC notebook sales, that Nintendo would whip Sony, or that Apple would show Nokia the way home in cellphones, they’d have been thought to be cracked.

.