The iPhone gets the most press and the iPod sells in the largest quantities, but it's the Macintosh that really drives Apple's growth, says Gene Munster.

In the second installment of a multipart report on Apple's "3 Cylinder Engine," Piper Jaffray's chief Apple analyst looks at the Mac business over the next couple of years and likes what he sees. In particular:

...After Apple introduced the Intel Macs, Mac sales grew 37% in 2007, more than double the industry-wide rate of 15%....

In the consumer market... he estimates the Mac's share is now 10% worldwide and an impressive 21% in the U.S.....

Apple Inc. could see an explosion in iPhone sales over the next 24 months thanks to international expansion and the addition of new lower-priced models, influential company watcher Gene Munster predicted yesterday.

Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, is forecasting Apple will sell a whopping 45 million iPhones by 2009, up 350 percent from the company's previously-stated goal of 10 million devices in 2008.

While he acknowledged that most investors view the call as "outrageously aggressive," he noted that Apple's iPod sales jumped 409 percent between fiscal 2004 and 2005

Apple, the world's most successful brand, is being sued by a Los Angeles law firm for "deceptively" marketing the new 20-inch iMac

Kabateck Brown Kellner says the monitor is "vastly inferior to the previous generation it replaced", not that you would know it from Apple's "grossly inflated" claims.

According to the law firm, Apple told consumers both the 20-inch and 24-inch iMacs displayed "millions of colors at all resolutions":

Indeed, the new 24-inch iMacs display 16,777,216 colors on 8-bit, in-plane switching (IPS) screens, as did the previous generation of 20-inch iMacs. But the new 20-inch iMac monitors do not even come close, displaying 98% fewer colors (262,144).

Apple deceptively marketed its new 20-inch iMac in a way that grossly inflated the capabilities of its monitor, which is vastly inferior to the previous generation it replaced, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed today by Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP.

According to the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California in San Jose, Apple is deceiving consumers by concealing that the new 20-inch iMac monitors are inferior to the previous generation's and those of the new 24-inch iMac. In addition, the monitors are incapable of displaying "millions of colors," despite Apple's marketing claims.

Apple's newest iMac - an "all-in-one" desktop computer that combines the monitor into the same case as the CPU - was unveiled in August 2007.

"Apple is duping its customers into thinking they're buying 'new and improved' when in fact they're getting stuck with 'new and inferior,'" said Brian Kabateck, Managing Partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner. "Beneath Apple's 'good guy' image is a corporation that takes advantage of its customers. Our goal is to help those customers who were deceived and make sure Apple tells the truth in the future."

Apple has seeded Mac OS X 10.5.3 9d10 to developers, embodying over 70 fixes from the current version.

It appears the update is wide ranging. AppleInsider reports changes have been made to Core Animation (memory leaks), Dashboard, Dock, iCal (memory leaks, alarms and syncing) Installer, Mail (alarms), Preview (PDF handling), Spaces, Spotlight (indexing) and Stacks.

Apple's being evasive about what's under the lower front right-hand side where cracks occur... but we found out.

Over the weekend we noted that there's been what you could call an issue with cracks occurring on the casing of Apple's low-end MacBook laptops - frequently on the right-hand-side of the lower side.

We asked Apple about this, putting four five questions:

what structure is below the lower right-hand side of the MacBook casing (hard drive, power converter, etc)?

is Apple aware of MacBook case cracking as a product issue?

is Apple taking any action in its manufacturing to reduce the incidence of this cracking?

does Apple have any idea why this cracking might occur?

is there any manufacturing process reason why this cracking might occur (eg finish line of a mould, etc)?

Apple's response? "If a customer experiences an issue with their MacBook they should contact AppleCare."

Apple's MacBook Air isn't for everyone, so let's save some time with a quick Q&A.

Hands up, all of you who travel a lot, or who don't travel a lot but want a stunning, sexy laptop to score some style points with.

OK, keep your hands up if all you really need a laptop for is business or basic personal software – email, Office, web browser, presentations, that sort of thing.

Keep those hands up if you consider battery life of about four hours is adequate for your needs (bearing in mind you'll rarely be very far from a power point, you office-hopping style maven you, so it's not that critical).

Great. OK. Now put your hands down if you reckon you'd be better off with a gimped screen and keyboard, as you might find on a smartphone pretending to be a computer.

One more thing . . . In Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the human race was stereotyped by its fascination with the digital watch, which it regarded as "a pretty neat idea".

Put your hands down if you consider the compact disc to be a "pretty neat idea".

Owners of long-in-the-tooth G4 PowerBooks who have been holding out for the right time to update to a MacBook Pro should bite the bullet. The time is now.

Connect took delivery of the latest MacBook Pro recently along with the Air and consumer MacBooks to take a look at the product line-up and while the Air impressed with its sexy lines and the MacBook also stepped up a notch in overall quality and performance (and perhaps you noticed the price drop), it was the Pro model that impressed the most.....

The most appealing facet of the MB Pro is something that can't be measured in benchmarks. It just feels right, as a mature product should feel....

I expect the 38cm (15in) 2.6GHz MacBook Pro will enter the fray when, at some future date, there comes the argument about which of Apple's laptops were its best. It just feels like a classic. ...

There's lots of ways to elevate an Apple notebook while you're sitting on the couch (I used to use a telephone book) but a desktop setting requires something a little more sophisticated.

MacBooks, no matter the model, can get a little tepid when used for extended periods on your lap. Apple has disclaimed as much, saying that the ubiquitous devices aren't supposed to be used on your lap (hence the advent of the term "notebook").

On a desk it's more about height. A MacBook sitting flat on a desk is too low for most people to use for extended periods of time and can lead to eye strain and neck pain....

Cubans crowded shops on Tuesday to buy DVD players and electric bikes that went on sale for the first time as new President Raul Castro moved to lift many restrictions in the one-party socialist state.

Stores were authorized to sell dozens of electric goods that were previously banned, including microwave ovens, flat-screen televisions and even computers...

Raul Castro succeeded his ailing brother Fidel Castro as president on Feb. 24, promising to lift "excessive prohibitions" on daily life in Cuba.

His government has since moved quickly to allow Cubans to buy cellular phones and stay at hotels previously reserved for foreigners....

Computers, which until now could only be bought in Cuba by government or foreign companies, were also supposed to go on sale but none had changed hands by Tuesday afternoon.

Google is to give users access to Google Apps offline, meaning they'll be able to continue working if their Internet connection falls down.

Over the next few weeks, Google will start to enable users' accounts one at a time and it'll start with Google Docs. Offline access to Spreadsheets and Presentations will follow later.

Users will know if they are enabled to work offline by the inclusion of an offline logo in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

I realize that there are a whole lot of subjective factors that go into choosing which personal computer to buy, and, also, which computing platform to use. Sometimes you’re forced into it, such as using Windows in an office environment that’s standardized on the platform and requires applications that are exclusive to that operating system. No doubt that are people who are required to use Macs, but have other priorities.

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