Apple’s Phil Schiller on the State of the Mac

Time Technologizer by Harry McCracken

With Tuesday’s unveiling of the iPad Mini and a fourth-generation full-sized iPad, this has been a major week for the iPad. On Friday, Windows 8 goes on sale — making it an even bigger week for Windows PCs.

But this newsiest of tech news weeks also turns out to be a reasonably significant one for the Mac. Much of Apple’s Tuesday event was devoted to new models, including a substantial overhaul of the 13? MacBook Pro with a Retina display, two absurdly thin new iMacs and an updated Mac Mini.

The profusion of new models was good news for Mac fans who have been known to fret that the Mac is being neglected as the iPhone and iPad become ever more important to Apple’s bottom line and future.

As usual, Apple teed off its announcements with happy recent stats. I was aware that the Mac has outpaced the rest of the PC industry in sales growth for years, but I didn’t know that the MacBook is the best-selling notebook line in the U.S., and the iMac is the best-selling desktop. Those achievements are more evidence that Apple’s Mac strategy — build premium machines, sell them profitably and don’t obsess over market share — doesn’t mean that it can’t end up with impressive market share anyhow.

After the Tuesday presentation, I sat down with Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller, who did the presenting of new models on Tuesday, and chatted with him about today’s Macs, and how they got that way. read more...