APPLE SHOWS ITS GUNS TO THE FINANCIAL WORLD DURING THIS RECESSION!!

Apple has proven again to skeptics that the brand is RECESSION FREE!

While Apple's biggest competitor, Microsoft is hurting during this economic recession, as well as many other giants in the tech, business, financial and retails sectors, the Mac craze is here to stay as its demand is as popular as ever!

Apple and Steve jobs certainly know what people like and are always in the cutting edge of technology and style, just look at their products: Iphone--the biggest cellphone market share--Ipod--the biggest MP3 player in market share as well--Itunes--the #1 destination for downloading and buying music--IMac computers, Ipod Shuffle and Nano; they all have something in common: fresh, sleek and progressive!

  It seems like Steve Jobs and his marketing team's efforts have payed off, just look at their 2009 Q1 earnings, a whopping $7.5 billion in revenue!!!

Please continue reading about this amazing feat by Apple, as it has surpassed its earnings compared to this same time last year.  Read this great full report by Tom Krazit from Cnet News:

APPLE SOARS DURING ECONOMIC GLOOM

Apple blew away expectations for its second fiscal quarter, reporting revenue and net income far beyond what the Wall Street community was expecting amid a poor economy.

For the period ended March 28, Apple recorded $8.16 billion in revenue, up from $7.5 billion in revenue during the same period last year. Net profit was $1.21 billion, or earnings per share of $1.33. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $7.96 billion and earnings per share of $1.09.

Apple sold 2.22 million Macs, 11 million iPods, and 3.79 million iPhones during the quarter, meeting or exceeding expectations from financial analysts. CFO Peter Oppenheimer called it "the best nonholiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history," in a statement announcing the results.

As usual, Oppenheimer provided third-quarter guidance below what analysts were seeking. The consensus Wall Street estimate for Apple's June quarter was $8.28 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.12, while Oppenheimer said Apple expects to record between $7.7 billion and $7.9 billion in revenue and earnings per share between 95 cents and a dollar during the current quarter.

During Apple's earnings conference call, Oppenheimer attributed that lower guidance to, among other things, the fact that Apple has stopped recognizing revenue from iPhone sales after the March 17th iPhone OS 3.0 event, and does not plan to recognize iPhone revenue again until the company ships that software sometime this summer. Apple accounts for iPhone sales on a subscription basis, meaning the company defers the initial revenue from the sale of an iPhone over a 24-month period in order to satisfy an obscure accounting rule.

Mac shipments fell 3 percent compared to last year. It's the first time Mac shipments have fallen year over year, but some had expected worse. Desktop shipments fell 4 percent, and portable shipments fell 2 percent, but revenue was way off: 22 percent in desktops, and 12 percent in portables. Still, as with last quarter, international Mac sales were stronger than U.S. Mac sales.

Apple COO Tim Cook said during the company's conference call that shipments to educational customers are weak right now, given the budget crunch that many U.S. states are facing. He also said that shipments of Apple's most expensive Macs--the Mac Pro and MacBook Pro--were off during the quarter, but that the less-expensive consumer-oriented Macs held up reasonably well.

The iPod lineup appeared to get a clear boost from the launch of the new iPod Shuffle, with Apple selling about 1 million more iPods than analysts had expected. iPod shipments were up 3 percent compared to last year, as revenue fell 16 percent, suggesting that sales of the $79 iPod Shuffle made up a greater amount of Apple's iPod mix than usual.

iPod Touch sales doubled compared to last year, Cook said, and Apple has now sold 37 million iPhones and iPod Touches combined. In March, Apple said it had sold 30 million of those two devices since their introduction.

And as had been foreshadowed earlier on Tuesday, Apple sold 3.79 million iPhones, which Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster predicted based on AT&T's activation numbers for the quarter. iPhone shipments were up sharply compared to last year, but they fell coming off the holiday quarter.

When asked to comment on whether there was any update concerning CEO Steve Jobs' return to the company, Oppenheimer reiterated the company's usual statement: "We look forward to Steve returning to Apple at the end of June."

Source: Cnet.com

THE FUTURE IS NOW...SEGWAY + GM = P.U.M.A.

What does General Motors and Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility--P.U.M.A.--have in common?
In a time when GM is hurting so much economically, a buzzing partnership involvement like this could perhaps be worth something to a brand once at the peak of its game.
The new Segway Project called: P.U.M.A. could perhaps change the city streets landscape in a not too far future!

Sit-down Segway, safe for street, is set...

Before you ride a Segway, you probably just dismiss the thing as an impractical toy for rich kids. Which, in all fairness, it is.

But once you actually ride a Segway, you immediately want one, if for no other reason than so you can tool around your driveway on it -- like a skateboard for grown-ups.

Now Segway is taking a turn for the practical, teaming with General Motors on something called Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), which finally turns the Segway's self-balancing technology into something that might conceivably become useful outside the gates of your manor and the polo grounds. The project was formally announced this week at the New York Auto Show and it looks awfully cool so far.

The PUMA features the familiar two wheels, side by side, just like the Segway has, but the similarities start to diverge from there. First, you ride the PUMA not standing but sitting down -- as does your navigator. That's right, there's room for two people in the PUMA (and possibly more down the line), which means you'll be able to chitchat with someone about the people pointing at you from the sidewalk while you drive around town.

Then there's the speed and range. At a maximum speed of 35 miles and hour and 35 miles on a charge (all tentative -- this is prototype stuff), you'll be able to get around on city streets without being flattened into the pavement. (The original Segway tops out at 12 1/2 miles an hour, far slower than a typical bicycle, and has a max range of 24 miles.)

There's no telling what PUMA will cost, but the company mentions it will be a third the price of a car (don't know which car) at most. $8,000, perhaps? Seems like a reasonable place to start -- the electric Smart Fortwo two-seater (which is a fixture at San Francisco tourist destinations being driven by mouth-agape renters) runs about $12,000 to start.

There's also no word on a release date, but here's hoping at least for a chance at a test drive in the near future. Stay tuned!

Source: Yahoo! Tech

Segway's Official Website