Apple announced earlier this month that the iTunes Store surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US based on data from January and February of 2008 from NPD Music Watch.

iTunes accounts for approximately 70 percent of digital music sold worldwide. Wired notes that in the next five years, Apple's media service may well account for a staggering 28 percent of all music sold worldwide.

Prices are the same as before and start at $1,199 for a 2.4GHz, 20-inch system with 1GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, a Superdrive, and ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT video with 128MB of memory. Moving to the $1,499 mid-range 20-inch model boosts speed to 2.66GHz while doubling memory to 2GB, increasing storage to 320GB, and adding a 256MB Radeon HD 2600 XT for graphics. A $1,799 24-inch model ramps clock rates up to 2.8GHz while keeping its same specifications. A special-order 3.06GHz model at $2,199 adds the GeForce 8800 GS video as well as a 500GB drive. All are available immediately from the online Apple Store.

However, if you are a pro user or especially in the broadcast industry your take could be quite different. I wonder, how a company that is so good with consumer support, could be so mediocre at pro support. You may be asking, what do you mean?

Support for professional Final Cut Studio, Aperture, Logic Studio, Shake, and Final Cut Server is nothing like what Apple's consumer customers experience. Much of the on-site support for these products are pushed to third-parties, resellers, and Apple Consultant Network members. Most will tell you that the support they receive from Apple is small.

For larger networks and video pros, taking their Mac to an Apple Store is no so practical. In fact in the case of Xsan or Final Cut Server it is impossible. As well trained as the Apple Genius may be at fixing a Mac and solving an OS X problem, they are not edit professionals. I do not see the executives that make the purchase decisions at CBS, ABC, NBC, or Fox coming to the local Apple Store to check out Xsan, Final Cut Server or even Final Cut Pro for instance.

Apple's recent "no show" at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas last week will certainly have some fallout from professional users. Especially major broadcasters and TV stations. With over 105,000 attendees at NAB this year (even in a sliding economy), it certainly seems there are still plenty of people interested in the annual Las Vegas event. But both Apple and Avid were no shows this year, leaving a huge hole in the event, that other companies like Sony and Adobe were happy to try and fill.

Apple claimed that pulling out of NAB was because there are better ways to reach customers.

"Often there are better ways to reach our customers. The increasing popularity of our retail stores and Apple.com web site allows us to directly reach more than 100 million customers around the world in innovative new ways."

Well, as much as I understand that Apple may have wanted to save the huge expense and trouble of the spectacle of NAB, their stores and website are NOT at all a place were industry professionals can get a demo, kick the tires, or meet Apple pro app employees face to face. The Apple stores sell Final Cut Studio in a box and can sell you hardware, but getting a demo of Final Cut Server or getting intricate questions about pro apps answered is not going to happen there. Apple has always been secretive about their roadmap and upcoming products and pro users have depended on NAB for announcements and demos, as consumer users have watched in anticipation at MacWorld. Apple's press event before NAB opens the exhibits has always been packed by the thousands.

Being a no show at NAB this year has exacerbated a perception that video pros have had with Apple in the last year or so due to Apple's lack of Blu-ray support and the very late arrival of Final Cut Server. Quietly dropping their own Xserve RAID to outsource it to a third-party, Promise did not help.

Apple has talked up Blu-ray in the past few years and claimed to be an early supporter of the Sony high definition disc format. However, they have failed to bring the format to the video pros that depend on it. Both Sony and Adobe now support Blu-ray as well as many other companies. Apple has not brought Blu-ray to the Mac with drives or adding support to DVD Studio Pro. Right now pros have to look elsewhere. Blu-ray should have been available last year from Apple in my opinion.

Sure the Apple TV shows that Blu-ray has a challenge against downloads. Video pros that need to produce Blu-ray disks will have to buy solutions from competitors. With many video pros it is all about "workflow." So if Apple does not soon support Blu-ray they may find some fast competition from others, maybe even on Windows.

While attending NAB, I spoke to several resellers, Apple partners, and video pros that are now questioning Apple wanting to be in the pro apps business. One reseller I spoke to from New York said, "If you are not at NAB, you are not really in the broadcast business." I had to agree. Apple being so tight-lipped did not even inform their own partners their intention of ditching NAB until the public announcement.

Maybe this is the writing on the wall that Apple now lacks interest in the professional market. They have never had the support offered by Avid for broadcasters. With Avid handing out "pink slips" and canceling NAB, maybe Apple felt they could skip this year. Apple may pay the price of losing some customers. Maybe they want to play only in the consumer world. Time will tell.

The Handwriting Recognition team is seeking an engineer who will be responsible for advancing Apple's handwriting recognition technology for Mac OS X. The ideal candidate will be an expert in the area of pattern recognition, with an excellent understanding of handwriting recognition issues. The person will also assume primary responsibility for maintaining and enhancing existing code and tools. The recognition technology you create may extend beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone.

Examples would be Microsoft pushing Internet Explorer 7 on Windows users that have automatic updates on or when they do a Windows update. Well you might think that this is OK because IE 7 is an update to IE 6, but I will point out at the large company I work for this ended up with loads of issues when Microsoft pushed out IE 7 as it broke many important Intranet sites the company relies on with no easy way to revert back. Lots of users felt this pain.

The users did nothing wrong as the company had instructed them to keep automatic update on to try to stop the seemly never-ending security problems with Windows. Shouldn't the user have been given a choice? Or an easy way to revert back? At least Apple's software updated showed exactly what it was about to install with Safari 3.1 shown with its box checked and waited for the user to OK the update.

Microsoft has controlled the browser market for years with IE, that has pretty much ignored web standards. This has lead many web sites to work only with a Microsoft browser and makes much more work for web designers to make sites complainant with all browsers. The result of a huge market share can do this for you to keep out competitors.

Sure Apple wants to push Safari, as all companies want to push their products. Sure Apple wants to push Safari, as all companies want to push their products. Mozilla made deals with Google to push Firefox. In the case of Silverlight, Microsoft is pushing their Adobe Flash competitor down all users throats by doing want Microsoft does best, "bundling" Silverlight into other Microsoft products and putting them on as many machines as they can with or without users realizing it.

Microsoft avoids the use of the word "bundling" however. They say in their usual biz speak, that "they are actively trying to get other product groups within the company to adopt Silverlight in some way and then distribute it as part of their product," to paraphrase. They are trying to push Silverlight, no matter what to everyone.

Makes no difference if you think Silverlight is better than Flash or vice versa. Same argument can be made that Safari 3.1 may a great browser or not. It is really all about trust and making users aware of what they are installing and why.

In the case of Office 2008 for Mac, most users have no idea they are installing Silverlight by default. Office itself doesn't use Silverlight at all. Although the highest-end version of Office comes with a product called Expression Media, that does make use of Silverlight, the standard version of Office for Mac does not use Silverlight installing it anyway. If you have installed any version of Office 2008 for Mac, you have most probably installed Silverlight as well as MSN Messenger that Microsoft has pushed on us Mac users for years. Just check Applications -> Microsoft Office 2008 -> Additional Tools -> and see Microsoft® Silverlight™ folder!

Microsoft adds Silverlight as part of the latest version of the MSN Toolbar, using it to offer display dynamic content, such as RSS feeds. So when you install the toolbar, Silverlight you get. Microsoft is talking with leading PC makers to preinstall Silverlight on new machines. This along with much of the "crapware" installed on most of these PCs is one big way PC makers like Dell, HP, and others make money. Of course Microsoft is cutting deals to push their products and money is changing hands. OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) will preinstall just about anything if you pay them. Most Windows PC buyers are aware of this as their new machines come crammed with useless "crapware." Apple has even poked fun at this in Mac vs. PC ads.

Sony was even charging $150 to get your Windows machine free of unwanted software - $50 fee for not installing the "extras" (crapware), and $100 for an upgrade to Microsoft Vista Business Edition. Wired is now reported that said Sony has removed the $50 "Fresh Start" fee (after considerable outcry), making users only pay $100 to upgrade to Vista Business to get a PC free of crapware. Sony knows removing these unwanted apps from a Windows machine is no fun and users may actually "pay" not to have them installed in the first place. New Macs do not include this junk, no charge.

From Wired: Fresh Start will now be a no-cost option on Sony's slick subnotebooks, but only for those who opt for Windows Vista Business Edition, a $100 upgrade. Most sites covering the $50 Fresh Start charge were incensed at the idea of being charged to leave malfunctioning and unwanted software off—and Sony has responded with a speed unusual for the international giant.

Microsoft has recently signed a deal with Nokia to distribute a version of Silverlight for mobile phones and I know they are paying several "start-ups" to push Silverlight.

Microsoft needs to get Silverlight on 80 percent of Web-connected computers to really get mainstream developers attention. With Flash having about 98 percent, Microsoft will use all the power of their installed base and monopoly position to push Silverlight. By bundling it into every product they can think of this strategy is a sound one. Microsoft has had it work before. With Silverlight they need to get developers on board and will be "pushing" hard to users on all platforms.

Microsoft in past deals with OEMs had installed Microsoft Works to push Word on the world for years and it worked as Office has killed off most of the major competition as users found themselves tied to the .doc format that Redmond owned. As I have said many times before having a lot of something does not really make a standard, especially since it is controlled by one company. For years Microsoft kept the Word format a secret making it difficult for competitors, just ask the WordPerfect crowd.

By the way I am not just picking on Microsoft, Adobe and others have also "pushed" their wares on users. When ever you install an Adobe suite it almost always installs a PDF plug-in that shows up in other apps like Microsoft Office. This is particularly a pain on a Mac as PDF is already built-in and the plug-in is not really needed. If you uninstall the Adobe PDF plug-in, the next time you launch Acrobat it will cryptically informs you it needs to install a component and re-installs the PDF plug-in!

I remember complaints from Windows zealots about how iTunes installed QuickTime on Windows machines a few years ago. Which by the way it actually needs to run. I thought that was funny.

So now the big story is Apple had added Safari 3.1 to software update with the user fully able to uncheck the box. I say, big deal, they learned the method from the leader. This is not anywhere as a egregious as the masters in Redmond has pushed stuff on Windows as well as Mac users for years. In the case of the Mac users, Microsoft has even left them high and dry after pushing their stuff on them, like Windows Media Player for one example. Still can not get the Zune to work on a Mac or anything else that is based on the latest Windows Media Player!

What Apple has done here is ONLY surprising because it was Apple. It certainly is not that big a deal. Most certainly, not worth the criticism and attention it is getting. Please un-check the box if you do not want Safari 3.1 installed. Only wish it was so easy with all the other stuff I am sometimes forced to install. Many times without me knowing it!

• Push email
• Push contacts
• Push calendar
• Global Address List
• Certificates and Identities
• WPA2/802.1x
• Enforced security policies
• More VPN protocols
• Device configuration
• Remote wipe

The App Store will be the sole home for third-party applications making them accessible either wirelessly from the device itself or through iTunes, which will synchronize apps when connected. Apple will share revenues for any apps sold via the App Store with 70 percent going to the developer. The App Store will have only minor restrictions on what can be posted. Illegal material, pornography, malicious, or apps the have privacy issues will be blocked.

Apple plans to make the App Store available as part of the version 2.0 iPhone and iPod touch firmware updates and should activate the service beginning in June, when the final software developer kit (SDK) will be available.

Games Games are coming to iPhone and iPod touch which feature built-in OpenGL/OpenAL support for graphics as well as sound, and game developers can access the handset's Accelerometer for motion-based controls. Travis Boatman, vice president of worldwide studios for EA Mobile took the stage at Apple's town hall meeting to talk about iPhone owners controlling 'Spore' by moving the iPhone in space. Touch Fighter, the first game demonstrated for iPhone. SEGA announced a demo version of Super Monkey Ball for iPhone, using the handset's Accelerometer to move the monkey around the screen. SEGA also said Super Monkey Ball for iPhone is the full console game, not a trimmed-down cellphone version common in the mobile arena.

SDK Apple has unveiled a development kit that uses the same programming language and interface used by Apple itself and now includes Cocoa Touch, an API designed to add touchscreen input. Programmers now use a modified version of Xcode that is not only used to write programs for the iPhone but to manage them as well, including designing the visual interface, source control, and debugging. Testing will be dome side by side with an environment known as the iPhone Simulator that will run on a Mac OS X machine.

AOL has also created a version of AIM for the iPhone in five days despite its developer's lack of experience for the Mac. Users simply swipe to change active chats. Other examples of third-party development examples include a medicine guide for doctors through ePOCRATES and a SalesForce.com app for customer relationship management (CRM).

The iPhone SDK beta, including Xcode and iPhone firmware 2.0, is being sent out with "thousands" of developers and companies; the download for the SDK is free and will take roughly an hour to download, but developers can pay $100 to join the iPhone Developer Program. A finished version of both the SDK and the firmware is due in June.

• It won't have Flash for the forseeable future (as I reported earlier)
• There will be lots of applications this summer based on the SDK
• The SDK will bring gaming to the iPhone/iPod touch
• When asked if there be an iPhone blogging application? Jobs said "build one using the SDK"
• They still plan to sell 10 million in 2008.
• Apple plans to offer the iPhone in both China and India ... but declined to say when
• Unlocked iPhones are a good thing - it shows demand
• There was opportunity in business for the iPhone

• Reiterated Windows games released by EA for the Mac using Transgaming's Cider
• Apple gives game developers much needed support - World of Warcraft for instance
• iPhone/iPod Touch games with SDK would be out soon
• Has no plans to take on Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo in gaming

• Apple now has 15,000 retail store employees with an 80% retention year over year. Jobs noted that employees don't just have retail jobs, but have career paths as Creatives and Geniuses.