From some news site that I’m too lazy to link, comes this not
suprising report on Apple’s holiday opportunities as well as reviewer’s
discovery that Microsoft’s “iPod-Killer” is a turd in a box.

Retailers see strong Mac demand, little excitement over Zune

Checks
with retailers in the north east indicate there is strong demand for
Apple Computer’s Intel Mac line leading into the holiday shopping
season, with sales of its iPod digital music players also gaining
traction, analysts for UBS Investment Research said Tuesday. Meanwhile,
the firm’s inquiries turned up “little excitement” over Microsoft’s
Zune digital music player,

“…our checks show little excitement
around the new product and we are not expecting much of an impact to
iPod sales from the new MP3 player,” the analyst wrote. “In fact,
initial reviews for the Zune have been far from impressive.”

“While
we will be keeping a close eye on the impact of Zune, we do not see
this product as much of a threat to Apple’s iPod given Apple’s loyal
customer base, easy to use iTunes software and sleek, innovative form
factors.”

“We are not expecting Zune to have a meaningful impact on iPod sales,” he said.

“During
our checks over the past few months, representatives at CompUSA, as
well as at Apple stores, continue to see solid demand for the MacBooks,
with checks this month again indicating that MacBook strength has
continued beyond the peak back to school spending season, which ended
in mid-September,” he wrote.

“We continue to believe solid
demand for Macs will continue into [fiscal 2007] with upgraded MacBooks
and MacBook Pros both now featuring new Core 2 Duo processors, in time
for the holiday season,” he wrote.

“In addition, we believe new
iMacs announced on September 6th should encourage switching from
Windows to Mac and support estimates into calendar year-end.

“As
we have stated in previous reports, we believe Apple may be working on
some kind of ‘ultra- portable PC’ or some devices that can bridge the
gap between media playing, basic wireless computing needs and even some
type of gaming,” he wrote. “We would not be surprised to see new
devices within the next year.”