The Nightmare Is Over. The Mac Is Officially Back.

Apple is worth more than HP or Dell. The iPod rules. iPhone rules. The Mac rules. Enough of the fanboy hype.

If you’re a Mac user these past few years, you already know-- the Mac is back and better than ever. Ever.

I listened to Apple’s financial conference call yesterday. The numbers were astounding. Over 1.75-million Macs were shipped-- the most ever for a quarter in Apple’s history.

What’s happening? The iPod halo? The iPhone hype? The excitement and security and stability of Mac OS X vs the veneer of Windows Vista? Whatever it is, Apple is on a roll, and the Mac is rolling with it.

The 10 years following Windows ‘94 were not pleasant for Mac users. We watched the clone disaster, the Gil Amelio disaster, the financial disaster, and endured the taunts and taints of fellow computer users who expected Apple to die any day.

It didn’t happen. It almost happened. But it didn’t happen. Instead, co-founder Steve Jobs stepped back into the lead dog position for Apple, cleaned house, cut costs, simplified the Mac product line, and laid plans for the future.

The future is now. Apple bet the farm on Mac OS X as the platform for the 21st century, and managed to sell enough Macs to die hard fans for Apple to make it to the 21st century.

In the meantime, as Apple shored up the defenses, stockpiled weapons money, the sharp-eyed management team looked for new opportunities to grow the future. Opportunity knocked in the form of the iPod.

Like the Mac, the iPod was simple, elegant, and worked. Not only did it work great with the Mac, but Apple moved into the Windows space with a vengeance, bowling over competitors.

For awhile, it looked as if the Mac itself might fade into the night as the iPod took center stage. Then, slowly at first, but steadily-- the Mac began to sell more and more. And more. Apple’s classy retail stores helped, of course. So did the online Apple Store and the many legions of Mac users.

Then along came new Macs powered by Intel processors. The Mac was probably back, though unofficially, with the transition to Intel. No more would the Mac be hamstrung by laggard CPU’s from IBM and FreeScale. Whatever a PC had, the Mac had.

Then along came Windows running on Macs. At first, there was some fear, but the move pitted Windows XP and Vista squarely against the obviously superior ease of use in Mac OS X.

Mac sales took off. Better yet, Mac OS X, even without the upcoming and highly touted Leopard version, has become the darling of media technopundits who now relish in dishing it out against Microsoft’s laggard products.

What a change 10 years makes. What a change 5 years makes. The guts of a Mac, the OS X operating system, now finds a home in the increasingly popular iPhone. Will OS X show up in the next generation wide screen, multi-touch iPod? Count on it.

In the meantime, Mac users are relishing their new found moment in the spotlight as the hippest, coolest, smartest of PC users. The dark ages are over for Mac users, and the millions of Windows-switchers-to-Macs, and we’re entering a new era of compatibility, syncability, and usability.

It’s all Apple, Mac or PC, but it all works well together. Mac notebooks are showing up everywhere-- TV, schools, business, at home. People want usability, security, compatibility, and dependability. They want Macs, and everything else Apple sells.

These are good times for Mac users and Apple customers. What could derail the momentum of this Apple gravy train?

Lawsuits? Microsoft? The movie industry? The music industry? Cell phone carriers? Speed bumps and road blocks are there, of course, some seen, some unseen.

Since most of us would agree that Apple is healthy, and the Mac is back, what do you see as the future obstacles to continued success? Share your consideration in the Comments section below.

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