PCs

Apple's surprise-free iPhone 5 launch: How Mr. Market reacted

Were traders watching the live blogs? You be the judge.

FORTUNE -- How does Apple's (AAPL) share price respond to a high-profile media event in which there are few surprises?

You can read too much into a chart like the one above, but it suggests that Mr. Market was:

Disappointed with the unsurprising name of the new iPhone
Pleased with the engineering specs and other details as they unfolded
Lost interest during the rehashing MORE

Apple's iPhone 5 launch by the numbers

The company rolled out a lot of stats Wednesday -- some fresh, some not so much

FORTUNE -- Here they are, as they cross the wires:

iPhones:

Prices: The new iPhone 5 starts at $199 for 16G, $299 for 32G, $399 for 64G with 2-year contract
The  16G iPhone 4S falls to $99, the 8G iPhone 4 is free on contract
Preorders start Sept. 14
Sales start Sept. 21 in the U.S. and 8 more countries
Ships MORE

Where the Bank of Apple has put its manufacturing money

An analyst picks three U.S. winners among 156 companies in Cupertino's supply chain

FORTUNE -- In a long note to clients posted early Monday, RBC Capital's Amit Daryanani analyzes the implications of the sharp rise in spending reported last June by what Asymco's Horace Dediu once called The Bank of Apple.

For some time, Apple (AAPL) has been using its huge cash hoard ($117 billion as of June) as a loan facility to MORE

Apple's reinvention, filtered through its favorite blogger

How John Gruber's choice of topics reflects Cupertino's shift from Macs to iPhones

FORTUNE -- Most of the commentary on the Web about the profile of Daring Fireball's John Gruber in Bloomberg Businessweek ("Meet Apple's favorite blogger") over the weekend focused on the magazine's bottom line: The $500,000 per year Gruber's one-man operation is reported to be generating these days. (A figure his wife promptly disputed -- but did not correct MORE

Apple could buy 60 Pandoras

So why would it bother to roll its own Internet radio service?

FORTUNE -- Once Apple (AAPL) approached the music publishers about licensing their content for an Internet radio service like Pandora's (P) -- one that would stream music customized to iTunes users' taste -- it didn't take long for the news to leak to the press. The Wall Street Journal had the story Thursday evening and before Barack Obama had MORE

Charlie Wolf: Apple's iPad is clearly cannibalizing PC sales

The impact is being felt first, says the analyst, in the home and education markets

FORTUNE -- Although Mac shipments grew faster than the overall PC market in calendar Q3 for the 25th quarter in a row, Needham's Charlie Wolf sees cause for concern in latest data.

In his regular quarterly review of Apple's (AAPL) Mac business, he notes:

The difference in Mac vs. PC growth rates -- up 1.9% for the Mac MORE

Early retirement isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Just ask Apple's Bob Mansfield.

Apple watchers are scratching their heads over a surprise executive decision

FORTUNE -- It was like a game of musical chairs in which a seat is added rather than removed when the music stops.

In a press release that came two months to the day after Tim Cook announced the retirement of Apple's (AAPL) long-time hardware chief, Bob Mansfield, Cook let it be known Monday that Mansfield isn't leaving the company after MORE

Does a demographic shift explain Apple's Olympics ads?

The "Genius" spots may have targeted older users, but that doesn't make them good

FORTUNE -- According to a YouGov  BrandIndex survey released Friday, Apple's "fans" have gotten older -- a demographic shift the firm suggests may have been the company's motivation for releasing the three "Genius" ads that got so roundly panned when they aired in prime time during NBC's Olympics coverage.

YouGov's evidence: The "Buzz" chart above, which shows positive MORE

Samsung's Chromebox: A dead ringer for Apple's Mac Mini

Is there anything Apple makes that Samsung won't copy?

FORTUNE -- Since it was introduced in May there have been at least half a dozen reviews of Samsung's Chromebox Series 3, a $330 keyboard-and-screen-free computer running Google's (GOOG) Chrome OS that Amazon (AMZN) began promoting in e-mails to customers this week.

But only one reviewer -- Engadget's Myriam Joire -- bothered to mention the Chromebox's uncanny resemblance to a product Apple (AAPL) sells.

"Apple should MORE

How Apple became the world's No. 1 computer manufacturer

In this chart, by counting the iPad as a personal computer

FORTUNE -- Late last week Asymco's Horace Dediu updated some data he has been monitoring for several years on global sales of personal computers -- broadly defined to include tablets like the iPad, the Galaxy Tab and the Kindle Fire.

Seen in this post-PC light, traditional computer manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and Lenovo (LNVGY) fall behind and Apple (AAPL) MORE