I take issue with several things you said in "Windows or Mac? Apple Says Both", including...
"The move was greeted with exuberance even among the loyal cult of Macintosh enthusiasts who sustained Apple through many bleak years before its resurgence on the strength of its iPod music player."
First off, people loyal to Macs aren't in a cult. We simply don't want to have to use a Windows PC that has too many bugs to count, too many viruses to count and that are ugly. If it wasn't for Apple, computers would still be beige.
Secondly, your statement implies that Apple hasn't really brought anything to the table since Nov 10, 2001 when the iPod arrived. This is totally false. When Steve Jobs came back in 1997, he turned the company around and started the constant trend of innovation.
Since then Jobs, with the help of Jonathan Ives and a lot of talented people, has managed to give us products used by millions the world over. The iMac and their new operating system, OS X is truly what got them back to selling. But the their desktop computers, laptops, displays and software titles have been what's driving them, not blind loyalty. Oh, let's not forget the Billion songs they've sold legally on their wonderful iTunes.
Apple's innovation has been the catalyst for success. Sure the iPod has helped but Apple was moving fast and hard in the years since '97 when Jobs came back and 4th Q 2001 when the iPod came out. Actually, sales for the iPod have only recently become phenominal. By recent, I would say a couple of years. There's 7 or 8 years of innovation that you blindly blew past and made light of with your statement. Of course, to praise Jobs too much in the early paragraphs, would not allow for a smooth segue about him that you wrote in the following:
"Ever the showman, Mr. Jobs had been accused of excess in a recent product introduction, when he called reporters to Apple's headquarters on short notice for a presentation that included a leather glove to protect the finish of an iPod music player."
Lastly, this event held so much more to it then some leather ipod case. Apparently this statement was simply designed to skew public perception. With this event, another piece of the Mac Intel puzzle came together: the introduction of the Mac Mini with the Intel Chip. Also, Apple was able to publicly announce its very recent sell of it's 1 billionth song on iTunes, a huge milestone. Finally, they introduced a completely new piece of hardware, the wonderful iPod Hi-Fi Music Player that works with all dockable iPods they've ever produced. While the event was not the most jaw-dropping one we've seen, it certainly had enough merit to be held.
I think both statements were designed to downplay Apple's technological advancements since Steve Jobs' return as CEO for almost a decade now. You mention the iPod as if it were the only thing Apple has done well and then suggest that a press conference was hardly called for due to some simple leather case.
You're a journalist. You're supposed to be unbiased. You're not.
