A (New) Chip on His SHoulder

We wanted to try to beat the developer conference [in June], obviously, but as we got going we thought, "You know, we may be able to pull this off in January." We worked really hard, and I'm extremely pleased with how the products came out.

You announced your first billion-dollar quarter for business in the Apple stores. Are you reaching a saturation point with stores?

We tend to build 30 to 40 stores a year. We know we can control the quality that way, both in terms of the real estate selection and in terms of the build-outs. We have many years to go at that rate.

You mentioned that Apple's 30th anniversary will be celebrated on April 1 this year. Isn't it ironic that this is the first time that Apple runs on Intel chips?

Things change in 30 years! I actually thought that the [original Apple's] 6502 was the best processor [in 1976]. That's not why we used it--we used it because [Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak] got one for free. I have to say I think Intel has really pulled ahead. This dual-core chip [inside the new Macs] is just a screamer and yet we can build it into a notebook.

How is battery life with the MacBook?