Apple’s updated MacBook Air line has quietly become a hit, with the company having shipped 1 million of the notebooks in the fourth quarter.
The figures come via Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who says recent checks in Asia imply that Apple shipped 1.1 million units for the three months ended December 31st, 2010.
If accurate, the numbers will indicate one of the strongest Mac launches in history.
Furthermore, Kuo says the Air are now selling at a 1:2 ratio to the MacBook Pro laptops, Apple’s best-selling.
Kuo says he expects Apple to “set a new Mac sales record during the [upcoming] quarter.”
Result for: laptops
Yankee Stadium, home of the defending World Series champions, has just added the Apple iPad to its prohibited device list, which already included all laptops.
Team officials say it is nothing personal to the iPad, but bunches the tablet in with all laptops.
The ban is a “security-and-safety” issue, they add.
When asked, Major League Baseball said iPad bans are a team-by-team decision, and the New York Mets and the Seattle Mariners have already announced the device is allowed in their respective stadiums.
In April, the iPad was banned in Israel due to wireless standards irregularities, but the ban was subsequently lifted.
Result for: laptops
Hewlett-Packard has announced that it has added at least 50,000 new batteries to its worldwide recall list, adding to the already huge 70,000 number it began recalling in May 2009.
The lithium-ion batteries found in 31 of HP’s laptops can potentially overheat and then split apart, which could lead to fires.
Two instances of just that were noted in an initial report by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Since then, 38 more reports have surfaced. Of those reports, there were “11 instances of minor personal injury and 31 instances of minor property damage.”
The laptops affected are from the HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario, HP laptops, and HP Compaq lines.
Recalled batteries come from laptops purchased between August 2007 and March 2008.
Despite the seemingly large number, HP says only 3 percent of all notebooks manufactured during the period are affected.
Says the company: “Consumers should immediately remove the batteries referenced above from their notebook computer and contact HP to determine if their battery is included in this recall (even if the battery was previously checked). Consumers with recalled batteries will receive a free replacement battery.”
