Apple in July reported Mac unit sales rose 18 percent to 4.4 million in the quarter ended June 28. CEO Tim Cook said the Mac boosted Apple's overall financial results, and the company saw strong sales in some regions weak for other PC makers.
Apple hasn't yet reported its most recent quarter, but research firm IDC last week said the company moved into the No. 5 ranking for global PC sales in the calendar third quarter. For the past several years, Apple has controlled a much smaller chunk of the market, but its sleek designs, such as the MacBook Air, have attracted customers.
Apple last year introduced its powerful Mac Pro, and it has continued to add Retina Displays to its various MacBooks. But there also have been some devices that haven't been updated in years.
Schiller: It's been really fun to watch the migration of the Retina Display.
Both Air and Pro got minor, minor updates this year, so probably nothing new here.
Schiller: Today we're really happy for you to see the continued march of this Retina technology and the next step we're going to take with it
First seeing an iPhone, now an iPad
Up pops the MacBook Pro, which has Retina
iMac with Retina, it appears
As expected, Retina comes to iMac. Higher-res screens are slowing becoming common in the PC space. I have two 4K laptops back at the CNET Lab right now.
(though don't know the name yet, officially)
The all-in-one device, with the brains hidden behind a sleek display, hadn't had a design change in two years.
Plus several desktops/laptops really built for 4K output.
Schiller: There has never been a desktop display like this
And 4K 27-inch monitors are down to maybe $550 now.
Schiller: It is truly remarkable
The iPhone 4, introduced in 2010, sported the first Retina Display, while the higher-resolution screen hit the iPad and MacBook Pro line in 2012.
Schiller: 5120x2880 pixels. 14.7 million pixels on one display. It is the world's highest resolution display
Forget your busted old 4K, this is...5k!
5120x2880
Schiller: We call it the Retina 5K display
Schiller: HD TVs are 1920x1080. There are 7X more pixels on the Retina 5K display than on your HD TV
While a 4K is 4x the pixels of 1080, this is 7x.
Schiller: Let's compare that to the new standard 4K. Apple's display still has more pixels than that
Schiller: Design is just 5 mm thin. It's an incredible feat of engineering
5mm thin at the edge...now let's see the back, pls....
Schiller: New chip to control the display - the timing controller. Apple invented that
Driving a 4K display is hard, driving a 5K one must be harder.
Schiller: Had to create a new material, oxide TFT. Then taking tech from Retina iPad to reduce pixel cross talk and keep the image sharp
Backlight is just as bright but consumes less power
Display uses almost a third less energy (30% to be precise)
Schiller: It is a remarkable feat of engineering
27-inch iMac is easily the best-looking all-in-one desktop design out there, but some photographers I know prefer standalone monitors. Perhaps the 5K display here will lure them back.
Schiller is talking about how "beautiful" the display is
