When Apple held it’s quarterly financial conference with analysts earlier this month, its executives said they’d have trouble filling all the orders for the new MacBook Pro before the end of the present quarter. Independent reports, from American Technology Research and other industry analysts, suggested strong sales for both the new iMac and MacBook Pro. And then there’s, of course, Amazon, where the new iMac and forthcoming MacBook Pro sit at or near the top of the list.

Still another report, one that didn’t cite any source, said that Intel-based iMac sales were lagging. A few online commentators went with it, trying to explain just what might have gone wrong with Apple’s sudden move to Intel chips, months ahead of schedule.

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No doubt loose lips spoiled the big surprise about the $7.4 billion merger between Steve Jobs’ “other” company and Disney. Regardless, if the counterculture atmosphere at Pixar can remain intact, it augers well for the company’s future. But I’m not writing this column to deliver still another analysis on whether this high-profile marriage will succeed, or whether Steve Jobs will somehow find a way to wrest the CEO’s chair from its present occupant, Robert Iger. In fact, I have a different idea.

Instead, I’m wondering whether any of this has anything to do with people who use Apple’s products, whether iPod or Mac-related. That, my friends, may present the biggest question of all.

On the practical side, I don’t see Disney acquiring Apple or even that such a merger would somehow be appropriate, although some have suggested it from time to time. It may seem logical, of course, that more Disney content will show up at the iTunes Music Store, and that’s already beginning to happen. Up until now, however, Apple has managed to persuade other entertainment companies, such as NBC/Universal, to provide content as well. But there are potential pitfalls, particularly in light of Steve Jobs’ upcoming position as a non-independent member of Disney, of which he will become the largest shareholder.

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Way back when, when the first Power Macs hit the streets, I found performance with older Mac apps to be perfectly awful. It seemed as if I had gone back two generations in chip design, from the PowerPC to the 68030, and that was being generous. So when another emulation scheme was announced, Rosetta, which allows Intel-based Macs to run PowerPC software, you had reason to be concerned.

Although they are being coy on the details, Apple’s Rosetta technology is based on QuickTransit, an emulation method from Transitive Corporation. When I taped an interview with Transitive CEO Bob Wiederhold for this week’s episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, I had to forgive him if he danced around a few key details because of the company’s deal with Apple.

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When Apple introduced iWork as the intended successor to AppleWorks last year, it didn’t seem to set the world on fire. Sure Pages was a neat concept: A simple page design program with adequate word processing capabilities. Keynote gives presentations the flair they lack with the ever-present Microsoft PowerPoint. So it seemed to have potential, but little was heard of it until Macworld San Francisco 2006.

The release of iWork ‘06 seemed an afterthought during the Steve Jobs keynote, and he barely mentioned it other than the fact that it was released, had new features and was a Universal app that would run native on the new MacIntels. Except that, like its predecessors, Keynote 3 was used in a somewhat fancier version of the slides you saw during the great event. If you really cared, you had to check out Apple’s site for the particulars.

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