As you know, Apple sells far more notebooks than desktops these days. That’s just the trend in the industry, accelerated on the PC side by the rise of netbooks. Certainly, this transition makes a lot of sense, since you don’t have to fret over synchronizing two computers. You can do everything with just one — you can also save lots of money, and that may be the biggest advantage of all!

I have one client, a graphic designer, who uses his Mac notebook for most everything. Whether at home or at the office, he attaches it to a large display and external input devices and he is content. For him, there appears to be no compromise whatsoever.

This is a trend that I have resisted so far, because I require the performance of my Mac Pro, something that my 17-inch MacBook Pro cannot quite approach, at least not yet. While the notebook’s Core 2 Duo processor is certainly well equipped for a variety of tasks, it would be absurd to think it comes close to the Mac Pro in all performance parameters.

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At one time, if you posted photos or other information that was dangerously accurate about a forthcoming Apple product, you’d get a legal letter demanding you stop. But after losing a high-profile case against some popular bloggers last year, and convincing Think Secret to close shop, it appears Apple has pulled back and is taking a less obsessive view of the situation.

You see, at the end of the day Apple benefits from all those predictions and expectations, even if, at the end of the day they can’t fulfill all the hopes and dreams. More to the point, with the mainstream media joining in the rumor game, legal letters would basically have little or no impact. It’s not as if, for example, they could stop CNET, which is now owned by CBS, if it posted secret content. CBS would probably just laugh at them.

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When I recently read the results of the reliability survey from readers of Consumer Reports, I had to wonder why Apple was dead last on the list among notebooks, with a rating of 23. While this was not statistically significant compared to the 20 rating granted Lenovo, it seems to portend a potential trouble spot for Apple.

I’m sure most of you know that Apple’s notebook computers are built in the same factories as those of other makers, in Asia, and that they all share many core components, from Intel processors to hard drives and other off-the-shelf parts. So you’d think that construction quality ought to be similar, and you can expect comparable levels of longevity.

But there is more than meets the eye here. You see, Consumer Reports doesn’t distinguish among price categories. You expect that a company who primarily plays in the medium or higher-priced sandbox ought to build better products. It wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if a $750 notebook or $399 desktop failed prematurely, but when the price gets above $1,000 and then some, you have a right to expect more.

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Now perhaps Steve Jobs didn’t want to stretch out the session any further, not wanting to bore the assembled reporters or those watching the online version. But several product announcements came in under the radar. In fact, they were so low-key, they didn’t even merit press releases.

Talk about getting a tepid send-off. It reminds me of the movies that aren’t previewed for critics, because the producers fear they will get bad reviews. They hope that they’ll make enough money on the first weekend to make up for poor word-of-mouth and scathing write-ups.

But there’s nothing about the upgraded Mac mini that should warrant disparaging remarks. Admittedly, it doesn’t take a lot of research and development to plug in faster processors, extra memory and larger hard drives. That’s the sort of upgrade pattern that can be repeated for several years without changing the basic product. Then again, don’t PC box makers do that as well?

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