Sometimes the best laid plans result in failure. Despite pumping hundreds of millions into an action movie, it gets horrible ratings from both reviewers and the public and tanks at the box office. Retail products that seem to offer loads of innovation simply don't survive for one reason or another.

Let's not forget that the first Macintosh wasn't a very good seller. It was regarded, at the time, as too expensive, with no way to upgrade or add expansion cards. Steve Jobs may have been ultimately correct in wanting to turn the personal computer into a user friendly appliance, but the 1984 Mac was just a little ahead of its time.

Despite all the obstacles, Apple held on even after Jobs was forced out. He returned a far more savvy businessperson, recruited or promoted a staff of brilliant designers, engineers and marketing people, and the rest is history. But that doesn't mean Apple didn't release some failed products during the second Jobs era.

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Over the years, I've tended to acquire Macs on two-year cycles, since that's usually how long it takes for the newest model to be substantially faster and more productive than the older machine. The intermediate updates, each year, tend to be far more incremental, although Apple's upmarket approach version of the iMac, which debuted in late 2009, was a far more significant upgrade. Indeed, the high-end quad-core Intel i7 on an iMac gave a Mac Pro a run for its money.

Although my financial situation had begun to seriously suffer from the recession in 2009, I had the credit line to sustain the purchase of a fairly well equipped and customized 27-inch iMac, with the 2.8GHz Intel i7 and 8GB of RAM. Even better, I sold my Mac Pro and a 30-inch display for enough to actually zero the credit card invoice, and leave me a few hundred dollars change with which to pay other bills. This was a tremendous deal.

After reading the reviews about the new iMac, particularly the benchmarks, it was clear that very few apps would afford the Mac Pro a performance advantage. Sure, I could add more memory to the Mac Pro, and fill the internal PCI slots with some intriguing expansion possibilities, but none of those extras fit into my workflow. But I still felt I was taking a bit of a chance, even though it was one that, in the end, cost me nothing.

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Those industry analysts seem to agree that Apple is headed towards a stellar quarter as we near the final holiday shopping period. There will supposedly be record numbers of iPhones and Macs sold, therefore supporting Apple's predictions of amazing revenue and profits. That is the good news.

But there might be a little cloud in the silver lining, and it's all about the iPad. Suddenly the analysts are claiming that iPad sales seem a bit "light" in their surveys, or after examining their crystal balls. Thus, Apple may sell a million or so fewer units than they originally expected.

Now understand that industry analysts don't always get their figures right. They have an awful habit of mostly underestimating Apple's sales. But last quarter was the exception, where they were delivering highly inflated estimates of iPhone sales. It was all without common sense, since the iPhone 4 was long in the tooth, and it was fairly obvious a new model would arrive by October. But knowing or suspecting a later release of the iPhone 4's successor clearly caused a number of customers to postpone their purchases. How could it be otherwise?

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I started using Macs in the 1980s not for recreation, but to get work done. I was involved in writing and desktop publishing. The latter had just debuted on the Mac; I was using them at the office, and needed to bring work home from time to time; I traveled with a regular supply of floppies and other material in a briefcase. It wasn't long before I stayed home and did everything from a room that I converted into an office. Only later did I find reason to perform more relaxing functions on that Mac, particularly when I got a notebook to bring into the bedroom each evening.

These days, an iPhone sits on my night table, and I use it to surf and keep track of my heavy email load, answering messages that can't wait till my regular workday begins.

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