It's no big secret that Apple really only wants one thing for Christmas-- market share. The problem is, market share is hard to come by in this Microsoft-dominated computerscape. The key to winning market share is to get the Apple brand on everyone's mind, by advertising, news coverage, word of mouth, and any other methods that might work. In other words, market share doesn't grow until mind share grows first-- and it's a long process. That's why Apple's made such a huge push to stay in the public eye for the past year, and the way they transformed their media image from "dying dinosaur" to "innovative comeback king" was truly masterful. Between "Think Different" and the iMac, Apple's boldest moves in the past year have been calculated to restoring the shine to that tarnished Apple logo in the hearts and minds of customers-- and more importantly, potential customers.

Guess what? It seems to be working. The numbers so far indicate that the iMac is a big hit with first-time computer buyers, and even with Wintel users crossing over. The most recent indication that Apple's mind share is increasing is this new survey just completed by CENTRIS and MarketMaps, a couple of market research firms who polled 2000 households about their computer buying plans. Of those households planning to buy their first computer during this holiday season, Apple actually ranked second among brands those people would be most likely to buy; IBM came in first with 17.2%, but Apple's 10.1% apparently beat out HP, Gateway, and Dell. Among those who mentioned Apple as their likeliest choice, over half of them picked Apple because they think it'll be "easiest to use." A MacCentral article has more on this intriguing survey.

If these numbers hold, it could be a very merry Christmas indeed. In fact, since the $29.99-a-month deal hadn't been advertised before this survey was completed, Apple's standing in the consumer sales race may be even higher now. Yes, it'll probably be years before Apple can regain the market share levels it had at its height, and there's no guarantee that they'll be able to stay on this winning streak for that length of time. Still, we consider any upward swing in the mind share numbers both a positive change and an indication of future greatness.

It's probably too early to say for sure just yet, but initial observations indicate that Apple's $29.99-a-month consumer loan program is indeed helping to bolster the iMac's already-strong sales. When the program was officially announced a couple of weeks ago, however, we weren't overly impressed; rumors had been circulating that the interest rate on the loan would be a respectable 8%, but instead it turned out to be nearly 15%. That's still low compared to a lot of credit cards, and it's on par with the interest rate charged by Gateway's successful Your:)Ware program, but it means that if you make your minimum $29.99 payment each month, you'll be doing it for a whopping 67 months before you've paid off your iMac.

At the cost of three pizzas a month, that's a lot of pizzas. Two hundred pizzas. Yes, if you only ever make the minimum payments, you're paying over $2000 for a $1299 iMac. Sure, it's worth it to many people who just can't lay out $1299 right now but still want a computer, so we think it's a nice program to have around... It's just that we can't help feeling a little jealous of those Macophiles over in Japan. According to AsiaBizTech, Apple Japan has just announced their own version of the loan: dubbed the "Apple Smart Loan," it allows customers to borrow up to 200,000 yen (that's almost $1700 U.S.-- plenty to get an iMac and a few peripherals) at a 1% interest rate. If we had such a great interest rate available over here, we'd be giving up a lot fewer pizzas for the sake of owning an iMac.

The Goddess of Interest Rates is a fickle one, indeed; we've got to assume that this incredibly low interest rate in Japan is due at least in part to Apple's big push to grow its overseas markets in a big way. Still, you take what you can get, we suppose. And in case you were wondering, no, even we wouldn't give up pizza for five and a half years to own an iMac. We'd rather give up something less crucial to survival, like heat. (What did you think we were going to say-- cable? Get real.)

Think being the richest man in the world would make someone relatively free from frustration? Not so, according to an Associated Press article. Bill Gates is reportedly very unhappy with his continual taped appearance on "Redmond Justice," which seems to happen every few days. Bill apparently didn't want to appear live on the show, as his own company didn't call him as a witness, and the government is only too happy to leave him out of it-- especially since the deposition he gave last August contains plenty of videotaped testimony that supports the government's charges. That right there is Bill's complaint-- the government is only showing the stuff that makes him look evasive, confused, or just plain malicious. Of course, Microsoft is perfectly able to show the positive side of Gates with their own excerpts from the deposition, but so far, they've declined. Perhaps there's not much material that they'd really want shown.

Anyway, the upshot is this: the government keeps showing taped footage of Gates' deposition, Microsoft has so far declined to show their own excerpts from the tapes as rebuttal (and can't very well cross-examine a videotape), and so Bill Gates has become his own worst enemy in the biggest trial of his life. What to do? Well, there's still the option of calling Bill as a witness. Yes, each side has already chosen their dozen witnesses and Bill didn't make the cut on either side, but a TechWeb article reveals that each side has the option to call up to two surprise witnesses. Surprise witnesses! The cornerstone of all true courtroom dramas! We may yet get Bill up live in front of those cameras. In fact, lead government lawyer David Boies claims that Bill "is indicating more and more that he'd like to come and testify" and that he's "sure his lawyers will listen to him." Wishful thinking on Boies' part? After all, he was the one who took the original deposition, and it's pretty likely that he thinks he could tear Gates to shreds during cross-examination.

We imagine that Bill's a little camera-shy after the last time he testified in person; remember last March's investigation into competition in the software industry? Senator Orrin Hatch reportedly got kinda nasty. Still, Bill may well feel that testifying in person is the only way to dispel the doubt surrounding his character. If he does order a shift in Microsoft's legal strategy and takes the stand, we hope for the sake of the show that it happens very soon-- Sweeps Month is almost over.