There was a Mac-like PC before the Mac. 1983 was a tough year for Apple. How difficult was it to sell a PC for almost $10,000 back then? Very. Today, you could buy 8 iMacs for the same money as Apple’s original Lisa.

Ted Friedman on the year up to 1984:

Apple was in danger. Their competitors in the emerging PC industry had been joined by IBM. Purchasers who’d chosen Apple out of necessity were relieved to be able to turn now to Big Blue. Apple’s first attempt at a next-generation product that could re-establish the company’s pre-eminence was the Lisa. A $10,000 computer designed for the business market, it was a flop.

The Mac was nearly a flop and sluggish sales probably cost Steve Jobs his job back in 1985. What a difference a few decades can make.

There’s been plenty of noise from technology pundits about the problems with Apple’s iPhone App Store approval process, with a number of high profile developers leaving the platform. Supposedly, Google’s Android Marketplace has become the big iPhone app competitor. Or, not. Om Malik:

Skyhook Wireless, a Boston-based company that offers location-based information to businesses, recently polled 30 app developers and asked them about their experience with, and plans for, the Android platform.

There are roughly 10,000 apps available for the Android (all models) vs. over 100,000 apps available for the iPhone. iPhone sales are approaching 50-million vs. Android, which is approaching 1-million.

The biggest reason for disappointment is the low download numbers — about 90 percent of respondents say their apps have been downloaded fewer than 10,000 times. Nearly 57 percent of the total polled said they were not satisfied with their profits on Android, while 39 percent said somewhat satisfied. Only 4 percent said they were satisfied with the profits they have made off their Android apps.

Apple dominates smartphone apps in number, downloads, sales, and profits. Next year will be different, but not much.

Just when you thought the whole world was converging to do everything on the browser, Rohit Sharma finds that the browser is dead. How so? The iPhone’s many apps and utilities made the browser nearly obsolete.

The browser is dead. And it’s because all those apps that now monopolize my time have taken their pick of browser parts from the bin and blossomed into a phenomenon all their own.

Sharma sees a trend in the thousands of applications and utilities offered in Apple’s App Store expanding to the desktop with Google Chrome and Safari.

Going forward, this trend of apps jumping out of the browser and onto available screen real estate will only gain steam. After all, with active push notifications, clicking a stock price or weather forecast or gas price app on the live desktop is definitively a better user experience than that of a browser.

Maybe so. I use Safari less on my iPhone than on my Mac.

Remember all those poor, sad Windows folks who argue about market share? Joe Wilcox in BetaNews:

Mac US retail desktop computer revenue share was 47.71, percent up from 33.44 percent a year earlier, according to NPD. It’s a stunning number, given just how many Windows PC companies combined command so much more market share, while competing for the same revenue share.

In other words, Apple’s Mac is profitable and the dominant revenue (sales) generator among major manufacturers. PC makers have Apple envy.

But based on Apple’s ability to defy the recession’s downward pull on computer sales and just how consistently busy are the company’s retail stores, I’ll predict that Mac overall US retail revenue share will stay well above one-third and more than 40 percent for desktops. Surely any Windows PC competitor would want make so much on so few computers sold, comparatively.

Higher revenue, higher average selling price, higher profits, commanding market share above $1,000 price point. What’s to complain about?

What works on web site comment posting and forums posting doesn’t work so well on Twitter. Christopher Null’s top Twitter etiquette tips on Macworld:

Unlike a Facebook update, a Twitter post can be read by anyone. If you don’t like the implications of this situation, either don’t use the service or set your updates as protected (though some might argue this largely defeats the purpose of Twitter).

Twitter is like adding RSS to microblogging and microreading. The vast majority of Twitter users are readers, not tweeters. It’s an unsustainable model.