I’ve been a mac user for many gazillion years now as well, and have seen Mac OS X evolve into the workhorse it is today. Snow Leopard is still far better than Windoze 7 and does everything I need it to. Why change something that doesn’t need changing?

My iPhone on the other hand has been lacking a few features (mainly cause it’s so young). The latest update brings most of the new features in iOS 4 and the iPhone 4. Not to mention the iPad could really use iOS 4 so I can enjoy the world of multitasking.

So yes Apple has spent most of it’s resources on it’s mobile line, but that’s because it’s young and is in need of the new features. Mac OS in now an adult and can stand on it’s own for a while. I think we will see upgrades to Mac OS – but I’m expecting this to be a major switch in the computing world. A cross between iOS and Mac OS perhaps. The main change will be the way files are dealt with. Steve has said for many years Finder’s days are numbered and it’s only a matter of time before that becomes a reality. What exactly Apple has in store is yet to be known, but I betting that in a few years the Apple Mac era could be changing.

Steve said they were a mobile company because of iPhones and notebooks, but let’s not forget that notebooks are not iPads and they don’t run iOS. Some of the best developers on earth make OS X apps and they deserve some love too.

The phases will come and go, but there needs to be a constant (if smaller) stream of love for your core.

I was there as a Mac developer and whenever I would ask a weird Mac-related question, the engineer would look confused for a moment and then say, “…on the iPhone?”

I told them that, next year, I was going to make up a T-shirt that said, “I’m a Mac developer, dammit!”

Anyway, after one such exchange, I made the off-hand remark about how I should go to some iPhone sessions since you guys are dropping the Mac (obviously joking) and one of the engineers laughed and said, “Do you really think we want people developing iPhone apps on Windows?”

I don’t think Apple will be porting Xcode to Windows anytime soon. So you’ll still have Mac OS X for running that.

Furthermore, there isn’t really an iOS team and a Mac OS X team. Most of the technologies in iOS come from the Mac and it’s a two-way trip–improvements made in iOS will come back to Mac OS X.

Investors give Apple more criticism for not spending that money or giving shareholders dividends on the cash but Apple calls it the “war chest” to be used for anything that they want which could be the takeover of a company where they could essentially buy Amazon, Dell or a large chunk of Google or simply use it for the dark years which could come along (as apple was nearly bankrupt in ’97).

It’s obviously their goal to keep small teams and we certainly can’t say that Apple has done poorly with this game plan as it’s working for them very well since Steve’s return.

The mobile/iDevices world is wide open. The world is their oyster and it just doesn’t get any better than this for an creative, visionary company competing in a free market with only a few intelligent, agile competitors.