Is Apple Killing Off the MacBook?

The iPad is slowly taking over the laptop market. Does this mean the MacBook's days are numbered?

Last year, there were mountains of reports suggesting that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) would cease development of its old-school white MacBook due to slowing sales and the rise of the MacBook Air. Now rumors say that the MacBook Pro could be the next to go as Apple attempts to increase the power of both the iPad and the MacBook Air.

But if this report from AppleInsider is any indication, MacBook fans don't have anything to worry about.

According to the report (in which AppleInsider notes sales data from Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf), Mac business sales rose 51% during the December quarter.

This is a huge increase for Apple, a company that was once believed to be incapable of producing a solid (and sellable) laptop for the corporate world. Just a few years ago, Forbes wrote about the challenges that Apple was facing. Most notably, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) posed a serious threat to the company. But then MacBook sales began to rise. Later, the iPad was introduced. Before we knew it, business professionals were starting to take a second look at what the Mac maker had to offer.

As Gizmodo's former Deputy Editor, Matt Buchanan, tweeted yesterday, “A room full of the best journalists on the Microsoft beat. Everybody's on a MacBook.”

While this doesn't mean that Windows' corporate dominance is coming to an end, it's an interesting turn of events for a company that, for many years, profited only from consumers and educational institutions.

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