Apple had a pleasant surprise for everyone when they announced their results for the fiscal third quarter. While Apple's results were great, they only point at what the next quarter could be like.

The sales of Macs were very strong this quarter, especially the portables, Apple selling 798,000 units, an improvement by 300,000, or 61%, over the year-ago quarter. These numbers look even better when you consider the fact that the new MacBook was only available for the last six weeks of the quarter.

The surge in portable sales was enough to offset the drop in desktop sales, where Apple is still missing a pro machine. As good as the PowerMac G5 is, people want to get their hands on the next generation workhorse stations which are expected to be out before the end of the summer.

Although there were rumors all over the net about the number of 'switchers' that Apple was getting, there had never been any official report or number to back them up… until now. During the conference, Apple disclosed that 50% of customers polled at Apple's retail stores described themselves as 'new to the Mac,' a strong indication that Apple is seeing new customers that are becoming more and more interested in their products and leaving their Microsoft Windows computers behind.

With MacBooks being available for the entire fourth quarter, and the unveiling of both the Mac Pro units as well as the next generation operating system Leopard, not to mention the possibility of new iPod, the fourth quarter looks to be a lot bigger than the one that just ended.