Santa Touched Apple

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True, Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) hype-filled holiday press release said little. But Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) didn't need to say anything at all. We know the iPod Touch was a huge winner.

MacRumors did the detective work. Using Net Application's Hitslink website, writer Arnold Kim found a big jump in the Touch's browser share on Christmas Day and through the weekend. What's more, App Store sellers reported triple the normal download volume.

"Sales of my Solitaire City game increased by nearly 4 times on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and doubled on the days leading up to Christmas," wrote one game developer at the discussion boards for toucharcade.com.

The implication? The Touch, already named one of Amazon's top sellers in electronics, was under many a tree on Thursday. Those who had dismissed it as a threat to Nintendo's DS and Sony's (NYSE: SNE) PSP were not only premature, but also wrong.

Meanwhile, those of us who've been ignoring the Touch while gushing about the iPhone (points at self) were wrong, too. We were wrong to not take Apple seriously when it pitched the Touch as a gaming platform.

Even so, this story is only now evolving. We won't know how well Apple's plan is working till the iEmpire releases first-quarter earnings. And if history holds, that won't be until the end of January.

So be it; the wait's worth it. Santa touched Apple this Christmas. Investors should feel the love, too.

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• Please don't go there, Steve.
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