Apple misses out on the return to university period

The return to university is a particularly important moment for computer makers, the students buying laptops en masse. This is the reason that the manufacturers of PCs announce, one after the other, their new range during August, as soon as the Centrino 2 was announced by Intel. There was no question for them of missing out on this period.
Apple is probably the only one to have missed making a mark, giving the impression that it is not interested in this market even though in the past it was always a strong contender.
There is now really the impression that the management of their strong growth is slipping over time. One can to support this theory by pointing out that they launched new iPod during the 'back-to-school' period whereas the summer is the best period for this type of purchase.
However not everything is black; Apple ceased making advertisements for products which will not be available one month later. When they announce a new product, it is already ready to leave the factories in sufficient quantity (except for the iPhone 3G) to satisfy the needs.
But the problem remains for the students who need to buy Mac for their return to university. They have the choice between paying for a machine which will quickly be outdated by a new better product, to go to the Refurb store which has less and less low priced portables, to buy a EEEPC or even sometimes to build Hackintosh based on a very cheap portable PC.
The least impatient will await, if they can, to October 14, which seems to be the deadline for the renewal of the portables. We have heard that it will be worth the wait, the new products having very many advantages compared to those currently proposed.