" Meanwhile, users of Apple's Mac and iOS devices have combined to share 125 million documents in the cloud; they've also shared more than 60 million photos using the new shared photo streams service. And iMessage users are now exchanging 28,000 messages per second.

" On the iOS platform, Apple's iBooks application now has 1.5 million books available; more than 400 million books have been downloaded since the app's launch. iBooks textbooks, Cook said, are now used in more than 2,500 classrooms nationwide.

" And the broader App Store now contains 700,000 apps, including 275,000 made specifically for the iPad. Customers have downloaded more than 35 billion apps, and Apple has paid out $6.5 billion to app developers.

" The Mac product line has done pretty well, too. Cook said that for the year ending in June, its sales outgrew the PC market by seven times--the sixth straight year Apple has outperformed the market. The result? Macs are the No. 1 desktop and laptop computers in the United States.