technical features, and solutions of the Company's products. The Company has a significant number of competitors, many of whom have greater financial, marketing, manufacturing, and technological resources, as well as broader product lines and larger installed customer bases than those of the Company. Additionally, there has been a trend towards consolidation in the personal computer industry that has resulted in larger and potentially stronger competitors in the Company's markets.

The Company is currently the only maker of hardware using the Mac OS. The Mac OS has a minority market share in the personal computer market, which is dominated by makers of computers utilizing Microsoft's Windows operating systems. The Company's future operating results and financial condition are substantially dependent on its ability to continue to develop improvements to the Macintosh platform in order to maintain perceived design and functional advantages over competing platforms, including Windows.

The Company is currently focused on market opportunities related to digital music distribution and related consumer electronic devices including iPods. The Company faces increasing competition from other companies promoting their own digital music distribution services, free peer-to-peer music services, emerging companies, and larger companies that may have greater resources, including technical and marketing resources, and supplier relationships. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to provide products and services that effectively compete in these markets. Failure to effectively compete could negatively affect the Company's operating results and financial position.

The Company has higher research and development and selling, general and administrative costs, as a percentage of revenue, than many of its competitors.

The Company's ability to compete successfully and maintain attractive gross margins is heavily dependent upon its ability to ensure a continuing and timely flow of innovative and competitive products and technologies to the marketplace. As a result, the Company incurs higher research and development costs as a percentage of revenue than its competitors who sell personal computers based on other operating systems. Many of these competitors seek to compete aggressively on price and maintain very low cost structures. Further, as a result of the expansion of the Company's Retail segment and costs associated with marketing the Company's brand including its unique operating system, the Company incurs higher selling costs as a percentage of revenue than many of its competitors. If the Company is unable to continue to develop and sell innovative new products with attractive gross margins, its results of operations may be materially adversely affected by its operating cost structure.

The Company must successfully manage frequent product introductions and transitions in order to remain competitive and effectively stimulate customer demand.

Due to the highly volatile nature of the personal computer industry, which is characterized by dynamic customer demand patterns and rapid technological advances, the Company must continually introduce