Apple had a real busy week, first with those stellar financials. Wall Street seriously undercounted iPhone sales, and sometimes Mac sales. Based on Apple’s figures, there are incredible numbers of iPhones being activated around the world. Indeed, it’s now claimed that Apple and Samsung are selling roughly the same number of smartphones. But the Samsung numbers are actually rough guesses, so it may be that Samsung sold somewhat more than Apple, or a few million less. But it sounds better to say they are tied.

With Samsung reporting declining revenue, profits, and smartphone sales, it’s clear the public is not so enamored of the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy Note 4 phablet. All Apple had to do was to make larger iPhones, and they sucked the air out of the Android market. Sure, Android is still the number one mobile platform, and Samsung still sells more more mobile handsets of all kinds than Apple. But most are cheap feature phones that are bought on a budget, or by people who just need a mobile phone without the frills.

But Apple is not free of problems. While the media was poring over Apple’s financials, customers were downloading iOS 8.1.3 for their mobile gear, and OS X 10.10.2 for their Macs. Or at least the gear that could run the newest operating systems. The bill of particulars revealed plenty of fixes, but not everyone is satisfied.

So for iOS 8.1.3, Apple reduced the size of the OS installation file, so folks with gear stuffed with apps and photos, particularly the 16GB and 8GB variety, would have an easier time installing the upgrades. But nobody stopped them from using iTunes on their Macs or PCs rather than over-the-air. It makes for a less storage-intensive experience, but some commentators don’t seem to have noticed.

Despite the fixes, there are still reports of some Bluetooth and Wi-Fi issues. I haven’t encountered any myself, but grant that enough have, and thus Apple may have more work to do. There is also an iOS 8.2 waiting in the wings. Developers have received several betas, and the most notable feature is support for Apple Watch. Since Apple’s smartwatch is not due till April, it may well be that iOS 8.2 will be held up till then as well. But if it gets an earlier release date, perhaps more of those lingering problems will be addressed.

With OS X Yosemite, it hasn’t quite gotten the love, although it’s reported that up to 50% of all Macs have been upgraded by now. With such a large user base, you can bet that even small numbers of reports about bugs will seem large. If you check the Mac App Store, you’ll see that it’s getting a user rating of around three stars out of five. There are still loads of complaints, though the positive ratings have risen slightly.

With the Yosemite 10.10.2 update, Apple took another stab at fixing those annoying Wi-Fi connection issues. I suppose they were attempting to address situations where the previous fix, in 10.10.1, didn’t take. Understand I’ve installed Yosemite on two iMacs, including an old and new iMac, and a 2010 MacBook Pro, and never ran into this issue. But I wonder why the latest update still hasn’t fixed the problem for some users.

The one bug that continues to annoy me is a curious symptom in Apple Mail. I have several large email folders, and maybe that’s a source of the trouble. So after a while, the title bar no longer displays the number of messages in a mailbox. That entire entry, such as “(2200 messages)” disappears completely. I have not been able to trace it to anything but the time the app is open and the fact that I routinely navigate from folder to folder during that period.

I have actually tried deleting and adding all my email accounts, but the problem has not been solved. Since it happens with all of my accounts, which include iCloud, Google and a number of my business addresses, I have been unable to find a trigger. For the most part, it’s cosmetic, except, of course, when I actually need to check a mailbox and see how many messages are in it.

I do understand that Apple is aware of the problem, that a bug report was even marked as a duplicate, but I’ve not yet heard of any plan to make a fix. Typically, software bugs are sorted by priority. Obviously anything that can cause a crash or data corruption gets high priority, and I presume Wi-Fi bugs are also important. In that list, my little problem probably doesn’t rate very high.

So maybe I’ll have to wait until 10.11 for a fix.

Now some are saying that Apple is trying to do to much and has allowed software quality to lag. I hope that’s not true, and that maybe the greater focus on the company these days has made the usual round of bugs seem all the more significant. But if it requires public attention to force Apple to push out a fix, so be it.

I know full well that Apple isn’t about to consult with me about every product marketing decision. So when the 17-inch MacBook Pro was killed in 2012, I may have mourned for the loss of my favorite note-book, but I could understand that maybe it was a little too large and heavy to attract a large number of users. Or I am assuming that is one possibility, the other being that making a Retina display variant might have been too expensive given the state of the technology then. Obviously Apple knows how to do a 27-inch 5K version now, but I do not expect them to resurrect the larger MacBook Pro.

After all, it’s not that sales of Macs have been suffering any.

While it’s certainly heavy and all, I’m quite satisfied with my MacBook Pro. I don’t use it near as much as I used to, of course, because I haven’t traveled so much in recent years. But I do carry it — make that lug it — with me on visits to clients, particularly when my iPhone isn’t up to the task of handling the computer chores I need to perform.

While it benchmarks well enough, to me the MacBook Pro is a real slug mostly because of the traditional 500GB hard drive. Having placed a 1TB SSD in my late 2009 iMac, I can see what a tremendous performance improvement you get from just going SSD. Even though processor-intensive tasks move no faster, anything that requires disk access benefits.

So the boot process on the MacBook Pro would take several minutes since I loaded several apps at startup. Disk-intensive tasks would drag, and I had the impression I was using a fairly lethargic computer. But the specs say otherwise. The unit I have, a standard configuration, sports a 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 300M graphics card.  So it should be no slouch by any means. Since the hard drive tests OK, my solution was obvious, and that was to replace the drive with an SSD.

So I again wrote Larry O’Connor, CEO of Other World Computing (OWC) to see if he could send me a review SSD to install on the MacBook Pro. We settled on a Mercury Electra 6G SSD with 480GB capacity, just shy of the internal drive’s 500GB. Rather than have the old drive catch dust, I also asked them send me an OWC Express Silver drive enclosure as its new home. The SSD lists for $259 at OWC’s site; the enclosure is just $15 extra. OWC also tells me that they offer a OWC DIY Bundle combo kit that includes the drive, the enclosure, and a set of the tools you need to perform the transplant. Even better, it’s only $267.

Why OWC? Well, their SSDs are highly rated, and can be used on Macs with OS X Yosemite without having to use those TRIM hacks for maximum long-term performance.

Having survived replacing the drive on an iMac, I felt I could handle almost anything, but the chore that awaited me was relatively simple. On the iMac, I started out with having to use suction cups to separate the front glass from the LCD. The installation process included removing and reinserting several delicate wiring harnesses. There was the potential for damage to the glass, the LCD and the cables, although I survived the ordeal.

Upgrading a 2010 17-inch MacBook Pro is mostly intuitive if you’ve poked inside Macs before. If not, OWC has a set of useful instruction videos on their site. The required tools include slim Philips head and T6 Torx screwdrivers. Both came in the iMac upgrade kit I received from OWC for the iMac upgrade, so I was ready to go.

Apple doesn’t seem to be happy about customers tearing down their Macs for upgrades. They can’t legally stop you from doing so, but they sometimes add complications to the disassembly/assembly process. For the 2010 MacBook Pros, though, it’s quite easy, except for one potential gotcha, You see, there are 10 of those slim Philips head screws keeping the case shut. So the first step is to remove them, but seven of those screws are so tiny they can get lost real easy. So keep a cup or ash tray at hand, and watch yourself.

I mean really watch yourself. During the course of removing those screws, four of then upped and vanished. I was working on my computer table, using a large towel to cushion the MacBook Pro. The installation came at the end of a particularly long day, and maybe my concentration was off. Or maybe I should curse Apple for using such small screws, so easy to lose.

The actual removal of the drive is simple. First remove the two screws from a plastic cover; the drive itself is connected to a SATA cable. Preparing the new drive merely involves unscrewing four retaining screws from the old device and attaching them to the new drive. I had everything back together in five minutes, but what about the missing screws?

Well, I simply filled every other slot, more or less, and it came together pretty well. I could survive that way, but I was able to order four replacement screws that may have arrived by the time you read this. But what about those missing screws? Well, they are still missing. I checked the desk, the carpeting under the desk, everywhere I could think of. Maybe they’ll be found eventually, but it’s a lesson well learned. Be very careful when you disassemble your tech gear.

Placing the old drive in the Express Silver enclosure was a snap. The drive slides into the chassis-mounted SATA port. You just place the cover on the case, attach it with the two supplied screws, and you’re ready to go. It attaches via a cable to a computer’s USB 2.0 port, and it’s bus-powered. No power cords needed.

I used the old drive for a quick installation of OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 on the new drive, and to restore my data via Apple’s Migration Assistant. And I walked away. It took several hours to transfer roughly 250GB of stuff.

When I returned, I put the MacBook Pro though its paces, launching apps, checking email, editing a word processing document, and updating this blog. Over several restarts, I measured the speed. The full startup process was reduced from several minutes to 30-40 seconds, which included loading four apps. From the very first, I could believe I had purchased a new computer. Without the heat buildup from a busy hard drive, the unit also runs cooler. With a lower voltage storage device, the battery may last somewhat longer too, but I didn’t do any actual measurements.

The long and short of it is that, as SSDs become cheaper, they become a more compelling upgrade for an older computer, Mac or PC. It also means that you can use your hard-earned money for other purposes, because any Mac of recent vintage is plenty fast for most tasks. If nothing fails, you’ll get years of reliable performance, so might as well wait till Apple gives up on releasing upgrades for your Mac, and maybe not even then.

Most Macs these days have SSDs. Apple’s compromise, the Fusion Drive, is available on the Mac mini and the iMac and, for most of you, provides most of the benefits of the pure SSD for a far lower price. In a year or two, it’s possible prices for high capacity SSDs will be cheap enough that Apple will include them on all models as standard issue. For now, an OWC SSD is as perfect a Mac upgrade as you’re apt to find.

So after loads of predictions on how Apple would do for the first quarter, the truth is out there. Ahead of those announcements, there was word of Microsoft selling 10.5 million Lumia smartphones, and perhaps a million Surface tablets, as if ether result is a positive. Hint: They’re not, at least by the standards set by Apple or even Samsung for that matter.

What is certain from Apple’s fiscal 2015 first quarter numbers is that lots of people are buying iPhones and Macs, and not so much iPads. Still, the folks at Samsung must be freaking over Apple’s results, particularly after so many alleged tech and financial pundits originally embraced that company and expected them to destroy Apple.

So Apple reported record quarterly revenues of $74.6 billion, with a record quarterly net profit of $18 billon, or $3.06 per diluted share. Compare those figures to last year’s results, with revenues of $57.6 billon, and a net profit of $13.1 billon, or $2.07 per diluted share. Gross margins were 39.9%, compared to 37.9% in the year-ago quarter. That means Apple is making more money from each sale. This all compares to analyst estimates that averaged $67.69 billion.

So it’s back to “beat the Street” mode, and if the stock market is in any way rational — and that’s usually a stretch — the  share price should be soaring by now. Apple very much appears to be unstoppable.

Down to the specifics: Some 74.5 million iPhones were sold, a figure that defied industry analyst projections and sometimes by a huge amount. At the same time, it’s reported that, even in China, the iPhone is doing extremely well, and Samsung is declining. Indeed, 65% of Apple’s sales last quarter were made overseas.

Mac sales totaled 5.52 million units, a 14% year-over-year increase and the second-best ever compared to the previous quarter. While Apple traditionally doesn’t break down sales by individual models, I fully expect the high-end 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display to have exceeded expectations. It was perennially back ordered during the December quarter, and has gotten rave reviews across the board, except for some complaints about the alleged high price.

I know that when I had an entry-level iMac 5K here for several weeks, on loan from Apple, I quickly understood the attraction. In addition to high-end performance, sometimes exceeding that of the Mac Pro when an app doesn’t take advantage of more than four cores, the 5K display is just wonderful. The fact that Dell wants $2,499, same as the cheapest iMac 5K, for just a 5K display, shows that Apple isn’t overcharging by any means.

During the quarterly conference call with financial analysts, Apple revealed that there were double-digit unit growths in both desktops and note-books. There were, as usual, no individual model breakdowns.

During the conference call, Tim Cook called the results, overall, “hard to comprehend.”

With all the good news, though, there was a pocket of not-so-good news. iPad sales fell to 21.4 million units, down 18% over last year where 26 million copies were sold. But don’t forget that’s still 20 times more tablets than Microsoft moved in the same quarter, yet the latter is being praised for such pathetic results. Could it be that those ubiquitous Microsoft Surface ads, which pit the device against the MacBook Air, may have had the perverse effect of selling the latter?

Despite skepticism about the potential for the iPad, Cook maintains that he’s focused on the long-term, not sales results for any individual quarter. But he did repeat what has already been known, that the upgrade cycle is much longer than an iPhone, “probably between an iPhone and a PC.” He did assert, though, that iPad is used six times more than other devices, which would explain why the online numbers recorded by Apple’s tablet are so dominant.

Regardless, it’s clear that there will be plenty of room to spin the decline in iPad sales, and many will claim that the device has hit a saturation point. But Cook also said that between 50% and 70% of iPad purchases go to first-timers, so that assumption doesn’t wash either.

In other developments during the quarterly conference call, Cook announced that the one-billionth iOS device was sold last quarter, a 64GB iPhone Plus. But Cook would not break out sales of individual models, other than to say that the numbers varied from region to region. I suspect the percentages of the iPhone phablet are higher in Asia, for example, where such gear is far more popular.

Cook also revealed that “only a small fraction” of existing iPhone users have upgraded, and that more Android users are switching to iPhone as the result of the new, larger models. It’s the largest switcher rate in the past three years, but again there were no numbers to consider.

While the future of the iPad may seem somewhat of a question mark right now, the same cannot be said for the iPhone and the Mac, where growth remains high. And nobody can predict how well the Apple Watch will do when it goes on sale this spring, or what Apple plans to do about Apple TV. So many questions and, as usual for Apple, so few real answers, except that they continue to make boatloads of money.

And I haven’t even begun to consider Apple Pay, except for the report that Apple’s mobile payment system now accounts for two out of every three dollars processed through a contactless payment system. Don’t forget that Apple Pay only debuted last October.

I know there’s a tendency on the part of some online pundits to deliberately put Apple in the headline as hit bait. It’s not my intention to do the same thing with an Android slant. Aside from the obvious factual accuracy of this column, I just don’t play the hit bait game. I’d like to believe — naive as the concept might be — that the content will be sufficient to attract an audience.

So there’s a report from CNET with a headline that says a lot, “Google leaves most Android users exposed to hackers.” It’s so important I don’t know why it hasn’t made the headlines of every single mainstream newspaper, not to mention other tech sites. You see, despite the huge sales gains Apple is expected to report this week to the financial community, Android is still the number one mobile platform on Earth. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of handsets and tablets use Google’s OS, so if there are serious questions about security, people need to take notice.

But before I get to the meat of this commentary, let me remind you of the time when a Google executive remarked that Android security wasn’t important. Or when Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt — once an Apple board member — claimed that the Android platform was more secure than iPhone. Of course, few people take such silly claims — or much of anything Schmidt says — seriously, but let’s move on.

Now a known problem with Android is the fact that it is difficult, and usually impossible, to upgrade your gear to the latest and greatest OS. It’s a complicated process, unless you have a product bearing the Nexus label, which is supposed to contain the unvarnished version of Android not polluted with junkware from a wireless carrier or manufacturer. Even then, there are no guarantees, but the chances are better.

The problem Google has long confronted is getting its partners to provide prompt OS upgrades for eligible gear. Unlike Apple, who sends over-the-air updates to any eligible iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, Android updates go through a bureaucracy. First the handset or tablet maker needs to certify the update with their own bundled apps, or junkware. Next up is the wireless carrier who may add their own stuff to the configuration.

If a product isn’t recent, the upgrade priority isn’t high. Manufacturers and wireless carriers are anxious for you to upgrade to new gear, even if that new gear itself uses an older OS. There’s no profit in deploying free updates, so they get less emphasis. While Google has promised to improve this frustrating situation, it’s a hollow promise and hasn’t been fulfilled.

According to the CNET report, the latest problem is a security hole that impacts the default browser that ships with Android. Upgrading to Chrome, a far better browser than the one Google inflicts on you as standard issue,  should fix the problem, but most Android users don’t really bother moving past the default apps.

So what is this security hole? Well, CNET doesn’t seem to understand that readers might actually want to know the specifics, and the dangers in keeping their gear unpatched. The sole specifics, such as they are, are contained in comments quoted from Adrian Ludwig, Google’s security chief, who says, “Keeping software up to date is one of the greatest challenges in security. Because the browser app is based on a version of the WebKit browser engine that’s now more than two years old, fixing the vulnerability in Android Jelly Bean and earlier versions is no longer practical to do safely.”

And why should that be? Well, Ludwig doesn’t explain, and it’s clear CNET isn’t curious.

The Android usage figures quoted in the article claim that 39.1% of smartphones and tablets are using Android 4.4 KitKat, while an additional .1% are using the latest and greatest, Android 5.0 Lollipop. These newer versions of Android aren’t susceptible to this security flaw.

The rest, over 60%, are saddled with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and older and it’s clear that these people, even if they bought their smartphones or tablets yesterday, are being left in the dark.

Another quote, just as curious, comes from Tod Beardsley, an engineering manager at Rapid7, a security firm, who perhaps tried a little hard to be diplomatic about Google’s clear lack of concern for so many Android users. He was quoted as saying he hopes the company will reconsider.

Yes, that’ll get some action.

A more informative report comes from a Forbes article from Thomas Fox-Brewsterm that states that some one billion Android users have been abandoned when it comes to security updates. He writes, “The WebView piece of the messy Android jigsaw allows apps to display web pages without having to open another application. Many apps and ad networks use the component, which the Google Android team even advocates in its developer documentation on rendering web pages. It’s also the favored vector for attack for nearly any remote code execution vulnerability in the mobile OS, according to Rapid7 engineering manager Tod Beardsley.”

In short, this is a disaster in the making, and other than asking Android users with older OS versions to just be careful when they go online, or use a different browser altogether, there is no solution.

Except, of course, to turn these devices off permanently and buy something else. Maybe that’s the intention of Google and its hardware partners, but have they forgotten how well the iPhone is doing nowadays?