There’s a quiet branding change in Apple’s promotion of Lion. While the press releases and even the new About This Mac window still refer to 10.7 as Mac OS X, Apple begun to move towards the OS X label instead; yes, without the word Mac. Compare that to the way the iPhone OS became iOS as different devices used that OS.

For now, OS X is still strictly for Macs. Unless Apple, after 27 years, opts for a different name for their personal computers, I suppose Mac will still be used to identify the hardware. But you wonder whether OS X is just market speak, or heralds an effort from Apple to build new generations of computing devices that will use the same operating system, but won’t, strictly speaking, be Macs.

Of course, you can say that the iPad, with the iOS, is also a form of personal computer. Indeed, when you combine iPad and Mac sales, Apple becomes a top-tier PC maker around the world. But Mac sales alone were sufficient for Apple to grab the number three slot in the U.S. this past quarter.

Beyond this branding exercise, it appears Apple is serving two masters with Lion. First is the iOS customer who owns an iPad, an iPhone, an iPod touch, or some combination of the three, and is using a Mac for the very first time. By incorporating common interface elements in both the iOS and OS X, the learning curve is reduced.

You assume, though, that most of these customers are still using Windows, and what Apple has done, in part, increases the learning curve for them if they switch to the Mac. This is particularly true with the default scrollbar setting that reverses the usual direction. On the other hand, being able to resize a window from all corners is just what the Windows user has always done; ditto for full-screen document windows, now, in somewhat different form, part of OS X.

Apple is certainly making a greater effort than ever to help the Windows user bring their stuff over to a new Mac with as little pain as possible. Consider the latest Migration Assistant. According to Apple: “With OS X Lion, you can migrate all the information from your old PC to your new Mac. Lion automatically transfers your home directory folders (music, pictures, desktop, documents, and downloads), browser bookmarks, and user settings, including localization, locale, and customized desktop picture. Lion also transfers your contacts, calendars, and email accounts (Outlook and Windows Live Mail) and puts them in the appropriate applications.”

In all fairness to the Windows fans in our audience, I realize some of you may have customized your files and folders in a way that isn’t transparent to Migration Assistant, or perhaps you’re using an email app that isn’t made by Microsoft. I would think, though, that most of you will find Apple’s method of copying your stuff over to be quite efficient. But, of course, we’ll know better when there’s more feedback on what happens in the real world.

Apple is also trying hard to focus the Mac user’s attention on working in apps, not fiddling with files and folders. Between new ways to merge folders, and create new ones, not to mention auto-save and other features, the traditional desktop and file management metaphors are slowly going away. This isn’t a dumbing down of OS X, although that’s an impression that would seem to make sense. Instead, it’s a way to get the OS out of the way, so you can better concentrate on your work.

Indeed, some of the biggest problems confronting users of Macs and Windows PCs relate to file management. Spotlight was designed to simplify the search process, although it remains somewhat flawed. The Lion Finder also has an All My Files feature, which operates independent of the folder in which those files reside, and performs the actions implied by that title. Even better, you can sort them by the date they were last opened, so you get a quick gander at the documents you are working on now, and not worry about the older stuff.

Of course, the iOS’s file system isn’t visible at all to the end user, although there are apps that offer some element of file management. But the concept of files, folders and desktop is so 1980s. These days, young people do not necessarily live in that universe, and it’s clear Apple is trying to be forward looking. Also, by somewhat unifying the iOS and OS X, users of both will find it easier to switch back and forth.

Apple has already done this for input devices by offering gesture capability even on the Magic Mouse, and by providing keyboards that all have the same basic feel. I remember how I’d have to spend a few moments acclimating myself whenever moving from a Mac portable to a desktop. Now it’s not such an issue.

Of course, input device unification means nothing if you don’t use an Apple keyboard on your desktop Mac, or an Apple input device. I say yes to the former, when I’m not using the excellent Matias Tactile Pro keyboard, and no to the latter, because I prefer my Logitech MX Revolution mouse.

In any case, with one million downloads on the very first day, and not too many reports of installation problems or bugs, it appears 10.7 is off to a great start.

Many of the reviews of Mac OS X Lion seem cut from the same cloth. The same 10 fundamental features, particularly the enhanced iOS veneer, are cited over and over again. How many times do you need to be told about all the great things you can do by tapping, swiping, and zooming on a touchpad before you decide whether it’s all worth the bother?

Predictably, some of the new window management features are getting their share of criticism. Why should you have to point at a scroll bar before it becomes visible, as you do on an iOS device? Wouldn’t you like to know if that move is worth it, whether the document needs to be scrolled horizontally or vertically before you exercise your fingers? Not that I’m lazy, but this is a feature that can be turned off in System Preferences, which is exactly what I did within minutes after my Lion installs were done.

Reversing the direction of scrolling is also another debatable feature. With an iOS device, you push down, the page goes down. With traditional graphical operating systems, you move the scroll bar down, the document moves up. I’ve compared the former to a front wheel drive car, the latter to rear wheel drive. My friend Jason Snell, Editorial Director of Macworld, says you’ll get used to the new scheme in a few days if you’re willing to keep an open mind. I turned it off. But if I were a fan of gestures, I might choose differently. But I use a traditional mouse, a Logitech MX Revolution, and thus I prefer to stick with the traditional mousing method.

Another key feature of Lion is the ability to reopen your document windows when you relaunch an app, or just restart. This can be a good thing, or one that simply leaves you waiting for all those documents to reopen. Fortunately, you can turn this feature off globally in System Preferences, and not select the appropriately labeled checkbox when restarting. Or if you only want to disable the feature occasionally, just hold down the Shift key when launching an app and it won’t look for the previously opened document windows.

Two of the most important 10.7 features may or may not work, depending on which app you’re using. Auto-Save is meant to operate precisely as advertised, meaning that your documents are regularly saved in the background, so you don’t have to remember to regularly use that Command-S. Versions lets you examine previous updates to your document, so if you decide to ditch something you really don’t want to keep, you can revert to an older version.

All well and good, but don’t give up Command-S just yet. You see, these two features will only work when an app becomes Lion savvy. Same for Full-Screen Apps. While a number of Apple’s own apps, including iWork (just updated) will support these new file and window management schemes, others won’t. Obviously, you don’t want to have to remember which apps are Lion savvy and which aren’t, so the best decision is to continue to use an app’s existing auto-save capability, something you’ll find on such apps as Microsoft Word and QuarkXPress, or continue to press Command-S whenever appropriate. It will probably take months or years for most apps to gain these features.

Another significant change is the way Spaces works. Though not widely used, Spaces allowed you to put one or more apps in its own custom desktop, freeing you from app/document clutter. Unfortunately, Spaces was also flaky, and some apps would mysteriously move from one desktop to another. Whether that’s the fault of the app or Mac OS X, I don’t know.

The Lion version merges the window management into a unified app called Mission Control, which also displays all your open document windows in one place. For Spaces, you just drag the app window to a tiny desktop icon at the top of the screen. You can move them from one place to another, but I’m not sure that the system works any better this way. And, yes, I did remove the preferences for Spaces first before trying out this new scheme.

Speaking of a preference file, Apple has decreed that regular Mac users should see them, or anything in their Users’ Library folder without going through a little extra effort. So you can use a Terminal trick to keep it displayed, or hold down Option and choose Library from the Finder’s Go menu.

My assumption is that Apple has fielded lots of support calls from Mac users who deleted the wrong files. At least if you’re trying to move something from your root Library folder, you’ll have to give your password first, or it’ll just be copied to wherever you drag it. You’ll be forced to think before you screw up, not after.

Over the next few weeks, in addition to all the wonderful eye candy, you’ll be reading about Lion’s glitches and the poorly-implemented features. No doubt there will be a 10.7.1 before long to rid us of some of the worst ills of the first release of Lion. And, by the way, it’s time for you to remove the word “Mac” from the OS’s name. It’s just OS X from here on, so says Apple.

All in all, I’m actually quite positive about 10.7. It’s a worthy upgrade, if you aren’t saddled with PowerPC apps that won’t work. Apple’s ongoing success clearly demonstrates that they are making the right decisions for the most part. But that won’t stop some of the skeptics from believing the company is fated to self-destruct any time now, if only because they keep repeating that same falsehood.

Zooming way, way past Wall Street estimates, at least for the most part, Apple announced Wendesday that its third-quarter profits soared nearly 125% over the same quarter last year, to $7.31 billon, or $7.79 per diluted share. Total sales through June 25, 2011 reached $28.57 billion. As I said, way, way ahead of Wall Street estimates that pegged potential sales at $25 billion for the quarter.

This record-breaker compares to $15.70 billion sales and a net quarterly profit of $2.35 billon, or $3.51 per diluted share, in the comparable quarter last year.

But the specifics are even more compelling. Compared to industry estimates that Apple would sell over 16 million iPhones, they actually moved 20.34 million units, despite the fact that the iPhone 4 is over a year old and, in smartphone parlance, somewhat long in the tooth. Indeed, the next iPhone is not expected before late August or perhaps September, but customers don’t seem to care.

After disappointing analysts by selling less than five million iPads last quarter — and some were skeptical of Apple’s claims they couldn’t meet demand — this time they managed to move 9.25 million. That’s way ahead of estimates that mostly came in at under eight million. More to the point, Apple has just begun to catch up with demand, with one to three-day shipping times quoted at their online storefront. At the same time, there are reports that Research In Motion is about to discontinue the Wi-Fi version of the slow-selling BlackBerry PlayBook.

In response to the unexpectedly good news, Apple’s stock quickly surged to the “magic” level of $403.33, and the sky’s the limit it seems.

The only figure that came up at somewhat less than expected was Mac sales, at 3.95 million, which still represented a 14 percent unit increase over last year, ahead of the PC industry as a whole. Some analysts were suggesting over four million, but it’s also fair to say that some customers might be holding back in anticipation of a MacBook Air refresh, which has been expected for several weeks. Right now, it may will be that Apple was indeed waiting for the release of Lion, so the new OS could be preloaded on the latest and greatest Macs. If that’s the case, we’ll know soon enough, after the July 20th debut of Lion.

These days, the iPod seems an afterthought. Sales fell 20 percent to 7.54 million units, which isn’t so bad, but it’s also clear that this is one product line that will fade slowly, except for customers who don’t want to have their music players embedded in a smartphone or tablet. Indeed, iPod touches accounted for half those sales.

If you want to check more of the hard numbers at first hand, there’s always Apple’s official media release on the subject, which is why I only try to cover the basics in articles of this sort. Besides, that information only represents the start of proper coverage of Apple’s financials.

In Apple’s quarterly conference call with analysts following release of the quarterly financials, it was announced that 91% of Fortune 500 companies are using or testing the iPhone as their primary smartphone. At the same time, 86% of such companies are deploying or testing the iPad; 47% of Global 500 companies are also working with iPads. So much for the suggestion by certain critics that the iPad is a flash in the pan that can only cater to customers with lots of time on their hands. Funny how Apple is almost constantly underestimated.

Other than the release of Lion, Apple was, as usual, coy about future products, but CFO Peter Oppenheimer did mention a “future product transition” that would impact the company’s fall quarter, for which they released the usual conservative guidance of $25 billion in sales. Right now that “future product transition” is apt to be the next iPhone, a new generation of iPods, but I’m still not sold on the rumors of an iPad 3 with a higher-resolution or Retina Display. With Apple still struggling to fill orders of the existing iPad, it hardly makes sense to release something new, unless that model occupies, say, a higher position in the product lineup. Besides, the competition continues to fail miserably at delivering so-called iPad killers.

In response to questions about the Apple TV, COO Tim Cook, who is running Apple while CEO Steve Jobs remains on an indefinite sick leave, continued to call the gadget a “hobby,” even though he says it “continues to do well.” But he didn’t say how well. He added, “We’re continuing to invest in it because we think there’s something there.” Whether this means growing sales of similar products, or a possible Apple initiative into something altogether different, perhaps a full-fledged TV, was left unsaid as you might expect. But I still do not believe Apple wants to become yet another TV maker. Beyond that, it appears all bets are off.

And that’s all I have to say, for now, about Apple’s financials, ahead of going into full-bore Lion mode.

So you know that the Google Android OS is doing quite well as a smartphone OS, but not so well when powering tablets. Well, amend that. You see there are now published reports that developers have begun to pay less attention to Android and more attention to the iOS. Most likely, it’s due to the simple reason that the App Store is a far more favorable environment in which to make a profit. At the same time, more potential customers have iOS gear in their sites than Android products.

It’s fair to suggest that many Android developers go to that platform because of the large user base, hoping that it will be enough to ensure decent sales. But so far, that hasn’t been the case.

But the are other clouds on the horizon confronting Google, which may all conspire to make Android far less welcome by wireless handset makers.

At it’s core, Android is supposed to be a free, open source mobile OS. Licensees agree to the terms, and they are free to alter the interface to their needs — although Google appears to be establishing some roadblocks on the extent of the permitted changes. However, free isn’t always free.

Now you do know, I’m sure, that Google earns the majority of its income from advertising. Other than the small amount of revenue received for business versions of Google Apps and other services, the advertisers pay most of the bills. When you click on a link in a Google app or service, such as Gmail or a search window, the cash register rings, so to speak, and the advertiser owes the preset fee for that click.

All well and good. Whatever works is fine, so long as the customer isn’t inconvenienced, though some of you no doubt wonder just how much your privacy suffers when Google delivers the targeted Web ads you’re most likely to click to learn more. At the same time, it’s not a free ride for the handset makers who make Android gear.

Take HTC, who just lost the first round in a patent skirmish with Apple. It has been estimated that HTC pays Microsoft — yes Microsoft — $5 for each Android device they sell. The reason is that Microsoft has asserted ownership of certain patents related to the Android OS, and that HTC, and other smartphone makers building Android devices, owe them payments. So far, those companies have acquiesced and are writing hefty checks to Microsoft without protest.

Now that Apple has a victory in its belt, you have to wonder what’s going to happen next. Will Apple really ask HTC to stop importing Android-based smartphones? That’s what they are requesting, but such a demand could cause the authorities to consider possible antitrust investigations, which isn’t a good thing. But you have to consider such demands an opening salvo. Apple knows full well that no court would sign an injunction stopping the import and/or sale of the infringing gear without considering another option — royalties.

Can you imagine such an insult to injury? Google creates an open source operating system for mobile devices, for which no royalty or other payments are required. In turn, the licensees have to pay two of Google’s biggest competitors in order to keep building that gear. I suppose Google could call up their legal team and protest, but they have, so far at least, stayed away from the current legal skirmishes. Attorneys for the likes of HTC, Motorola and Samsung have to fend for themselves, and suffer the consequences should they lose their cases. And now, with that recent victory against HTC, the chances that the other defendants might prevail has been seriously hurt.

However, I do not think Apple is going through all this legal rigamarole to defeat competitors in the courts rather than the free market. After all, the iPhone and iPad remain incredibly successful, and it’s quite likely that Apple will again beat the street when the latest quarterly financials are announced later this week.

What it’s all about is intellectual property. Apple spends millions to invent things, and they won’t allow other companies to, they claim, just copy their inventions, and that’s their right. Certainly Apple has had to pay other companies large sums of money to gain the rights to use certain features on their products. They recently agreed to pay what is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars to Nokia to license key portions of a large patent portfolio.

Apple also joined several other companies, including, surprisingly, Microsoft and RIM, to acquire thousands of patents owned by Nortel, a bankrupt Canadian telecom company. That multibillion dollar transaction has gotten approval by the courts, but awaits regulatory approval. Google and Intel were on the losing side, and Google might very well be forced to pay loads of sums directly — not through the proxy of a third party handset maker — to continue to use a number of mobile technologies in Android.

Sure, I agree that patent laws need to be overhauled. Some overly broad patents continue to be granted, but these are the laws we have, and Apple and other companies are going to do what they need to do to protect their intellectual property, and go after violators with a vengeance.

In short, Google appears to be in a heap of trouble — and I haven’t even begun to address that lawsuit from Oracle over Java patents.