Whether or not Apple is "thinking different," it sure looks like the company is thinking big. Cupertino has been maddeningly tightfisted with the sales figures for the past couple of months, but now that the holiday buying season has finally drawn to a close, we're on pins and needles to hear some actual numbers when Uncle Steve does his usual "State of the Mac" address as part of his next Stevenote in a couple of weeks. May we make a not-so-bold prediction about holiday sales on the lower end of Apple's price spectrum based on a heady mix of historical data and raw gut instinct? We're guessing that iMac sales will have been lackluster at best, iPods will have sold quite a bit better than most people expected, and iBooks will have been a frickin' grand slam.

As for that iBook prediction, it's a little more enthusiastic than it otherwise might have been because faithful viewer Echo Santa Smythe tipped us off to a quick little DigiTimes.com news nugget which hints at some pretty bright days ahead. Ever since the new iBook form factor debuted in May and finally put a subnotebook back into Apple's product line-up, we were confident that it would sell like gangbusters, and it did-- but now it looks like it was even more popular that we ever dreamed. Credit Lyonaise Securities reports that Apple has just signed a deal with a third-party manufacturer called Compal Electronics to crank out a cool million of the puppies next year. That's a whole lotta shiny white plastic.

But wait, there's more; many of you may recall that a Taiwanese firm called Alpha Top currently builds Apple's iBooks. So is Alpha Top being given the boot? Au contraire, kids; indeed, just days ago the company stated that "it will remain the largest iBook contract manufacturer in 2002, with orders increasing from this year." The largest, eh? Well, assuming that all these reports are true, with Compal tasked to snap together a million of the things, that means that Apple has contracted the manufacture of over two million iBooks this coming year. And Apple wouldn't do that without some pretty darn spiffing sales numbers (and thus a solid demand projection) to back up its massive order-- at least, not if it wants to avoid seeing its shareholders storm Apple headquarters with torches and a lot of rope.

So here's to the little iBook that sells big-- or at least, it better sell big, what with Apple committed to pumping a couple million of them into the channel over the course of the next twelve months. But we're pretty confident it'll all end well. After all, it's not like Apple has ever grossly overestimated demand before, right? Right?