A new power is rising. As noted by Apple 2.0 this morning, the MacBook has risen to the #1 spot on Amazon's best-selling computers list. This is significant because, well, it's the busiest shopping time of the year, it's a Mac, and it's several hundreds dollars more expensive then any of the other machines around it. It looks as if people are willing to pay more for what they feel is a quality product - long a contentious point among critics.

Perhaps even more significant though is the fact that Apple now controls 8 of the top 25 slots for best-selling computers. That's a 32% share of the top-selling list for those keeping score. While it is only one retailer, it is a very large one and 32% is quite a bit higher than Apple's current market share of between 6 and 7%.

Add this to yesterday's revelation that 5 out of the top 10 electronic best-sellers overall on Amazon are Apple products right now (including the #1 iPod Nano) and that 6 out of 10 of Amazon's "most gifted" products are Apple products (again with the iPod Nano at #1), and that company in Cupertino is likely having a very merry Christmas as they gear up for MacWorld.

I could go on and on about this being yet more signs that we're into the 'Age of Apple', but I'll simply point to four other articles I've written on the subject starting at the beginning of the year:

• We've already entered the 'Age of Apple'
• Apple Continues to Kick Ass, Microsoft Content to Take Names
• Mark Cuban Is Just Your Average Mac Convert, and I Can Relate, Welcome to the Age of Apple
• Apple Kills Microsoft Going Forward (With An Assist from Google), An Opus

I do still believe it would be wise for Apple to develop more lower-cost machines, even if they make less of a profit from them, because that is still the thing I hear the most: "I would buy one if they weren't so damn expensive". Once those people buy one, you'll likely have them hooked and they will continue to buy Apple computers - at more expensive prices. I know that has been the case with me.

The key here - as I'm sure Apple knows - would be to not sacrifice quality.

But perhaps the plethora of new mobile computing devices Apple supposedly has in the works will fill that roll of "gateway" device. After all, the line between a product such as the iPhone and a low-end laptop is quickly blurring.