Selling apples on street corners

Apparently our great grandparents were onto something when they sold apples on street corners during the Great Depression. While I've never seen their quarterly earnings reports from that period, I know there were a number of folks who supported their families that way, at least for a time.

Fast forward to today and whatever we're calling this economic scenario: apples are still selling better than expected. After the market close Apple Computer (AAPL) announced earnings of $1.78, slicing and dicing the analyst's expectations for $1.39. I'll admit that I wasn't blown away by the traffic in their stores on Black Friday, but they did have some of the more consistent traffic over the holiday period.

Technology "toys" are obviously still big business. And the iPhone was one of the few must-have items this year.

I still don't believe that all technology is going to be able to press out numbers like these, but it's nice to know a few surprises to the upside are still possible.