After a tough summer, Apple enters its comfort zone

Apple's biggest product strengths--iPods and iTunes--figure to be on the agenda when Apple executives take the stage in San Francisco Tuesday for a music-themed press event. But after a tumultuous summer, the iPhone and a series of public-relations setbacks will likely be on the minds of anyone attending or watching the presentation--not to mention the company hosting it.

Apple's summer has been one of highs and lows. The company launched the iPhone 3G in the U.S. and 20 other countries on July 11, selling 1 million phones during that opening weekend. Since then, the iPhone 3G has arrived in nearly two dozen other countries, expanding Apple's reach around the globe. At the same time, the 3G rollout on July 11 was marred by activation woes, the launch of the rebranded MobileMe service has been fraught with problems, and Apple's App Store--while a financial windfall for Apple and developers alike--has also been a source of huge frustration for software makers.

Tuesday's press event marks Apple's first major product announcement since June 9. Still, analysts who track Apple don't expect what's happened over the summer to have much of an impact on the appeal of whatever is unveiled this week.

"I don't think [Apple] has really been damaged that much" this summer, said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of market research firm Jupitermedia and editor of the MobileDevicesToday blog. "We haven't seen iTunes downloads slow down or Mac sales slow down."

Indeed, iTunes passed retail giant Wal-Mart earlier this year to become the top music retailer in the U.S. And for its fiscal third quarter ending in June, Apple sold the most Macs in its history--the fourth time in five quarters the company had set a sales record.

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