The 2% figure is extrapolated from NPD's less direct assessment:

[A]pproximately 12 percent of all U.S. computer owning households own an Apple computer, up from 9 percent in 2008. While Apple ownership is growing, those households are decidedly in favor of mixed system environments. Of those 12 percent, nearly 85 percent also own a Windows-based PC.

At first glance, these stats almost seem wrong, but when you start think about it, they make sense: The survey polled "households," which, on account of grandma's Compaq or your roommate's gaming PC, clobbers the exclusivity figure. (I live in what any reasonable person would call a "Mac household"—three people who use Macs almost exclusively—but that little Acer netbook sitting on the table means we're not.)

Plus, PCs are cheap and they linger, and Macs, being pricier, tend to find their way into richer households, where more than one computer is almost a given. That, combined the fact that most Macs sold are laptops, and therefore a little more likely to be a supplemental computer, makes the 2% figure look a little less crazy, but still, 2%? Fanboys, you're slacking. [NPD via Macrumors]

What does this mean? Most likely, it means we were right: the desktop PC is sputtering out. Not all the decrease can be attributed to the weak economy, seeing as notebook PC shipments raised by 11.7%. Pretty soon we're going to see desktops become a niche market, reserved only for pros, dental assistants and gamers. [iSuppli]

RAM prices are crazy: chip makers are always seeking the hair-thin balance between supply and demand as far as price goes, making them almost like an OPEC, keeping a tight control on supply. A number of factors lately, though, have led to tons of supply in the market and low prices.

The chipmonkeys at Ars, however, think that today's 26% price increase—happening on the first day of the markets being open since Qimonda's bankruptcy—will not be indicitive of a long-term trend. Still, probably not a bad idea to get that RAM upgrade you've been eyeing sooner rather than later. [Ars Technica]

Registration as a developer at the Market costs $25, but after that, you're eligible for the cheap, unlocked goodness. The Android Dev Phone 1 is fully compatible with Android 1.0, and being able to swap out the SIM card effectively breaks the yoke of T-Mobile's not-so-widespread service. It'll also let you flash custom Android builds that work with the newly unlocked bootloader. The phone even ships for free with fancy detailing on the back. Google warns that it's not really meant for non-developers, but we're sure that won't stop even the least adventurous Googler. [Google and Engadget]

The demo devices give an early version of the Market since it hasn't been launched yet. We needed to be sure that a few of the 3rd party apps are final for consumer use in the Android Market when the T-Mobile G1 officially launches on October 22nd. We're replacing the preview applications with final versions today. After October 22nd, developers will be managing their own applications.

So apparently just a little pre-release cleanup; after tomorrow, though, Mommy's going out to run some errands so you're in charge now, devs.

The reason of the sudden swing was artificial, caused by a large chunk of computer-driven orders that pushed the values up, only to drop down again after these were processed. At least according to the Associated Press, which says that this early roller coaster was "likely caused" by these orders, which "kicked-in when prices had fallen far enough to make some stocks look like an attractive bet. But that buying reflected no lifting of the market's deep despair, and selling continued."

Oh noes. Maybe we should all cheer up and let computers run the whole thing for a while then. Or just send stocks to hell altogether. [AP — Thanks OMGponies]

The data is from Comscore: US 3G subscribers have grown to 64.2 million in the past year, following the introduction of high speed data networks and handsets. That's 28.4% of the population, which is only surpassed (on a country by country basis) by Italy and Spain. Overall, the total penetration in the five biggest European market is 28.3%—63.4 million people. [Yahoo news]

Tossing out on their asses those who forecast gaming console sales by throwing darts at a dartboard, let's take a look at the real numbers: Xbox 360 has sold 9.44 million units so far, the Wii has moved 2.2 million, compared to the measly 854,627 units of the PS3. Maybe those researchers aren't paying any attention to which gaming consoles are actually fun to play. Who's your daddy, PS3? – Charlie White

Research and Markets: PS3 To Win The Console War [Playfuls.com, via Dvorak Uncensored]