A little better than expected.

Not the most exuberant of pronouncements, but when you’re coming off a first quarter in which profit fell 55 percent, it’s cause for a little optimism. Especially, since Otellini says demand is slowly slipping back into its seasonal patterns. “We will see seasonality in the second half,” he said. “I’m getting increasingly comfortable that the dip here is not as aggressive as they are showing.”

The judgment is believed to be the largest anti-spam award to date. Not that it really matters, because MySpace (NWS) is unlikely to collect it. Wallace–who was by some estimates responsible for 80% of the spam on the Net back in his heyday–has rarely paid the judgments against him. Moreover, he has a bad habit of disappearing at the first sign of legal trouble.

And that appears to be exactly what he’s done here. Because the $230 million award given MySpace in this case is a default judgment meted out after Wallace failed to appear in court. “It is … a defendant’s responsibility to respond to discovery, obey court orders and avoid dilatory tactics,” the court wrote in its order. “Taking all of the above factors into account, a default is appropriate. The court finds that Wallace’s noncompliance is due to willfulness, fault or bad faith. … Wallace has had every opportunity to avoid the sanction of default. (He) has never provided any explanation for his behavior to the court.”

Turns out Delaney has no idea whether or not Apple placed such an order. “We have not got confirmation that an order has been placed,” Gartner’s Bob Hafner told InformationWeek, adding, “If Apple was to place an order, then 10 million would be a reasonable number.”

“If Apple was to place an order, then 10 million would be a reasonable number.” Pfttttt …