Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Thursday. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) welcomes gaming to Apple TV according to hints in the iOS 4.3 beta. The iPad 3 may release within 6 months of the iPad 2 according to one prominent industry pundit. Finally, one Wall Street analyst predicts that the Verizon iPhone will eat away 1 million Android phone sales this quarter.
Seeds of Apple Gaming on Apple TV: Rumors that Apple is looking to break into the home video game console business have been swirling around since the company’s inception. The house of Steve Jobs has made significant inroads into the mobile gaming market in recent years thanks to the runaway success of the Apple App Store on iOS platforms and even into PC gaming thanks to the recent support of developer Valve’s Steam digital storefront. Now, according to a Thursday report from Engadget, there are new hints that Apple will position its Apple TV set top box as a video game console in the future. The most recent beta version of the iOS 4.3 operating system update has evidence of Apple TV support for a game controller accessory, an extension of the Game Center multiplayer gaming network from the iPhone and iPad, and a new digital storefront. Evidence for these new features are in multiple code references to “ATVGames” and “ATVThunder,” the ladder of which may in fact be the name of a new streaming games service on.
iPad 3 Due in Fall 2011 Alongside Annual iPod Release: The much-rumored iPad 2 may already be old news if John Gruber of the respected Daring Fireball blog is to be believed. According to a post published on Wednesday, Gruber says that the newly announced TouchPad tablet from Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ: HPQ) would go head to head with a third-generation iPad when it releases this fall. Gruber did clarify that this was speculation, but that he believes that Apple will move to position future iPad announcements and releases to the fall window traditionally reserved for new iPod releases, allowing future iPhone releases (traditionally due in spring) to be uncrowded by tablet updates. This would not preclude the heavily rumored release of a second-generation iPad this coming April, which would make the fall release more of a iPad 2.5 model. TechCrunch‘s MG Siegler followed Gruber’s report by saying that his sources indicate that Apple is preparing a “big fall surprise” related to a third-generation iPad. One likely scenario: the iPad 2 due this spring will be a 3G device, while this fall’s iPad 3 is a 4G device.
CDMA iPhone 4 to Disrupt Android Sales by 1 Million: Thursday’s release of the CDMA iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless’ (NYSE: VZ) network could mark a major turning point in the battle between Apple’s smartphones and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android mobile operating system. Though comScore’s most recent report on smartphone OS market share, published on Monday, shows Android ahead with a 28% market share compared to Apple’s 25%, the CDMA iPhone 4 might turn the tide this quarter. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told investors in a note released Thursday that prior to the Verizon iPhone 4’s announcement, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) would likely have sold between 4 and 5 million Android phones in the first quarter of calendar 2011. Now Verizon will likely sell around 1.5 million iPhones this quarter according to Munster, lowering Android phone sales on the network by about 1 million.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
