Tuesday Apple Rumors: Apple Developing iPad MS Office Rival

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daily apple rumors AAPLHere are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:

Office Attack: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is partnering with VMware to develop an online alternative to Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT) popular Office suite designed to support businesses that use iPads, CRN notes. Microsoft itself is reportedly preparing to release Office apps for devices running iOS and Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system early next year. Under the alliance between Apple and VMware, iPad users would get online access to cloud-hosted versions of Apple’s iWork office suite, including its Pages, Keynote and Numbers applications. The offering would be positioned to take on MS Office in the enterprise segment.

Restricted Access: Apple’s infamously tight internal security has only intensified since Tim Cook succeeded the late Steve Jobs last year, Ars Technica says. Unnamed Apple employees interviewed for the report said only a small number of employees were permitted to test new iOS products outside the company’s facilities. Some of the employees expressed frustration that Apple products were receiving so little “real world” testing before hitting store shelves. Despite reports of greater security, details about Apple’s recent iPhone 5 and iPad Mini were widely reported in the press well before either product’s launch, largely through leaks emanating from Apple’s Asian manufacturing partners. That prompted some employees to suggest that heightened security was more needed in Asia than at the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.

Lightning Copied: Asian third-party manufacturers appear to have reverse-engineered the authentication chips found in Apple’s new Lightning connectors and are now shipping Lightning-compatible accessories, AppleInsider says. The new Lightning connector debuted with the iPhone 5 last month. It features a smaller connector compared to the 30-pin connector that was previously standard on all Apple iOS devices, meaning existing docks and accessories are incompatible with the iPhone 5 without an adapter. The third-party Lightning-compatible devices will be priced well below the authorized versions from Apple and are expected to reach the U.S. in time for the holiday shopping season.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2012/10/tuesday-apple-rumors-apple-developing-ipad-ms-office-rival/.

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