Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:
Slip: Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone saw its share of the worldwide smartphone market fall below 20% during the first calendar quarter of 2013, AppleInsider notes. The analysis comes from market research firm IDC, which notes that Apple held a 17.3% share of the global market during the quarter, down from 23% during the same time last year. Rival Samsung, by contrast, saw its market share rise from 28.8% last year, to 32.7% this year. Global iPhone shipments rose from 35.1 million units last year, to 37.4 million this year. Samsung’s smartphone shipments soared from 44 million units last year to 70.7 million this year. Apple was the only smartphone maker in the top five worldwide manufacturers to see its market share fall during the period. Last quarter also marked the first time that global smartphone shipments eclipsed those of feature cell phones. During the quarter, 216.2 million smartphones were shipped worldwide, accounting for 51.6% of all global phone shipments.
Too Soon: in a conference call on Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that that the company should have waited to launch its refreshed line of iMac computers, TUAW notes. The new super-slim profile iMac debuted in November. However, customers hoping to get one in time for the holidays encountered long wait time due to constricted supplies of the new machines. Apple’s Asian manufacturing partners faced significant production hurdles with the new machines due to the complex way Apple had fused the screen with the exterior casing. Cook said the decision to launch the new machines prior to the holidays was made because the company felt customers had been waiting so long for an update to the iMac line. If the company had delayed the launch to the new year, customers who ordered the machines wouldn’t have faced lengthy fulfillment waits. The lack of new iMacs contributed to a 17% decline in Mac sales during the December quarter.
Gone Quick: Tickets for Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) sold out in two minutes, MacRumors notes. Tickets for the annual event went on sale yesterday. The WWDC will be held in San Francisco from June 10 to June 14. The event is closely watched for clues about upcoming Apple products and changes to its Mac and iOS operating systems. Due to the rapid sell-out, Apple is reaching out to selected software developers who were unable to purchase tickets to the event to offer them the chance to buy specially-reserved tickets. By contrast, in 2010, it took eight days for WWDC tickets to sell out. The tickets were priced at $1,599 each.
For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.
