Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:
Delayed: Apple‘s (AAPL) entry into the Internet radio business has been delayed by its failure to negotiate licensing agreements with all the major record labels, TheVerge notes. While Apple has struggled to get the labels on board with its service, rival Google (GOOG) managed to secure deals to launch its own service, which was announced this week. Google was able to leapfrog ahead of Apple by simply offering a fully subscription-based service. That model made negotiating payment terms with record labels relatively easy. Apple, however, wants to create a service modeled on Pandora (P), with additional on-demand features. Negotiating a licensing fees for such a hybrid service is significantly more complicated. While Apple has secure agreements with some labels, others are balking at its fee terms. Apple’s inability to secure agreements with all the labels could delay the announcement of iRadio beyond it Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Reports last year indicated that Apple had planned to launch the service as early as the first calendar quarter of this year.
Flying Lighter: The United States Air Force will integrate 18,000 iPads into its flight operations in order to save money, AppleInsider notes. The iPads will replace heavy paper-bound manuals. The weight difference between the iPads and the manuals they replace by itself will save the Air Force $750,000 in annual fuel costs. Additionally, not having to print all those manuals will save the service $5 million a year. Air Force officials estimate that adopting iPads on its aircraft will result in a total savings of more than $50 million over the next decade.
Big Move: Apple is planning to build a new retail store for San Francisco to replace the location it opened almost a decade ago, AllThingsD notes. The company has submitted a proposal to the city’s planning commission that would renovate a building at Union Square. Under the plan, Apple would create a 24,189-square-foot store, almost half again as large is its current location in the city. The new store will employ 400 workers. That’s about 50 more than the current location. A wall of glass, several stories high, will encase the front of the new store, allowing passersby the see the entirety of the two-level retail space. Apple noted that its current San Francisco store has handled 13 million customers in nine years of operation.
For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.
