Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:

Growing: During the first quarter of the year, Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone was the choice of 39% of smartphone users in the U.S., MacRumors notes. The estimate comes from ComScore’s monthly survey mobile phone use. Apple had the top U.S. market share among manufacturers, with Samsung coming in second place with 21.7%. Apple saw its market share grow from 36.3% in the final quarter of last year. Samsung’s market share rose fractionally from 21% in the last quarter of 2012. Smartphones using Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android OS accounted for 52% of all smartphones in the U.S., but that was down slightly from 53.4% during the last quarter of 2012. BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) was ranked third among smartphone platforms at 5.2%, followed by Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows, which held 3% of the market, up from 2.9% at the end of last year.

Nicht: Apple will have to change is customer privacy policies in Germany, Bloomberg notes. A court in Berlin has ruled that 8 of the 15 terms of Apple’s privacy policy concerning the sharing of customer data are illegal under German law. Apple had been sued by erbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VSBV), a consumer watchdog group. The group’s executive director said the ruling “shows the importance of privacy for consumers in the digital world.” The verdict came after Apple had agreed to a deal with VSBV under which it would refrain from using seven of the 15 clauses in its privacy rules. The remaining eight clauses have now been struck down.

Kick Off: Apple’s manufacturing partners could begin production of Retina screens for a new version of the iPad Mini next month, CNET notes. According to NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim, LG will likely produce the largest share of the Retina screens. Apple has been migrating its component production away from Samsung, formerly one of its biggest manufacturing partners. Shim noted that Samsung would not provide components for the iPad Mini. The Retina screen for the new iPad Mini is expected to feature 2,048-by-1,536 pixel resolution, putting its pixel density on par with the iPhone 5. The Retina iPad Mini is forecast for a fall release, meaning production could begin in June or July.

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