Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:
Common Ground: When Apple (AAPL) launches its new flagship iPhone 5S and a widely anticipated low-cost iPhone 5C next month, technology inside the phones could finally bridge the gap between the smartphone maker and the world’s largest wireless carrier, Reuters notes. Apple has already secured deals with China Unicom (CHU) and China Telecom (CHA), but not China Mobile (CHL), which has 740 million subscribers. The iPhone’s market share has been sliding in China under competition with cheaper smartphones and most analyst see both a cheaper version of the iPhone and a deal with China Mobile as crucial to regaining market share. But China Mobile has so far balked at Apple’s contractual requirements. The carrier’s existing TD-SCDMA 3G network technology is also incompatible with existing iPhones. However, the new Qualcomm (QCOM) chips reportedly inside the new iPhones will work with both China’s new TD-LTE 4G network technology and FDD-LTE technology using on most other worldwide wireless networks, meaning that Apple would not have to redesign the iPhone to work with China Mobile. Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook was reported to met with China Mobile executives in China, presumably to discuss the terms of bringing the iPhone to the wireless carrier.
Privacy: Apple has moved to boost data security for its youngest users, MacRumors notes. The App Store Review Guidelines have been changed to prohibit app developers from obtaining information on users below the age of 13 in the absence of parental approval. The new restrictions prevent developers from collecting data from photographs, video and audio files as well as name, address and contact information. The changes come as Apple prepares a new educational push for iOS that will allow children under 13 to open their own iTunes accounts. Apps will now have to include a privacy policy and restrict behavioral advertising to children.
Next Step: Apple will face a new trial next year to determine the damages it will pay for violating anti-trust laws when setting prices for e-books on the iBookstore, Reuters notes. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, who found Apple guilty of price-fixing charges last month, has scheduled the new trial for May 2014. The U.S. Department of Justice and 33 states sued Apple and five publishing companies for colluding to raise e-book prices through the adoption of an agency model for pricing on the iBookstore. The publishers settled with the government ahead of the trial, paying $166 million, collectively, in fines. Apple could be hit will hundreds of millions of dollars in fines resulting from Judge Cole’s earlier verdict. Apple has indicated that it will appeal the judge’s earlier ruling.
For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.
