Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:
Data Highway: An internet expert says Apple (AAPL) is negotiating deals with a variety of internet service providers (ISPs) to pave the way for its own content delivery network. In a post on his blog, Dan Rayburn indicates that Apple is forging direct interconnection agreements with “some of the largest” U.S. ISPs and is paying for the service. Rayburn notes that since the start of the year, “Apple has been very busy with their build-out deploying a lot of boxes running Apache Traffic Server and buying a ton of transit, co-location, wavelengths and other infrastructure services.” He reveals that Apple’s content delivery network is expanding fast. Rayburn notes that Apple has conducted its negotiations with ISPs quietly and has not made a public issue of payments to ensure speedy delivery of its content, unlike Netflix (NFLX), which has taken a very public stance in the net neutrality debate. Apple isn’t alone in paying interconnection fees to ISPs, Rayburn says. Other major tech companies with similar content delivery networks include Microsoft (MSFT), eBay (EBAY), Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB) and Pandora (P). Apple is building its content delivery network “because of performance issues with iCloud, with Apple wanting to have more control over the end-user experience,” Rayburn explains. Apple’s content delivery network could be used to transmit software updates, iTunes downloads, iCloud data and streaming content.
Second Place: Apple is no longer the world’s most valuable brand, CNET notes. Research firm Milward Brown estimates that the value of the Apple’s brand has dropped 20% to about $148 billion compared to last year. Meanwhile, the firm says that Google’s brand value has jumped 40% over the past year to about $158.8 billion, putting the search engine giant firmly on top of the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2014. According to a Milward Brown Global BrandZ executive, Google saw its value soar because it is “making ambitious plays across existing category boundaries.” IBM (IBM) came in third place, followed by Microsoft. Apple’s mobile device arch-rival Samsung was ranked 29th on the list.
Big Apple: Apple is planning to add an Apple Store to Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Sources tell the Daily News that the iPhone-maker is working to open a new store in a building once owned by the U.S. Mortgage & Trust Co. The historic structure, located on East 74th Street, has more than 12,000 square feet of space, including 95-feet of frontage along Madison Avenue. While Apple hasn’t said that it has begun work on the building, architectural and engineering firms associated with other Apple Store projects have applied for permits to begin renovating the building. The new location would be the sixth Apple Store in New York City.
For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.
