Here is your daily dose of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock news and rumors for July 26, 2010. iPhone 4 sales goes on tour at the end of this week, launching in 17 countries on Friday. On the software front, Apple prepares to release iLife ’11, the latest revision on the popular program suite.
iPhone 4 Launches in 17 New Countries on Friday: In a press release distributed this morning, AAPL announced their plans to release the iPhone 4 on the international stage. The iPhone 4 will be available in 17 countries on Friday morning. Tech savvy Apple fans in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland will be able to purchase their new iPhones at Apple’s line of retail outlets as well as at a variety of authorized third-party retailers. South Korea is notably excluded from the list of countries getting the iPhone this week, as they were included in the original list of territories when the iPhone was first announced at the end of last Spring. AAPL CEO Steve Jobs mentioned earlier in July that is was possible that South Korea would see a delay due to trouble getting approval of the device from the South Korean government. Meanwhile, Apple’s carrier partner in South Korea, KT, claims that Apple hasn’t even submitted the iPhone 4 for approval in the country yet.
Apple Highlights Motorola Droid X’s Antenna Problems: While AAPL has been making strides in recent days to try and fix the PR damage done by the iPhone 4’s antenna problems, the company has also been publicly tearing down its competitors, claiming that numerous smartphones on the market suffer from the same signal issues as their new device. Apple opened the Smartphone Antenna Performance page at apple.com/antenna, providing video evidence that the Reseach in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC’s Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android-powered Droid Eris, Samsung’s Windows Mobile Omnia II, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N97, and even Apple’s iPhone 3GS all suffer from the same “death grip” problems as the iPhone 4. Today Apple added Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid X to the site. The Droid X also happens to be the face of Verizon (NYSE: VZ) new smartphone initiative. Apple’s jab at the device could be interpreted as sour grapes over Verizon’s rumored hesitance to release a Verizon iPhone in the wake of Antennagate.
Apple to Release iLife ’11 on August 7: Coming over eighteen months after the reveal of the most recent iteration on Apple’s iLife application suite is a rumor that iLife ’11 will be releasing in just over two weeks. According to a story at Macworld.co.uk, iLife ’11 will launch at $79 and will include an unnamed new mystery application not featured in previous suite updates. Improvements over last year’s iLife ’09 include a completely redesigned iWeb application, better social network integration, superior faces & places functionality in iPhoto, and the removal of the iDVD app. All applications will run in 64-bit.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
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