Here is your daily Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock news and rumors for September 7, 2010. The Apple iTunes social network Ping is off to a healthy start with 1 million users signing up in the service’s first 48 hours. Unfortunately, many were spammers. Speaking of numbers with lots of zeroes, Apple spent a hefty sum on online advertising through a major competitor’s contextual ad service in the month of June. Finally, the iOS operating system becomes the third most popular platform in the world for browsing the Web. Take that Linux.
iTunes Social Network Ping Draws 1 Million Users: 3 million users have downloaded the new version of Apple’s music player software, iTunes 10, since it released following the company’s media event last Wednesday. Out of that group of early adopters, over one million of them have joined APPL’s new iTunes social network Ping. A “social music discovery” service CEO Steve Jobs described as “Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes,” Ping allows iTunes users to set up profiles to track their musical interests as well as other friends using the service. While 1 million users represents only a small fraction of iTunes’ overall userbase—approximately 160 million users over 23 countries—it still shows a healthy starts for Apple’s new social network ambitions. The only real blemish in Ping’s launch, however, is directly related to the number of spam accounts opened on the service. Numerous fake accounts were opened by spammers in the hours after launch, creating profiles for fishing schemes offering free iPhones. Apple has already begun an aggressive moderation campaign in Ping, with many of the initial spam accounts and comments on Ping profiles removed by yesterday. Once the Cupertino, California company reintegrates Facebook compatibility into the service, Ping will be a social network force to be reckoned with.
Apple’s $1 Million Ad Spend on Google Ads: While it may seem like corporate infidelity given the resources put into the recent launch of iAds, it’s really just good business sense that Apple regularly cuts checks to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) for its omnipresent contextual advertising service Google Ads. Outlet Ad Age recently obtained a copy of a report from Google breaking down what amounts numerous companies spent on Google Ads in the month of June. APPL is just one of 47 companies that spent over $1 million on contextual ads on the service. Interestingly enough, while both companies had a product to sell in June 2010, it was AT&T (NYSE: T) that was the biggest Google Ads spender, with an ad buy of $8 million to push the iPhone 4.
AAPL Mobile OS is Third Largest Web Browsing Platform: While hardcore hacker nerds will undoubtedly scowl at the news, Apple fans will rejoice to hear that iOS, the operating system Apple’s mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch live and breathe on, has become the third most used platform for Web browsing, overtaking the open source darling Linux operating system. Web traffic tracking group Net Applications has just revealed that iOS passed Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) OS Linux in July and grew in August. iOS accounted for 1.13% of all Web browsing by the end of the summer with Linux falling to 0.85%. These numbers were inverted in the fall of 2009, with iOS representing just over 0.4% of Web browsing compared to Linux’s 1%. The shift over summer 2010 is a testament to the popularity and sales success of both the iPhone 4 and the iPad.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
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