Here is your daily Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock news and rumors for November 15, 2010. In China, one company looks to invalidate Apple’s iPhone patents based on how Chinese smartphone patents must be worded. In other news on the bright side for Apple, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and its new Slate 500 tablet PC don’t post much of a threat to the iPad. Finally, the FCC may have to step into protect Apple’s current distribution deal with NBC Universal if Comcast’s acquisition is approved.
Hewlett- Packard Tablet Fails to Compete With iPad Due to Low Demand: Last month, Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ: HPQ) announced its release plans for the HP Slate 500. The Apple iPad killer has impressive specifications: An 8.9-inch multi-touch screen with a 1024 X 600 pixel resolution, support for Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 7 operating system, 64GB of Flash storage, 2GB of RAM, and an impressive 5-hour battery life.
It also has an impressive price point, retailing at $799, $100 more than the 64GB, WiFi-only model of the iPad. Tech industry and market analysts alike expressed skepticism over the Slate 500’s chances to dent AAPL’s stranglehold on the current tablet market. That skepticism seems to have been well placed. According to a report from tech blog Engadget, HP has manufactured just 9,000 Slate 500 tablets as of this weekend, and apparently had to bump that number up after planning to only build 5000 units for the device’s initial launch. Has HP sent the Slate 500 to die? Is a better, more competitively priced tablet on the way?
Chinese Company Guns For iPhone Design Patents With New Lawsuit: AAPL is already having trouble protecting its design properties in China. The company recently brought a lawsuit against Meizu in the country, accusing the mobile phone manufacturer of marketing a blatant iPhone imitator that copies both the form and technological design of Apple’s popular smartphones. Chinese law only allows for individual product patents, giving Apple a case against Meizu, but that legal stucture has allowed Luoen Network Information to file its own suit against AAPL. According to The Beijing Times, Luoen is claiming that Apple’s Chinese patents are invalid because they do not cover a single product, but three separate models of iPhone. Apple’s Chinese business has boomed in the past six months, with launches for WiFi-enabled models of the iPad and iPhone 3G. Apple’s iPhone 4 debuted earlier this fall to better than expected sales, with the initial 100,000 unit shipment selling out on pre-orders alone.
Comcast Acquisition of NBC Universal Will Come With New AAPL Deals: The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission are expected to approve Comcast‘s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) acquisition of NBC Universal from General Electric (NYSE: GE) before the end of the year. They are also, however, expected to set strict conditions to prevent Comcast for nullifying existing distribution deals that will block NBC Universal content from competing distribution channels, especially digital outlets like Netflix‘s (NASDAQ: NFLX) streaming video and DVD rental service and Apple Inc.’s iTunes store. A report in today’s Wall Street Journal says that Comcast is likely to try to block digital outlets, going so far as to slow Comcast Internet service subscribers’ access to iTunes.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
