Here is your daily Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock news and rumors for November 17th, 2010. After being denied approval for months, Google’s official Google Voice app is coming to the iPhone App Store. More news about the Beatles’ music catalog coming to iTunes, as word comes out that Apple beat out Amazon and Google for exclusive rights to the band’s music through 2011. Finally, one analyst has a surprisingly grim outlook for the iPad and the tablet market.
Official Google Voice Application Gets Apple App Store Approval: After a year of back and forth between the major technology competitors, AAPL has finally given approval to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) for the sale of an official Google Voice app in the iPhone app store. The free app gives full access to the Google Voice VoIP service, including free text messaging, Direct Access Number phone calls, and cheap international call rates, features that many speculated kept Apple from indefinitely stalling approval for the app in the past twelve months. When Apple announced that it would be easing the App Store approval process by instituting a new set of guidelines for development last September, many wondered if this signaled that Apple would be allowing previously blocked apps developed by the Cupertino, Calif. company’s competitors like Google and Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE).
Apple Beat Out Google and Amazon.com for Beatles iTunes Exclusivity: A report from the New York Post says that the rights to digitally distribute the Beatles’ music will remain exclusive to Apple and the iTunes music store throughout 2011. The report also says that the Beatles’ company Apple Corp and their label EMI were in negotiations with both Google and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), but made a final exclusive deal with Apple at the end of last summer. Since the band’s albums became available on iTunes yesterday, all of the available recordings, as well as one “box set” collection, have entered the iTunes Top 50 downloads chart.
iPad Supply Chain Woes, Sales Hurt By MacBook Air Says Analyst: At least one Wall Street analyst isn’t convinced that AAPL’s iPad represents the definitive future of the computing industry. Ashok Kumar of Rodman & Renshaw’s issued a note to investors predicting troubling news for Apple’s tablet and the tablet market as a whole. Kumar says that he expects Apple to not meet their expected rate of shipping 3 million iPads every month by the end of 2010, and that it is more likely just 2 million iPads will be sent out each month, causing lower than expected revenue totals akin to those seen at the end of Apple’s third quarter this year.
He went on to state that anecdotal evidence suggests that the new MacBook Air model is beginning to cannibalize sales of the tablet, as its broader functionality makes it a more attractive purchase for the average consumer. “[If] current trends continue, the Tablet market may not end as much more than iPads or a tweener product between smart phones and next generation thin-and-light notebooks a la MacBook Air,” Kumar concludes. Investors would be well advised to consult iPad sales data before taking Mr. Kumar at his word.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
