Here are your daily Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) news and rumor items for Tuesday: Motorola (NYSE:MOT) takes a shot at the iPad, Apple TV on track to break 1 million in sales before Christmas, a new toolkit is unveiled to lure developers away from Adobe’s (NASDAQ:ADBE) Flash, and the App Store says, bye-bye, WikiLeaks.
Motorola Stabs at Apple: At the D: Dive Into Mobile event two weeks ago, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin showed off a prototype of a Motorola Android tablet PC, hinting that the tablet war between Apple and Google’s mobile operating systems would begin in earnest early in 2011. Motorola fired another proverbial shot on Monday afternoon, releasing a video titled “Tablet Evolution” to tease their Android-powered tablet’s proper debut at the Consumer Electronic Show in early 2011.
The video describes the iPad as being “like a giant iPhone” and even targets the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab, saying its operating system is “Android OS, but Android OS for a phone.” Investors will have to wait until CES 2011 to find out if Motorola and Google have a product appealing to back up their sniping.
Apple TV to Break a Million: Apple CEO Steve Jobs downplayed the re-launch of the Apple TV set-top box, service, and software when they were unveiled last September, emphasizing that the new $99 device was a stepping stone in Apple’s long term television plans. He was right to take a neutral stance on the device, if only to downplay shareholder expectations. While the offering hasn’t made connected set-top boxes standard issue for living rooms just yet, it has been a modest success, meeting with Apple’s expectations. But Apple announced Tuesday that it expects lifetime sales to hit 1 million this week. Given its low cost, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Apple position the
Apple TV as an iPad accessory in the future, one whose AirPlay wireless streaming application lets users stream their iPad on their living room television.
iAd Targets Adobe Flash: On Monday evening, Apple released the new iAd Producer software tool for creating interactive rich media ads built on the HTML 5 Web standard for the iAd network on devices like the iPad and iPhone 4. More than a useful tool for developers to leverage in creating glossy mobile advertisements, the new toolkit is also yet another blow struck against Adobe’s Flash media platform and its widely used developer tools. Apple has sought to break Adobe Flash’s dominance as the media platform of choice on the Web by limiting its functionality on the iPhone and completely blocking it from the iPad, preventing advertisers from using Flash for ads, videos, and game content. The new iAd Producer tool should help further Apple’s agenda of spurring HTML 5 development over Flash.
WikiLeaks App Removed: Apple joined a growing number of companies blackballing anything related to watchdog group WikiLeaks on Tuesday, removing Igor Barinov’s “WikiLeaks App” from the iPhone App Store. The app, released last week and selling for $1.99, gave users “instant access to the world’s most documented leakage of top secret memos and other confidential government documents.”
Apple has not officially stated why it removed the app, but its actions follow those of other digital businesses looking to block anything related to WikiLeaks from being associated with their services. eBay ‘s (NASDAQ: EBAY) PayPal recently blocked WikiLeaks from receiving donations through their service while Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) stopped hosting their data in its “Web Services” department.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
