Here are your daily Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) news items and rumors for Thursday:
We’re No. 1: Apple’s most recent quarter provided the last big push it needed to surge past Nokia (NYSE:NOK) as the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer in terms of revenue. iPhone and iPhone accessory sales totaled $10.5 billion last quarter, while Nokia had said its devices & services division brought in $9.7 billion during its September quarter. Although Nokia is projecting $11.4 to $11.7 billion in division revenue for its holiday quarter, that includes mobile computers, mobile hotspots and other products in Nokia’s stable. By including all of Apple’s mobile products and services like the iPad, which brought in $4.61 billion last quarter, and iTunes, which brought in $1.4 billion, and Apple handily outpaces the Finnish former champion of the mobile industry.
Chinese Support: Apple’s chain of brick-and-mortar Apple Stores did big business in the last quarter of 2010 — its total retail operations (including sales through chains like Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Target (NYSE:TGT)) brought in $3.85 billion, nearly double what it did a year ago. This shouldn’t be too surprising given the opening of many new stores around the world, including new British and Chinese flagship locations. Most surprising, though, is that the Apple stores in China are leading the chain in both revenue and traffic to locations. This is promising in light of Apple’s plans to expand its current 4-store operation in the country to 25 stores over the next year. It’s important to not that Apple’s products sell at significantly higher prices in China; the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4 models, which were released there in the country last September, sell for about $740 and $890, respectively. Higher prices coupled with growing popularity in the country account for Apple’s Chinese retail outlets pulling in major revenue.
Multi-Touch Display In Next Magic Mouse?: Apple’s current Magic Mouse accessory already sports multi-touch technology, its buttonless surface letting users intuitively manipulate the device rather than clicking dual-inputs like traditional mice. A new Apple patent made public this week hints that the next iteration of the Magic Mouse may have more explicitly labeled inputs thanks to a multi-touch display on its surface. The screen would label locations where left and right mouse buttons would traditionally be as well as markings for a number pad function that would pop up for users editing spreadsheets. The purpose of adding a screen to the Magic Mouse is to both make it more “aesthetically pleasing” and “communicative” to the user.
iPad 2 Cameras Are a Lock: A second beta version of the next iOS 4 operating platform update, version 4.3, has been sent to software developers and the operating system update includes a suite of new camera-related applications for the yet-unannounced second-generation iPad. Device-specific versions of both the FaceTime and Photo Both apps are included in the beta version of iOS 4.3. There is also a new MobileMe app called Photo Stream included. Photo Stream will “automatically upload and store the last 30 days of photos on MobileMe and download them to all of your devices,” a service that will presumably make MobileMe gallery sharing automatic rather than something manually performed.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
