Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Monday:
Think Software: Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June will be used to unveil the future of the company’s computer and mobile software. But that does not mean any new software will be run on new Apple hardware. The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple wrote Monday that investors should not expect Apple to debut an iPhone 5 at the event. The WWDC’s role as a developer’s conference, and not as a consumer show, is evidence that Apple won’t announce a new device there, said Dalrymple. On the other hand, it’s not unheard of for manufacturers to announce new products at developer events; Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) announced the BlackBerry Playbook tablet PC at a developer conference last October.
Think Mobile Software: The aforementioned upgrade of Apple’s mobile operating system likely won’t be available until this year’s holiday quarter. A Sunday report from TechCrunch said that the June unveiling of the software indicates a fall release based on past software releases by Apple. The report speculates that a new version of Apple’s mobile platform, iOS 5, will come out alongside a third-generation iPad. A February rumor hinted that Apple would release an iPad 3 within six months of the iPad 2 to broaden its line of tablets. Regardless of a new tablet release, iOS 5 will come to Apple’s current portables this year, and it will reportedly bring Web-based storage for music, video, and picture files to the operating system. This should lower manufacturing costs by doing away with some flash and hard-disk-drive storage needs.
Apple Wins: Score another victory for Apple in the ongoing patent lawsuit wars in the mobile phone industry. The International Trade Commission has ruled in favor of Apple in a suit brought against the company by Finnish mobile giant Nokia (NYSE:NOK). Nokia had claimed that Apple’s phones, iPod media players and computers violated patents held by the Finnish company when it filed the suit in October 2009.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.
