Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Thursday:
PC Market Shrinks: Both Gartner and IDC have issued reports that find the global PC market declining in the first quarter, though their findings differ significantly. IDC reported that PC shipments fell by 3.2% while Gartner said they fell by just 1.1%. While this is especially bad news for Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ:HPQ) and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), it’s excellent news for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Not only is the company’s iPad continuing to erode PC sales, the company’s own line of Mac desktop and laptop computers are gaining ground on old rivals. Gartner said Apple PC sales grew by 18.9% in the first quarter, making the company the No. 5 PC manufacturer in the U.S. IDC, meanwhile, reported growth of just 9.6%, but says Apple has surpassed Acer to become the No. 4 PC maker in the U.S.
Cloud Work: Apple has been vague on plans for so-called cloud (Web-based) services for all its products, from the future of its existing MobileMe ervice to its iTunes media store. Competitors like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) have all opened data and entertainment cloud services in the past 18 months. Those plans appear to be still in the preliminary stages, based on a recent job listing uncovered by AppleInsider. A listing titled “Cloud Systems Software Engineer” highlights Apple’s search for an engineer to join a “small team” developing “the future of cloud services at Apple.” A February report in The Wall Street Journal said that Apple is preparing to unveil a completely new MobileMe service when it debuts the iPhone 5 and iPhone Nano in the fall of 2011.
White iPhone 4 Sighting: The white iPhone 4 has gone from pleasant product alternative to mythical beast over the past 12 months. Originally set to be released alongside the black iPhone 4 in June 2010, the white phone was delayed by a month for unspecified reasons, then into the fall, then into spring 2011. Rumors claimed everything from problems with translucent casing material to even more significant problems with the iPhone 4’s well-publicized troublesome antenna. Bloomberg has reported Thursday that Apple will finally release the white iPhone 4 within the next month. This release may fill the gap made by the iPhone 5’s release being pushed from June to September.
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.
