Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Friday:
Office Growth: A Forrester Research study has found that Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac computers have grown in popularity with businesses in the past year, but the machines are still no match for those running Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) nearly decade-old Windows XP operating system. Of the 400,000 computers used at the 2,500 companies surveyed in April, 11% were Macs. This figure was particularly impressive considering that a similar study last year found that Apple accounted for just 9% of computers. Forrester attributes this growth to the “consumerization” of the workplace, with more employees wanting to use the same computers at work that they use at home. While Windows XP continues to dominate the workplace, with 60% of work stations using the operating system, 21% are using the Windows 7 platform.
Many MacBooks: Although Apple has yet to confirm it, a July release for the company’s new ultra-thin MacBook Air laptops is all but guaranteed at this point. The new laptops, using Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) Sandy Bridge processor, are expected to go on sale alongside Lion, the latest update to Apple’s operating system. A Thursday report from Digitimes suggests that Apple will not only release the new MacBook Air in July but in astronomically large quantities. The article says Apple will ship as many as 8 million MacBook Air laptops in the calendar third quarter. As Mac Rumors reported, however, that figure is somewhat dubious, considering it would be twice the number of all Mac computers that Apple shipped during this year’s second quarter.
Search Results: It looks like Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Microsoft might get a break in the search engine business. The New York Times says that the Federal Trade Commission is about to subpoena Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) in a large civil antitrust investigation into that company’s search and advertising businesses. The FTC is looking to determine if the ways in which Google displays search results and contextual ads are illegally anticompetitive. Previous antitrust investigations of Google have focused on its acquisitions of smaller companies, but this proble will be the first to target Google’s core business. Google’s search engine controls a nearly 66% share of the search business, compared to its closest competitor Yahoo, which controls just 16%.
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.
