Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Monday:
The Spartan Way: Facebook’s Project Spartan is rumored to be an app store built on the HTML 5 web standard running on mobile phones rather than as a program specific to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT), or Research In Motion’s (NASDAQ:RIMM) specific platforms such as iOS or Android. It’s thought that the new digital storefront will compete head to head with Apple’s app store, but a new rumor suggests that both companies realize how much they need one another for success in the mobile space. Techcrunch’s MG Siegler wrote on Friday that Apple is actual giving Facebook “minor support” in developing Project Spartan. His claim is that Apple is willing to help because it doesn’t see Facebook’s store as a threat to its own digital storefront on the iPhone and iPad.
New Macs: Rumors suggest that Apple has a brand new model of its popular MacBook Air laptop ready for release this summer, but that it’s holding the device back, waiting to release it alongside Lion, the latest major update to its operating system. According to aCNet’s Brian Tong (via Apple Insider), Apple will put out new models of many other devices in its PC line. Joining the new MacBook Air will be a new model of the high-end Mac Pro desktops, as well as a new model of the compact Mac Mini. These new PCs will use Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) new Sandy Bridge processor. Tong believes that they will likely be released in August, meaning that Apple will come out with new machines right at the peak of the back-to-school shopping season.
I Spot Spotify: There have been rumors that Swedish Internet radio service Spotify, a major European competitor for not just Pandora but also iTunes, will be opening for business in the U.S. A Friday report at All Things Digital says that the company is finally ready to open following a round of funding that brought in $100 million and values the company at $1 billion. It has signed most major music labels to the service with Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) Warner Music being the last holdout. A late summer or early fall release would see Spotify competing head-to-head with the new iCloud music service from Apple.
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.
