Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Thursday:
No Promo: A Wednesday report at Fortune said Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) doesn’t like how companies have been running giveaways with its popular iPhone and iPad. A recent giveaway by a Disney (NYSE:DIS)-owned ABC affiliate in North Carolina offered viewers a chance to win an iPad by following the station on various social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. Apple moved to shut down the giveaway since it violates Apple’s third-party promotion guidelines, which forbids using its devices or iTunes and app store credits as rewards. In fact, promoters who give away iPod Touch devices (a minimum of 250 must be purchased) are not allowed to even use the word “free.” Apple apparently hasn’t made much effort to stop the innumerable display advertisers on the Internet from offering its wares.
No June Swoon: Apple won’t release a new iPhone this quarter as it has in past years. Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White said in a Thursday note to investors that this won’t be a problem, as the iPhone should see better-than-expected sales even without a fifth-generation smartphone. White spoke with Apple’s component suppliers at the Computex Show in Taipei this week and found that shipments of Apple’s iPhone will be flat with those in the first quarter of 2011. Previously, White was expecting a 15% drop in shipments. As Apple Insider pointed out, this means that Apple will likely ship almost 19 million iPhones during the summer quarter, more than double the 9 million shipped during the same period in 2010.
Apple Style: All Things Digital previewed the new Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows on Wednesday and found that the revamped PC operating system takes many design cues from Apple’s iPad and its app store. Like the Windows Phone mobile operating system, the new home platform uses a bright colorful tile arrangement for launching apps, including a large “Store” icon. Microsoft has yet to formally announce or detail its Windows app store.
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.
