Here are your Apple news items and rumors for Thursday:
iPhone 5 for T-Mobile, Too: In the biggest news this week for the biggest company in Cupertino, Calif. … Wait. Did something else happen? Oh … In what was a slightly less consequential Wednesday report at MacTrast (via 9 to 5 Mac), an anonymous informant has indicated that T-Mobile USA will join Sprint (NYSE:S) in October as an official supporter of the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 5. It was thought by some that T-Mobile wouldn’t have official iPhone support until it merged with AT&T (NYSE:T) sometime next year. T-Mobile already supports “unlocked” iPhones (phones not tied to any specific network) sold by Apple. What is curious about the MacTrast report is it claims the new iPhone will operate at “3G speeds” on T-Mobile’s network. The iPhone 4 currently supported by Verizon (NYSE:VZ), however, already can function on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 4G network.
iPad Should Stay Strong Through 2013: Acer chairman J.T. Wang said during his company’s second-quarter earnings report Wednesday that he believed the “fever” for tablets caused by the iPad will recede and that notebook PC sales will pick back up soon. It’s a good thing Acer isn’t focusing its recovery efforts — it reported its first-ever loss during that same report — on developing its own tablets. A new report from IHS iSuppli reprinted at MacRumors projects that Apple will maintain its dominance of the tablet market through 2013. iSuppli does expect Apple to cede some territory by 2015, with its share of the tablet market declining to just below 44%. Still, the research group expects Apple to ship 120 million iPads in 2015.
Jobs Takes Jabs in Resignation: When Steve Jobs announced he was taking a hiatus from his duties as Apple CEO back in January, Institutional Shareholders Services backed a shareholder proposal submitted by Central Laborers’ Pension Fund demanding that Apple disclose its succession plan in the event that Jobs couldn’t return to his position. Apple in turn refused to disclose its “comprehensive succession plan” on the grounds that it would give competitors the opportunity to poach recruits and executives from the company. According to a Thursday report at Apple Insider, Jobs’ resignation letter was worded in a way that took a stab at the original proposal. “I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple,” reads Jobs’ letter. That’s what the CLPF gets for questioning 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.
