Here are your Apple news items and rumors for Wednesday:
1 RIM PlayBook for Every 19 iPads: On the bright side, at least Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) didn’t have to delay the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s release a third or fourth time. It actually made it to market last spring! That has provide some consolation for the company and its shareholders after reading the Wednesday Bloomberg report that said RIM sold approximately one PlayBook for every 19 iPads sold by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). The report polled a number of analysts — including Michael Walkley of Canaccord Genuity, Charlie Wolf of Needham & Co., and William Power with Robert W Baird & Co. (among others) — and determined that RIM should announce PlayBook sales of around 490,000 during Thursday’s quarterly earnings report. Meanwhile, Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during its past quarter.
China Telecom Pushes iPhone 5 With Massive Marketing: China Telecom (NYSE:CHA) is ready for the iPhone 5 release this fall. Apple’s latest smartphone will be the first iPhone model supported by China Telecom, and the company is hoping to guarantee its success with a marketing push that ultimately will cost around $234.5 million. According to a Wednesday report in Capital Vue (via Mac Rumors), the marketing plan is called “Dragon Plan.” Of course, China Telecom will be competing with both China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) and China Mobile (NYSE:CHL), the first of which has a long established iPhone user base and the second of which is starting as fresh as CHA. Shareholders best hope the Dragon Plan captures the Chinese people’s attention.
Starbucks Pours Another Monthly Cup With Apple: Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and Apple have enjoyed a fruitful relationship for years, promoting both the iTunes service and overpriced, burnt-tasting cups of coffee simultaneously with the “Song Pick of the Week,” a free iTunes download. TUAW reported on Wednesday that the program finally is evolving beyond Dave Matthews Band singles. The new “Pick of the Week” program offers free iTunes downloads (video and music) and App Store downloads, as well as free items from the iBookstore. The first book available is Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, published by Random House imprint Doubleday.
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.
