Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for today:
Happy Holidays: The launch of new tablets may have boosted Apple’s (AAPL) iPad sales to record levels during the holiday shopping season, AppleInsider notes. A survey of analysts conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster suggests that, during the December quarter, Apple sold between 24 million and 25 million iPads. The forecast matches that of a number of other analyst and would represent a 10% year-over-year jump in first-quarter iPad sales. In October, Apple launched a slimmed down version of its 9.7-inch iPad, the iPad Air, as well as a Retina iPad Mini. Supplies of the Retina iPad Mini were constrained at launch due to manufacturing problems, potentially denting the tablet’s sales. Recent reports indicate that the iPad Air proved especially popular with consumers in November and December. Apple will announce its quarterly iPad sales, as well as earnings and full revenue on Jan 27.
Victory: Apple won’t have to endure an external monitor for its e-book business while it appeals its conviction in an anti-trust case, the New York Post notes. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York granted Apple an administrative stay that blocks Michael Bromwich, who was appointed as monitor by a lower court, from overseeing the e-book business while it hears Apple’s formal appeal. Last year, a federal court judge found Apple guilty of conspiring with five publishers to fix e-book prices on the iBookstore. Apple was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice, which demanded the imposition of the monitor. Apple is appealing the conviction and has contested the need for a monitor and the choice of Bromwich.
Big Bill: The massive storm that blanketed the Northeast with almost a foot of snow also resulted in some damage to Apple’s flagship New York City store, 9to5Mac notes. One of the massive glass panels that forms the glass cube outside the popular 5th Avenue Apple Store was hit by a misguided snowblower and shattered. The glass panel, while shattered, remains in place and the store is reportedly still open. It could cost Apple at least $450,000 to replace the damaged glass, based on the $6.7 million cost of installing the 15 panels that make up the cube.
For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.
