Here are your daily Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) news items and rumors for Tuesday:
iPhone Holds Market Share: A new report from Nielsen on Monday shows Apple’s iPhone is still the leading smartphone in the U.S., maintaining a lead over Research In Motion’s (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry and phones from manufacturers like HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola (NYSE:MMI) and those running on Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system.
Based on smartphone operating system, Apple’s iOS currently controls a 28.6% share of the market, followed by RIM’s BlackBerry OS with a 26.1% share, and then Google’s Android with a 25.8% share. But Google has made major gains in the past six months. Nielsen reported that of those smartphones sold between June and November 2010 in the U.S., 40.8% were Android phones, 26.9% were iPhones, and 19.2% were BlackBerry phones.
‘No-Look’ Nano: An Apple patent application made public late last week describes new controls for touch screen devices that wouldn’t require users to look at the screen. The diagrams in the patent show a sixth-generation iPod Nano. The latest iPod Nano, released in September, is controlled solely using a 2-inch touchscreen interface. The new technology described in the patent would allow users to use a number of preset gestures to control music playback, such as tapping the screen once to play or pause active audio files or even rotating the iPod clockwise and counterclockwise to adjust the volume.
Given that gyroscopes are already incorporated into the iPhone and iPod Touch lines, the no-look technology could be incorporated into an upcoming software update.
New iTunes Movie Features: According to PaidContent.org, Sony’s (NYSE:SNE) film division is testing features to its movies sold through the iTunes store that will allow users to use keywords to search a movie’s script or select individual scenes to share via social networks like Facebook. The script feature has already been incorporated into the iTunes release of the Will Farrell comedy The Other Guys, while the scene-sharing feature has been incorporated into the iTunes versions of Salt and Resident Evil: Afterlife.
These sorts of features are being introduced to bolster film rentals and purchases through iTunes. An investor note sent out by Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall found that movie and television rentals though iTunes are just 10% of those on competing service Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX).
Microsoft Preps Set-Top: Apple TV has been a non-starter. The recently remodeled set-top box has not been a failure, but with only 1 million devices sold since last September, it could hardly be called a serious competitor in the TV service market. Google has had the same difficulties with its fledgling efforts in the television space, with early sales of Sony-made Google TV HDTVs and Logitech’s (NASDAQ:LOGI) Google TV-powered Revue set top boxes failing to make a significant impact following their October releases.
The trouble its competitors have had isn’t stopping Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) from getting in the set-top box game, it seems. The Seattle Times said Tuesday the company is developing a pared-down version of Windows that will be incorporated into a line of set-top boxes and connected TVs, not unlike Google TV, when it is released late this year.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
