Here are your daily Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) news items and rumors for Tuesday:
Get Your Daily Here: Five months after the publication was first rumored to be in development, News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) and Apple are said to be ready to unveil their co-developed newspaper for the iPad, The Daily, on Jan. 19. Apple also is expected to reveal the details of its new subscription-based payment model for digital newspapers and magazines like The Daily. Rumors from late last year suggested that The Daily and similar digital publications would cost 99 cents a week, which could be set up with recurring payments through iTunes. It is unknown whether Apple is planning on licensing the software technology it has developed for The Daily to other publications looking to distribute on the company’s platform.
Subsidization Can Hurt: Verizon (NYSE:VZ) will take a significant hit when it begins selling its own version of the iPhone this quarter. According to a Bloomberg report, the mobile phone carrier is planning to heavily subsidize iPhone sales in an effort to crush its competitor AT&T (NYSE:T). UBS analyst John Hodulik estimates that Verizon will sell 13 million iPhones in 2011 with a subsidy of $400 on each phone sold, equating to a total of $5.2 billion in subsidies. As result, Verizon’s profit margins are going to be down significantly during the first and second quarters of the year. Of course, this gamble is likely to pay off for Verizon in the long run, as the iPhone is expected to lure in 2.1 million new subscribers to the carrier this year, with each one paying for two-year contracts that range in price from $70 to $120 a month. Based on Hodulik’s predictions, however, 2011 will be the first year since 2008 that Verizon will outpace AT&T in new subscriptions, as AT&T is only expected to grow by 650,000 subscribers this year.
Apple Brings Geniuses to Best Buy: Big box electronics retailer Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) will expand Apple’s presence in its stores this spring. According to a report from AOL’s (NASDAQ:AOL) The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Best Buy will add Apple Genius Bar help desks to its retail outlets as well as expanding the Apple computer and handheld device spaces on store sales floors. This would be the first time that Apple will establish Genius Bars outside of its own retail outlets.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
