Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Thursday:
It’s an App World: In a Thursday interview with Bloomberg, Forrester Research CEO George Colony made a bold prediction about Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) “They’ll be bigger than IBM (NYSE:IBM) next year, and they’ll be bigger than H-P (NYSE: HPQ) the year after that … they’re going to be a $200 billion revenue company,” said Colony.
If he’s right, those recent claims of a $500 stock price for Apple might turn out to be spot on. The key to Apple’s continued growth, according to Colony, is not just the proliferation of its portable electronics like the iPhone 4 and the iPad, but the software available on those machines. He predicts what he calls an “app Internet” emerging over the next two years, with users increasingly relying on mobile apps for services and products rather than visiting the broader Web. He does believe, however, that Apple needs a healthy Steve Jobs to reach this goal. “[Every] two years they have to fill that store with new stuff. Without Steve Jobs as the CEO, I think that will be much harder to do,” said Colony.
Motorola’s New Platform: Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system has been good to Motorola (NYSE:MMI). It made the Droid a legitimate competitor to the iPhone in just two short years. Now it seems that Motorola is doubling down on mobile technology, as it combats Apple and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM). A Wednesday report at Information Week says Motorola is developing a new proprietary mobile operating system. Benoit Marchant (former Apple JavaScript development manager) and Gilles Drieu (former VP of software engineering at Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) are working on the web-based platform.
Checkpoint App Delete Requested: U.S. Democratic senators from New Jersey, New York, Nevada, and New Mexico issued a letter to Apple on Tuesday requesting that the company remove iPhone apps that function as databases for drunk-driving checkpoints. The apps allow drivers to check where they might be pulled over to avoid detection. The same letter was distributed to Research in Motion and Google regarding apps on their platforms. Apple’s App Store is well-known for its tightly controlled approval process.
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.
