Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Thursday:
App Store Backtrack: Magazine and newspaper publishers looking to offer their periodicals on Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes have had a strained relationship. In February, Apple instituted a new policy that let a publisher offer an app in the iTunes store for a digital edition of a publication, but new issues and subscriptions to new content had to be priced the same — whether customers were buying them from within that app or through Apple’s store. (The content had to be offered through both.) Publishers have expressed concerns over Apple requiring them to offer app store subscriptions at the lowest price possible, making the 30% cut of App Store that Apple takes that much harder to bear. According to Mac Rumors, Apple has now backtracked from that policy, allowing content to be offered at a different price outside the app store (through the publisher’s website, in-app, etc.).
iPhone Discount: Retailers Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Target (NYSE:TGT) have been accustomed to a brand new iPhone release every summer. Although the iPhone is still selling briskly, some retailers are naturally worried that summer electronics sales will be hurt by the absence of a hot new update. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is tackling the problem with aggressive pricing. According to a report at TUAW, both the company’s flagship stores and its Sam’s Club outlets are offering the 16-GB version of the most recent model of iPhone for $147, provided it’s purchased with a two-year contract with Verizon (NYSE:VZ) or AT&T (NYSE:T). Whether or not other retailers follow suit, Apple should have some impressive iPhone sales numbers to report at the end of the quarter.
DUI Checkpoint App Dropped: Apple Insider says Apple has finally responded to the Senate’s request to ban apps that map DUI checkpoints. Senators Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Tom Udall, and Frank Lautenberg joined together in March to request that Apple, Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM), and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) all remove these types of apps from their app stores. Apple’s vice president of software technology, Guy L. Tribble, spoke at a Senate hearing and promised that the company was “looking into” the legality of these apps. As of Wednesday, these apps are now banned from Apple’s store.
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.
