Here are your daily Apple news items and rumors for Monday:
56 Million iPhones: Shortages are a factor whenever a new piece of technology hits the market. Components are in short supply and are highly coveted. There might even be a problem with the design of a device that was missed during quality testing. It’s factors like these — and not just popularity — that have seen past Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad and iPhone releases plagued by shipping delays. This is why you see Apple addicts lining up around the black outside of Apple stores two weeks after a new iPhone hits. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company might be able to dodge all these supply woes when it releases the fifth-generation iPhone in October, provided a Monday report in DigiTimes (via Apple Insider) turns out to be accurate. A Taiwanese source claims Apple will manufacture 56 million iPhones before the year is out, and close to 26 million of those will be the new iPhone 5 model expected to be revealed in September. Apple sold close to 19 million iPhones over the course of the second quarter. A supply of 56 million phones indicates some serious confidence in Apple’s holiday quarter.
3G MacBook Pro: In another world, Apple would have introduced its customers to the idea of an always-connected portable computer a whole lot earlier than the iPad. A Sunday report at Mac Rumors highlighted an eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) listing for an unusual MacBook Pro prototype. Manufactured in 2007, according to the auction listing, the prototype features a 3G antenna and SIM card slot in the laptop’s casing, meaning Apple was planning on selling laptops that accessed AT&T‘s (NYSE:T) 3G network back when the iPhone was first released. At this point, it’s unlikely Apple would release a MacBook Pro with 3G functionality, but it’s not out of line to think a 4G MacBook Air or Pro could see the light of day in 2012 or beyond.
Flash Conversion: Apple’s ongoing feud with Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) to squash out that company’s Flash media format — used by Web businesses, from the scrappiest indie video game developer all the way to Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube — has entered a new phase thanks to the new Lion operating system for Macs. According to 9 to 5 Mac, OS X 10.7 includes a version of Apple’s web browser Safari that does away with needing to install Flash on the system by converting Flash to HTML 5 automatically. That is, by using an external add-on made by Joris Veruurt called FlashtoHTML5. HTML 5 is the new Web standard that will allow videos, games and other media to be built directly into websites. Now all Veruurt needs to do is release the extension for the iPhone and iPad’s version of Safari.
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.
