Editor’s Note: Related Tickers: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Apple designer Sir Jony Ive holding up iOS 7 development: Report (Register)
Visionary designer Sir Jonathan Ive’s perfectionism could be holding back the development of the latest version of the software used on iPads and iPhones, according to a recent report. Famed as the head of Cupertino’s industrial design division, the knighted Essex lad was recently handed control of software design in a surprise move by CEO Tim Cook. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) software devs have been working flat out to produce iOS 7, which is expected to be a radically reworked version of the software which will do away with real-world-inspired, skeuomorphic interfaces.
Here is a rundown of what U.S. Defense Press Officer Lt Col Damien Pickart is able to share at this time about Apple, Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) and others, as a Defense Department spokesperson (tickers added): “As clarified in the recent release of the our Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan, the Department of Defense is working towards establishing a multi-vendor environment that supports a variety of devices and operating systems, to include Samsung, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and BlackBerry (Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)).
The Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan updates the June 2012 Mobile Strategy with specific objectives and puts the strategy into action. A key objective of the plan is to establish a department-wide mobile enterprise solution that permits the use of the latest commercial technology such as smart phones and tablets, and the development of an enterprise mobile device management capability and application store to support approximately 100,000 multivendor devices by February 2014.”
Apple Inc. (AAPL), And How To Speed Up The iMac (Insider Monkey)
Apple Inc. has at least this one thing in common with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), though Google flat-out admits its goal – they both enjoy speed, and they like the concept of helping users’ digital environment run better, smoother, more efficiently, and faster. While Google makes no bones about its desire for speed – it touts the speed in which Google Chrome opens Web pages, touts the speed of Google Search, and now is expanding its 1-gigabyte-per-second Google Fiber Internet project outside of Kansas City – Apple had been touting that it wants to make the “best customer experience.” Uh huh. Well, at least Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is making a very apparent attempts at making its iMac computers run better, in that for the first time, the company is offering a couple of flash-drive memory options for customers who are looking to customize their iMacs.
Tablet sales soar as Blackberry boss predicts market’s death (BBC News)
Tablet computer sales soared in the first quarter of 2013, growing by 142.4% compared with the same period in 2012, according to analysts IDC. Figures suggested more tablets were sold from January to March 2013 than in the entire first half of 2012. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) remains the dominant brand in the market, with a 58.1% share. The figures come just days after Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) boss Thorsten Heins predicted…
…tablets would be dead by 2018. According to IDC, there were 49.2 million tablets shipped in January, February and March. Apple’s iPad range took the lion’s share with 19.5 million units.
Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NOK): Watch This Novel Space (Insider Monkey)
Finnish smartphone maker Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)’s turnaround is now starting to take shape on the back of its Lumia lineup. The company has bet it all on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone, and while the transition away from Symbian has been long and painful, there’s now light at the end of the tunnel. As part of its efforts, the company has picked a new battleground in the smartphone wars: cameras. Last summer, Nokia Corporation (ADR) acquired the technologies, developers, and intellectual property portfolio of Scalado, a mobile imaging specialist. The move was intended to bolster the camera capabilities of Lumias. In February, Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) also invested in InVisage Technologies, another camera specialist.
Microsoft Struggles to Compete Against iPad, Ships 900K Surface Tablets (PC Magazine)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) landed on IDC’s list of the top five tablet makers after shipping 900,000 Surface tablets during the first quarter. But that still pales in comparison to the 19.5 million iPads that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shipped during the same time period. Of those 900,000, IDC said that many were the more full-featured Surface Pro, which started shipping to the U.S. and Canada in February. Microsoft Corporation started expanding Surface availability around the globe last month. Surface aside, Windows 8-based tablets “continued to struggle to gain traction in the market,” IDC found, with Windows 8 and Windows RT shipments totaling 1.8 million.
