Apple has recently been granted a patent for administering and maintaining a network-booted operating system, possibly laying further groundwork for a cloud-based version of Mac OS X.
A new report claims tablet sales will more than triple next year, but says Apple will hold on to its dominant position with the iPad, jumping from 14 million units in 2010 to 36 million next year.
Just like last year's Consumer Electronics Show, HP and Microsoft will be showing off their latest tablet competitors to Apple's iPad. This year however, the two PC partners will be tablet rivals.
Verizon is "still excited" about launching Apple's iPhone early next year "to combat slowing Android momentum in the US," according to analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros.
Microsoft will again present Slate PCs running Windows 7 at next month's 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, hoping to offer users an alternative to Apple's iPad.
Reports from a variety of analysts predict a huge swell in tablet computer sales next year ranging from 35 to 100 million units in total, with Apple's iPad accounting for the largest number sold by far.
After announcing that demand for its HP Slate had "exceeded expectations," it has now leaked out that HP only planned to build 5,000 and ended up having to retool to build a total of 9,000 of them.
Microsoft has once again taken on Apple and the Mac platform in a new advertisement which touts the ability of a Windows 7 laptop to play Blu-ray discs, while a MacBook cannot.
Apple has stopped bundling Adobe Flash on new Macs, ostensibly so users could obtain the latest, secure version themselves, but vastly increased battery life seems to be another leading reason.
While Apple's success with its mobile iOS platform is credited with invoking the proliferation of HTML5 video at the expense of Adobe's Flash, it's also causing a major shift in strategy for Microsoft's Silverlight.
In a surprise appearance during the company's quarterly earnings call, Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs hailed the success of the iPhone and Pod while painting a bleak outlook for RIM's Blackberry smartphones, Google's fragmented Android smartphone platform, and the coming trickle of 7inch tablets.
After reviewing Microsoft's upcoming Office for Mac 2011, which now includes Outlook, Walt Mossberg concluded that it was "by far the best Mac version of the suite" and recommended it to users.
Apple remains the best in its class for customer service, with the Mac maker again leading all other PC makers for the seventh straight year, despite industry-wide improvement, according to a new study.
A preview release of a 64-bit version of Flash Player 10 is now available from Adobe.
Microsoft has posted its first teaser video advertisement for the upcoming Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft has launched a new website that tells users PCs have Blu-ray, more software choices, and a greater array of hardware options when compared with Apple's Mac platform.
Apple's market share as a mobile PC vendor has surged along with the launch of iPad, breaking 200% year over year growth while vaulting the company from seventh to third place in global portable computing.
Speaking to Wall Street analysts, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer noted that tablets are a big issue for the company and expressed concern about Apple's success with iPad.
After making comments to the contrary this summer, Hewlett-Packard is now positioning its acquired Palm webOS as a competitor to Android and iPhone 4, as well as Apple's iPad, relegating its Windows 7 Slate PC offerings to a business tablet niche.
As usual, Apple's executives kept close to a carefully prepared script on the company's stellar financial results, being careful not to reveal too much about the company's future plans, including its data center cloud services and broader open support for FaceTime video calling.
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AppleInsider Staff
Daniel Eran Dilger
Slash Lane
Josh Ong
Sam Oliver
