Here are your Apple news items and rumors for Monday:
Apple Dropping iPad Price to Match Amazon?: Not to alarm Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shareholders still enjoying the constant flow of cash and champagne, but rumblings around the web say the iPad honeymoon might be over. A Monday report at Apple Insider compiled information from two reports — one from Bloomberg and another from DigiTimes — that suggests iPad 2 demand is starting to cool after two quarters of monumental sales. The first of these reports said JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts believe Apple has cut its orders for new iPads by 25%, bringing order estimates down to 13 million tablets in the fourth quarter rather than 17 million. The latter report claimed Apple, seeing a decline in demand for its tablet, might lower the price of the device to lure consumers back in. With Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) expected to reveal a $250 Kindle tablet this week and with consumers increasingly wise to Apple’s ways of annually updating its devices, the company might be forced to drop the iPad’s price if it hopes to see holiday sales in line with previous expectations.
Curved Glass is the New Black in 2012: Apple and every other mobile device maker might be introducing smartphones and tablets in the next 12 months that look markedly different than previous products. A Monday DigiTimes report said that, according to industry sources, a type of curved, malleable glass developed by Corning (NYSE:GLW) called gorilla glass will be used by G-Tech, Lens Technology, Fuji Lens and other glass screen suppliers that work with Apple. Presumably the iPhone 6 and iPad 3 would feature curved surfaces rather than the rigid, flat surfaces in current products.
Verizon Stands With Samsung: Verizon (NYSE:VZ) waited a long time to partner with Apple to sell the iPhone to millions more consumers in the U.S., but now it looks like the telecom is biting one of the hands that feeds it. A Saturday story originating at Litigating Apple says the telecom has sided with Samsung (PINK:SSNLF) in the ongoing legal tug-of-war over patent infringement between the Korean mobile phone maker and Apple. Verizon filed an amicus brief, arguing that the blocking of Samsung’s tablets and smartphones from the market is not in the public’s best interests.
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.
