Here is your daily Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock news and rumors for December 10, 2010. The Cupertino, Calif., Apple has released their year-end best lists for digital storefronts on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. In a shift from previous years, Apple’s lists highlight “Hot Trends” to categorize successful apps, providing investors with a handy guide to follow where revenue is flowing on iOS platforms. In physical retail news, however, wholesaler Costco (NYSE: COST) will cease selling Apple products . Also, one ad firm is predicting the iPad, not tablets in general, will account for 2% of Web traffic by the end of 2011.

Apple Announces Best Selling Apps of 2010: Investors looking to decode which app developers to watch should take particular note of Apple’s newly released year-end “best of” lists for sales from its digital storefronts on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Apple has highlighted which apps fit into a variety of “Hot Trends” categories that have sold particularly well over the course of 2010. On the iPhone, Apple highlighted categories like “Augmented Reality”—apps that use the phones GPS, camera, and other real-world data trackers for games and social networking, like THQ’s (NASDAQ: THQI) Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner—and social networking apps category “On the Grid,” a category that highlighted the year’s most-downloaded free software, the Facebook app. The “Quick Fix Games” category included many of the apps that were also included in the “Top Sellers of 2010” list—independent video game developer Rovio’s hit Angry Birds unsurprisingly leg the pack. The iPad’s “Hot Trends” was populated with mostly the same items as the iPhone, though it tellingly included publishing-oriented categories to highlight its functionality as an e-reader, with categories like “Interactive Stories” and “Magazines and Newspapers.” Of particular interest to investors following the e-reader market is that iBooks was the most downloaded free app on the iPad, indicating that iPad users show brand loyalty on the platform rather than download the free Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle app which offers a wider selection of e-books.

Costco Stops Selling Apple Products Because of iPad: The Seattle Times is reporting that wholesale retailer Costco (NASDAQ: COST) has come to a mutual agreement with Apple Inc. to stop carrying the tech company’s products. A long-time iPod vendor, Costco decided to cease selling Apple’s products when the company refused to allow Costco to sell Apple products online and, more significantly, carry the iPad in their stores. Apple’s numerous retail partners including Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), and Target (NYSE: TGT) have all began selling Apple’s tablet PC since it released last spring. It’s thought that Apple refused to partner with Costco for iPad sales due to Apple’s agreement with Walmart subsidiary and Costco competitor Sam’s Club carrying the tablet. It’s unlikely that the loss of Apple’s products will impact Costco too heavily—the company is healthier than it’s ever been since becoming a publicly traded stock in the earlier 1980s, with shares trading around $71 after the company reported a +17% rise in earnings in its quarter that ended November 21.

iPad Could Account for 2% of N. American Web Traffic By 2011: Advertising firm Chitika expects Apple’s tablet computer will represent 2% of all Web traffic by the end of next year says a new report from All Things Digital. Chitika’s ad network serves approximately three billion ads per month across 100,000 websites, giving them a sizable, if not perfectly representative, sampling of broader North American Web trends. The finding that Apple’s tablet accounts for 0.83% of all traffic on Chitika’s network (as quoted to All Things Digital by Chitika research director Daniel Ruby) is impressive in light of the company’s reach, and makes the prediction that, at current growth rates, the iPad will account for 2.3% of all traffic on ad company’s network seem possible if not probable.

As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.