Apple Settles iPhone, iPod Touch Warranty Case for $53 Million (PC Magazine)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has reportedly reached a $53 million settlement over its failure to adequately honor iPhone and iPod touch warranties. The settlement, published by Wired, will be submitted to the court next week. It sets up a multi-million dollar settlement fund, which will be distributed to those burned by Cupertino’s questionable warranty policies. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case dates back to 2010, when multiple state and federal cases were filed against Apple over its refusal to fix faulty iPhones and iPod touches that were still under warranty.
BlackBerry to ask regulators to probe report on returns (Reuters)
Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) said on Friday it would ask securities regulators in Canada and the United States to probe a report about retail return rates for its new Z10 smartphone that it called “false and misleading.” The Canadian company, which has pinned its turnaround hopes on its new BlackBerry 10 line, said return rates were at or below its forecasts and in line with industry norms.
Microsoft Adds Cloud Chargeback To Windows Server (InformationWeek)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has teamed up with a third-party software producer to give Windows Server 2012 and the System Center management system its own billing and chargeback mechanism for use with Microsoft’s Azure cloud services. The third party is Cloud Cruiser, maker of the billing analytics and chargeback system, Cloud Cruiser Enterprise Edition. Cloud Cruiser isn’t associated exclusively with Windows Azure cloud services. On the contrary, its system supports supplying billing information through HP Cloud Service Automation 3.1, VMware’s vCloud Director and Amazon Web Services’ operations API. It also supports supplying billing information with OpenStack-based clouds, including Rackspace, and cloud infrastructure built using Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) Is Still Dominating This Market, And It’s Not Even Close (Insider Monkey)
COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) has recently released its latest market share report of leading smartphone original equipment manufacturers, better known as OEMs. The report, which was published last week, clearly indicates that the market leader Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), is only going one way, and that is upwards. Apple’s share of the OEM space was up 3.9 percentage points from its previous numbers reported in November 2012. The total smartphone market saw an overall growth rate of 8% for the period ending February 2013, from November levels.
RIM’s largest investor says he stands by company (Yahoo! News)
The largest investor in Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) said Thursday that he will stick with the BlackBerry company despite founder Mike Lazaridis’ announcement that he will leave the company. Prem Watsa, a board member who owns 10 percent of the company, first became interested in RIM because of his friendship with Lazaridis. The 52-year-old Lazaridis last month announced plans to leave RIM on May 1. He stepped down as co-chief executive in January 2012, but stayed on as vice chairman and a board director.
Microsoft set to shrink its Surface: Software giant plans 7 inch ‘Xbox’ tablet to take on the iPad mini (Daily Mail)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is developing a smaller version of its Surface tablet with a 7inch screen, it has been claimed. The tablet is expected to go on sale later this year, and will go head to head with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPad Mini, Google’s Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire in the lucrative small tablet market. It is hoped the devices could reverse the disappointing sales of the larger Surface tablet which Microsoft launched this year. It claims the 7-inch tablets weren’t part of the company’s strategy last year, but Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) executives realized they needed a response to…
…the rapidly growing popularity of smaller tablets like Google 7-inch Nexus, which was announced last summer, and the 7.9-inch iPad Mini introduced by Apple last October, along with Amazon’s Fire HD.
Twitter and Apple prepare to launch music services (The Guardian)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Twitter are both expected to make significant incursions into the music space in the near future in moves that could challenge Spotify, Pandora and other independent music services. Apple is understood to be preparing a music streaming service that would challenge existing ones such as Spotify and Pandora in the US, after reports said that it was close to securing licensing deals with Universal Music and Warner Music, two of the three major music labels. Negotiations with the third, Sony Music, are said to be “less advanced”, while there is no indication of independent labels’ willingness to sign.
Digits Q&A: BlackBerry Seeks to Regain Momentum (Wall Street Journal)
After launching its new BlackBerry 10 operating system earlier this year, Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), which now does business as BlackBerry is trying harder to regain momentum in the global smartphone market. The first smartphone running the new OS is the full-touch-screen BlackBerry Z10, which is now available in the U.S. and some other markets. The second device, the 
Microsoft Smashed on Goldman Downgrade (Forbes)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares plunged 4.9% to $28.80 on heavy volume, as Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock. With PC trends in a sharper decline than anyone thought, what can the company do to keep shareholders happy? Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini believes the company has four “Plan B” options to really get its stock out of the range it’s been in over the last 10 years, credit crisis not withstanding. She notes that Microsoft shares are up just 3% since Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) launched the iPhone in June 2007, vs. a gain of 260% for Apple, and 170% for Samsung.
Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Next Announcement May Surprise You (Insider Monkey)
When it comes to the best information on Apple, you often times don’t have to look any further than the analysts that pay so much attention to Apple. For example, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty recently met with management at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). As you can imagine, this was an interesting get together that proved to provide a lot of information on what the Cupertino-based company may be looking to accomplish in the future.
