MacRumors

Fortune today released its annual "Fortune 500" list, a high-profile ranking of the largest companies in the United States ranked by revenue. In the new rankings, Apple has risen to #6 from its #17 spot in last year's rankings.

Apple is bigger than ever -- the company cracked the Fortune 10 this year. But it’s a high-pressure job, being king of the hill. At Apple's press event this past October, it maintained more than disrupted with its software upgrades and iPad mini announcement. Also, this past year has seen a lot of CEO Tim Cook having to apologize -- once in September for the failure of Apple’s maps app, and then to Chinese consumers this April for slow repair services -- this in a market that Cook said this past January would be Apple's largest. Still, when every executive wants to invent the iPod of ___, Apple remains an innovation icon.

Wal-Mart edged out ExxonMobil for the top spot in this year's rankings, with Chevron, Phillips 66, and Berkshire Hathaway also ranking ahead of Apple and its $156.2 billion in revenue. In looking at profits, Apple ranked second among Fortune 500 companies at $41.7 billion, trailing only ExxonMobil at $44.9 billion.

In a bit of a confusing sequence of events, CNET reports on claims from NPD DisplaySearch analysts who see Apple having two Retina iPad mini devices in the pipeline, including an initial launch in the third quarter of this year followed by a second update in the first quarter of next year.

"We see two refreshes coming. One in the second half of this year, then one in Q1 [first quarter] of 2014," analyst Richard Shim told CNET late Sunday night.

"The Q1 [2014] device will have a Retina display plus an updated processor," Shim added.

CNET's report had initially cited Shim as saying that the Retina display would not appear until the early 2014 model, but less than two hours later the report was revised to state that the 2013 model will also have a Retina display. The new quotes from Shim do not actually refute the original claim, but based on CNET's reporting it appears that additional information he provided does indicate that a Retina display will be included in the next iPad mini.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last month reported that technical challenges related to production of a Retina iPad mini will likely see the device debut somewhat later than many have expected. While he declined to offer a specific prediction for the iPad mini launch, he did outline three scenarios showing launches in the September-November timeframe.

Rumors of Apple looking to accelerate its upgrade cycles have persisted for several years, and they did come to fruition late last year with the introduction of an updated iPad just seven and a half months after the previous model. That launch did, however, coincide with the debut of Apple's new Lightning connector, so it is unclear if the short cycle for the full-size iPad is indicative of a larger trend or if it was simply a one-time effort to adjust Apple's launch timing and roll out the new connector across all of its latest-generation mobile devices.

The New York Times reports that Google and its Motorola Mobility unit have been found to be abusing their patent dominance in 3G wireless networking technology by the European Commission. The ruling, which comes in the form of a preliminary finding that could lead to formal antitrust charges but has yet to do so, addresses Motorola's efforts to bar European sales of Apple's 3G mobile devices over infringement of "standards essential" patents that Motorola is required to license under reasonable terms.

Apple did briefly pull a number of devices from its German online store in February 2012, but they quickly returned after an injunction was lifted and Apple later won long-term protection from sales bans while its appeal in the case is heard.

The European Commission's report today calls Motorola's efforts to enforce a sales ban based on these standards essential patents "an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by E.U. antitrust rules."

“I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer — not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice,” said Joaquín Almunia, the European Union’s competition commissioner, in a statement Monday, before a news briefing on the topic.

Apple has of course also targeted its competitors with lawsuits seeking sales bans over patent infringement, but Apple's efforts do not involve standards essential patents that are required to be licensed.

The technology covered by these standards essential patents has been judged to be integral for any device supporting a given functionality, with rights holders being required to license the patents under fair and reasonable terms in order to promote competition. In this case, Apple and Google/Motorola differ on what the reasonable licensing rates should be and thus do not have a licensing agreement in place.

comScore today released the results of its monthly rolling survey of U.S. mobile phone users for the January-March period, showing that Apple's smartphone market share rose 2.7 points from December to March, from 36.3% of total U.S. smartphone platform and hardware sales to 39%, marking a record high share for the company.

Samsung was the hardware manufacturer with the second largest share of the market at 21.7% in March, up from 21% in December. HTC, Motorola, and LG again experienced slight drops in market share, with HTC suffering the heaviest loss going from 10.2% to 9%.

Google's Android continues to be ranked as the top smartphone platform with 52% of smartphone platform share, though it experienced a drop from 53.4% in December, which was absorbed by Apple.

Apple's share increased 2.7 points to 39%, while Blackberry continued to drop, hitting 5.2% down from 6.4% in December. Microsoft remained steady at 3%, though saw a small drop from 3.2% in February's report. Collectively, Apple and Google control 91 percent of the smartphone market, with Apple making continual gains each month.

comScore's data tracks installed user base rather than new handset sales, which means it is more reflective of real-world usage but slower to respond to shifting market trends than some other studies.

According to a new report from media research firm TDG (via GigaOM) 14% of households with broadband internet owned an Apple TV, Roku box, or similar streaming platform during a study in 2012.

While that sounds like an impressive number, Smart TVs have been slowly taking over the connected TV market. 25% of households owned a smart TV that comes equipped with apps, such as those offered by manufacturers like Samsung and LG.

Smart TV adoption grew from 12% in 2011 to 25% in 2012, while connected set top box adoption grew just two percentage points year over year. While not all Smart TV owners use the "smart" capabilities, 69% of users surveyed connected their Smart TVs to the Internet, indicating that roughly two thirds of Smart TV owners take advantage of the TV's functionality.

With Smart TVs positioned as a rapidly growing market, it is unsurprising that rumors of an Apple-branded smart TV have abounded since 2011, when Walter Isaacson's famous biography revealed that Steve Jobs had an interest in revolutionizing the television industry.

The iTV, as it has been dubbed, is rumored to come equipped with app integration and Siri functionality. The latest rumors, which surfaced in March, suggested that Apple is currently working on an "Ultra HD" or "4K" television set with a resolution of 3840 x 2160.

Such a set could launch in late 2013 or early 2014, although a potential launch timeframe has been a moving target for Apple observers over the past several years as the company has apparently yet to make its TV work into a formal project.

AllThingsD shares details on a new report from J.P. Morgan analysts Gokul Hariharan and Mark Moskowitz, who unsurprisingly argue that Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone will still be a "mid-end" device rather than competing against the true low end of the smartphone market. The analysts point to Apple's previous introductions of the iPod nano and iPad mini as cheaper versions of their parent products that were still significantly more expensive than low-end competitors due to Apple's refusal to sacrifice quality for the sake of price.

Echoing some previous rumors, Hariharan and Moskowitz suggest that Apple's lower-cost iPhone is likely to cost $350-$400 without subsidies, significantly cheaper than the iPhone 5 that starts at $650. The analysts point out that such a device would come in at a relatively sparsely-populated midrange of a pyramid that sees strong unit sales at the top and bottom but weakness in the middle.

Currently Samsung dominates this segment ($200-500 price range) with 35+ percent market share. [...] We believe Apple could take 20-25 percent of this market in the next 12 months (from almost no market share currently), if it prices a lower-priced product at $350-400 levels.

On a separate note, Digitimes is reporting today that Apple's lower-cost iPhone will be specifically targeted at emerging markets and will initially launch in limited volumes in order to test interest in the device. The report claims that Apple is expected to deliver only 2.5-3 million units during the device's first quarter of availability.

While Apple almost certainly has interest in bringing such a device to emerging markets, it seems more likely that Apple will offer the device on a broader basis in order to appeal to consumers in the numerous markets where subsidies are not common. Even the United States is seeing pushback against subsidies to some degree, with prepaid carriers gaining customers while also beginning to offer the iPhone, and even major carriers like T-Mobile shifting their strategies to end packaged subsidies and instead break out phone costs on separate payment plans.

As part of its quarterly earnings release today, U.S. Cellular announced that it will begin carrying Apple products later this year, although the carrier offered no additional details on its plans.

"We have a number of strategies in progress to increase loyalty and attract more customers, including our announcement today that we will begin offering Apple products later this year. By further strengthening our device portfolio, we'll give consumers another great reason to switch to U.S. Cellular, and enable our existing customers to choose from an even wider variety of iconic smartphones, and enjoy the outstanding U.S. Cellular customer experiences they deserve. Our smartphone penetration is currently 43 percent of core market customers and growing quickly. We believe there will be strong, ongoing demand for smartphones and data products and services from our customers, and we have significant room for growth in this area.

The move marks a reversal for U.S. Cellular, which said in late 2011 that it had declined to carry the iPhone due to "unacceptable" terms being offered by Apple.

Carriers offering the iPhone generally see short-term hits to their profitability due to upfront subsidies that are typical in the U.S. wireless industry, although many carriers have viewed that impact as acceptable in order to gain access to the popular device. Apple has also routinely demanded that carriers commit to purchasing certain numbers of iPhones over a period of years, something that some carriers have been reluctant to do for fear of being stuck with unsold devices.

U.S. Cellular, which has 5.7 million subscribers, may become the last of the top U.S. carriers to offer the iPhone. Major carriers Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile all now offer the device, while Leap Wireless/Cricket began selling the iPhone last year. MetroPCS is also likely to begin offering the iPhone following its merger with T-Mobile, although an offering is said to not be imminent. The last of the top carriers, TracFone, also offers the iPhone through its Straight Talk partnership with Walmart.

Update 9:37 AM: U.S. Cellular has issued an additional statement to AllThingsD:

We will be selling iPhone products later this year. We don’t have any additional information at this time but will follow up closer to the launch. The deal we’ve made to sell iPhone products is right for our business today, because we now have an LTE solution that enables a successful partnership with Apple.

Update 10:27 AM: Dow Jones Newswires reports that U.S. Cellular has committed to purchase $1.2 billion worth of iPhones over a three-year period.

Apple has posted a new contest on the App Store [Direct Link], offering a $10,000 gift card to whomever downloads the fifty billionth app from the App Store, similar to previous promotions. Apple said during its most recent earnings call that the company has surpassed 45 billion app downloads.

Apple's most recent contest was for 25 billion downloads back in February 2012. This time around, Apple is also giving $500 gift cards to the next fifty people to download apps after the fifty billionth.

Apps have revolutionized the way we play video games, consume news, do business, educate, communicate, create art, and so much more. As we approach 50 billion app downloads, we'll be awarding a $10,000 App Store Gift Card to the lucky customer who downloads the 50 billionth app, and a $500 App Store Gift Card to each of the next 50 people to download an app.

The download count currently stands at just over 49.2 billion.

After Google Now was added to the Google Search app last week, many users began complaining that the app was draining battery by constantly accessing the iPhone’s Location Services.

According to a Google employee who posted on the Macworld forum (via The Next Web), Google Now does not excessively drain battery, despite the fact that the app often causes the Location Services icon to remain active.

Hi there,
I’m with Google and wanted to address this issue:
Reports that Google Now on iOS drains battery life are incorrect. We understand people’s concern about seeing the Location Services icon stay on when they use Google Now. Many apps that keep the icon on actually do drain the phone’s battery because they require very accurate location. (For example, some apps have to run your GPS all the time during navigation to keep you from missing your turn.) This update to the Google Search app is built very differently: it uses cell towers and wifi hot spots for much lower battery impact.

The employee, who was confirmed to be working for Google by The Next Web, goes on to say that Google Now was tested for several months on iOS without reports of significant battery impact. In the Google Search app description, Google clarifies that the app does not access the iPhone’s GPS, using cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots as the employee claims.

Google Now, which is Google’s version of a virtual assistant, continually accesses user data to provide information like local weather updates and traffic conditions, which is what may be causing issues for some users.

Not all Google Now users appear to be experiencing battery problems, with some MacRumors forum members reporting no excessive battery drainage while others report rapid battery loss.

Apple today released a minor iOS 6.1.4 update, bringing an updated audio profile for speakerphone. The new version, which arrives as Build 10B350, appears to only be for the iPhone 5.

The update did not involve a beta testing period for developers and follows the release of iOS 6.1.3 in mid-March.