MacRumors

Apple has continued to dominate the tablet market with the iPad despite a number of high-profile competitors having pushed out their own devices over the past year. Even as some studies have shown Android and other operating systems beginning to eat into Apple's dominant position, most of those studies have been based on shipments into the distribution channels and not sales to end users.

Several reports have indicated that despite shipping hundreds of thousands or even millions of tablets, many of Apple's competitors are not seeing consumer interest in their products and thus the devices are sitting on store shelves and in warehouses and not making their way into users' hands. One of the most telling pieces of data comes in a new report from AllThingsD, which has learned that of the approximately 270,000 units of HP's highly-promoted TouchPad shipped out to Best Buy's distribution channels, only about 25,000 have been sold to customers.

According to one source who’s seen internal HP reports, Best Buy has taken delivery of 270,000 TouchPads and has so far managed to sell only 25,000, or less than 10 percent of the units in its inventory.

A second person who has seen Best Buy’s TouchPad sales figures confirmed the results as “consistent with what I’ve seen,” and went so far as to say that 25,000 sold might be “charitable.” This source suggested that the 25,000-unit sales number may not account for units that consumers return to stores for a refund.

Best Buy is said to be so unhappy with the lack of momentum on TouchPad sales that it has asked HP to take many of the unsold units back, but HP is reportedly "pleading" with Best Buy to remain patient. HP recently slashed $100 off of the price of the TouchPad in attempt to spur sales and is hoping that the move will turn things around, dropping pricing on the entry-level 16 GB model to $399.99. HP's price cut may not be having the desired effect, however, as reports coming in from retailers suggest that consumers are continuing to hold off in hopes that prices drop even further.

For its part, Apple has repeatedly noted that it is selling nearly every iPad it can make, pushing out over 9 million iPads last quarter alone. It was only earlier this month that Apple's online stores dropped their shipping estimates on new iPad 2 orders to "within 24 hours", indicating that Apple has finally caught up with demand five months after launch.

AllThingsD reports that Andy Miller, the former founder and CEO of Quattro Wireless who became Apple's vice president of mobile advertising and head of the iAd program with Apple's acquisition of Quattro in January 2010, is planning to leave Apple in the near future. Miller is said to be leaving to become a general partner at venture capital firm Highland Capital, which had previously funded Quattro.

Sources said Miller — who sold Quattro Wireless, the mobile advertising company he co-founded in 2006, to Apple in early 2010 for $275 million — will become a general partner at Highland Capital, the Boston-based venture firm that had funded Quattro.

Apple will search for a replacement for Miller, whose staff was told of the impending departure today.

Apple purchased Quattro Wireless after it lost out to Google in an attempt to acquire AdMob. Apple was reportedly close to a deal with AdMob when Google swooped in with a last-minute offer to win the competition.

Apple's iAd program went live in July 2010 as Apple's effort to revolutionize mobile advertising with high-quality, interactive ads for iOS devices. The effort is seen as having had only marginal success so far, however, with some advertisers turned off by high costs, Apple's demands for control over the creative process, and iOS-only availability. Apple has cut buy-in fees for advertisers several times in order to try to boost interest and fill ad slots that are growing quickly as iOS device sales continue to explode and more developers integrate iAd into their apps.

Earlier today, Apple's online stores around the world went down for unknown reasons. Mysteriously, the stores seems to be mostly unreachable, with users only occasionally able to load the pages at all. When store pages do load, they show Apple's usual "We'll be back soon" sticky note, but it is unclear why even that notice can only be reached on a small fraction of attempts.

No specific product updates were expected today, and the store went down a little before 4:30 AM Pacific Time, hours later than Apple's usual window for store updates. And with the store remaining down well beyond the usual time of 5:30 AM Pacific Time when Apple typically brings the store back up after an update, something certainly appears to be seriously wrong.

Speculation on the downtime is naturally running rampant, with observers suggesting everything from a major failure at one of Apple's data centers to a potential denial-of-service attack. Apple has apparently been silent on the issue so far, and thus no official explanation for the outage is known.

Update: Some users have reported success accessing Apple's online stores and seeing them back up with no visible changes. Others are, however, continuing to experience problems connecting to the store.

Update 2: Access to Apple's online stores appears to have essentially returned to normal.

Last December, a report out of Japan claimed that Apple and Toshiba were set to invest over $1 billion in a new LCD factory to produce displays for the iPhone. And just a few days later, a nearly identical rumor popped up involving Sharp, leading to confusion over whether there was an error or if Apple was pursuing major investments with both companies.

More clarity came to the situation in January when Apple announced as part of an earnings conference call that it had made $3.9 billion in long-term investments with three companies in order to secure components over a two-year period. We concluded that the investment was most likely related to displays, with the Sharp and Toshiba deals appearing to make up a significant share of the total investment.

By April, word came that Sharp had been tabbed to supply displays for the sixth-generation iPhone, presumably set for release in 2012. The new poly-silicon (p-Si) displays reportedly have electrical components embedded into the glass surface, allowing for thinner and lighter displays.

Reuters now revives the rumors with a new report focusing on Apple's claimed investment in Sharp's factory while also referencing the Toshiba deal. The investments are presented within the context of Apple's patent dispute with Samsung, a dispute that some have suggested may be driving Apple to decrease its reliance on Samsung for components.

Apple Inc plans to invest in a Sharp Corp factory to secure a supply of LCD screens for iPhones and iPads, sources said, triggering expectations Apple may step up orders to Japanese parts makers.

The proposed move, along with an investment in a new LCD factory of Toshiba Corp, comes as Apple and key supplier Samsung Electronics battle in courts over patent disputes, spurring talk that Apple may diversify suppliers.

Sharp's shares jumped slightly today after brokerage firm MF Global FXA Securities issued a research note highlighting the probability of an investment by Apple, apparently spurring Reuters to summarize what its sources have been indicating for some time.

Apple already appears to be shifting away from Samsung for production of its custom processors for its iOS devices, with TSMC reportedly beginning trial production of Apple's next-generation A6 system-on-a-chip. Today's report also indicates that flash memory manufacturers Elpida and Toshiba are hopeful that Apple will look to diversify its suppliers in that area as well.

Last month, we noted that Apple had been ordered by a South Korean court to pay out one million won (approximately $946 at the time) to an iPhone user in a case regarding the company's collection of location data. At the time, it was reported that the plaintiff's lawyers were working to file a class-action lawsuit to cover additional users claiming to have been harmed by the collection.

Bloomberg reports that that lawsuit has now been filed, with about 27,000 users signing on to the lawsuit and each seeking one million won ($930) in compensation.

A group of South Korean users of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone sued the company in a local court, claiming it invaded their privacy by allowing the smartphone to collect location data without their consent.

About 27,000 people joined a class-action suit against Apple’s South Korean unit and headquarters, seeking 1 million won per person ($930) in damages, according to a notice posted online by Mirae Law, which represents the plaintiffs. The suit was filed in Changwon, south of Seoul, where the law firm is located.

The report notes that in addition to the earlier judgment against Apple, the company was also fined 3 million won earlier this month by the Korea Communications Commission over the same issue. Apple has also been ordered to encrypt any location data collected, a step Apple previously promised to take.

At the Santa Monica Planning Commission tonight, Apple is believed to be proposing a dramatic new Apple Retail Store on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. As first noted by Curbed, the proposal is from an unnamed retailer who is seeking to construct a new 8,084 square foot commercial building in the place of an existing three story Borders Bookstore.

The applicant is listed as "Howard Robinson" and the property owner as ASB/Blatteis Promenade Holdings, LLC, but one look at the renderings (above and below), and it's clear that this is an Apple Retail store project.

The proposal (PDF) is for a one-story, 34-foot high commercial building with an "expansive floor-to-ceiling height accentuated by a transparent glass ceiling." The front will be entirely glass that will project from stone paneled side walls. A 5,210 sq foot basement will also be included.

The applicant also intends to implement a transportation program for employees to travel to and from the store using alternative modes of transportation. Full-time employees will be offered $100 monthly transit subsidy and a $20/month bicycle reimbursement subsidy as well as bicycle parking in the basement level.

Apple has been making some major upgrades to their retail stores in the recent months. Their 5th Avenue Store in New York is undergoing a $6.6 million upgrade while a new Grand Central project has also been making headlines.

Apple, of course, already has an Apple Retail store on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, but it has been said to get very crowded on weekends, so this may represent an upgrade and replacement to the existing store.

Apple today released OS X 10.7.1, the first maintenance update to OS X Lion. The update is available via Software Update and Apple's download pages.

The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

- Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari.
- Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out.
- Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections.
- Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4764.

Apple has also released a version of OS X 10.7.1 specific to the latest MacBook Air and Mac mini models, adding a few additional fixes.

- Resolve an issue where MacBook Air may boot up when MagSafe Adapter is attached
- Resolve an issue causing intermittent display flickering on MacBook Air.
- Resolve an issue that causes the SD card slot in Mac mini to run at reduced speed with SD and SDHC media.

Finally, Apple has released a separate OS X Lion Update 10.7.1 (Server) update for those systems with Lion Server components installed, improving the reliability of the Apple File Service, and a unique OS X Lion 10.7.1 Update for Mac mini 2011 (Server) update including all of the OS X 10.7.1, Lion Server, and specific Mac mini changes.

Apple has been seeding developers with builds of 10.7.2 to prepare for the launch of Apple's full iCloud service later this year, but the company did not provide any builds of OS X 10.7.1 for developer testing.

Backing up a report from TiPb last week claiming that Apple is shooting for an October 7th launch of the iPhone 5, 9 to 5 Mac now reports that it is hearing similar information. According to source, Apple is reportedly planning to begin pre-orders for the iPhone 5 on September 29th or 30th, with the actual launch scheduled for either October 7th or 14th.

According to our sources, Apple has been weighing between launching the new iPhone on October 7th or October 14th, but with the product’s latest stages of pre-mass-production currently moving along nicely, Apple is presently shooting towards a launch on the 7th. On top of this, unlike with the iPad 2, Apple plans to offer pre-orders for the new iPhone.

Apple currently plans to begin pre-orders for their next-generation smartphone in the final days of September. The company has still not finalized the pre-order start date, but is debating between Thursday, September 29th and Friday, September 30th. The 30th seems more likely at this point according to one of our sources.

The report comes with strong caveats that Apple's launch plans are a constantly shifting target and that things could change at any time, but expresses confidence that these are indeed the dates Apple is currently shooting for.

With pre-orders coming at the very end of September, that milestone would presumably be preceded by a media event to introduce the new iPhone and other hardware such as new iPods. While there has been a considerable amount of back-and-forth about whether Apple will bring out the new iPhone in September or October, some of the more mainstream reports have been adamant about an October launch. Complicating the issue is the fact that an introductory media event, possible pre-order start date, and product availability can all occur on separate dates over a period of several weeks, and few reports have specified exactly which, if not all, of those three events they are referring to with their timeframe claims.

After a more than 15-year absence from the Mac, Autodesk released AutoCAD for Mac last year. Today, Autodesk released AutoCAD LT 2012, the "lite" version of AutoCAD, on the Mac App Store for $899.99. The company also announced a new version of its flagship AutoCAD for Mac software, and AutoCAD WS mobile product.

Autodesk is the first third-party developer to launch a high-end product on the Mac App Store, and hand over 30 percent of its software revenue to Apple -- a controversial move to some, but Autodesk isn't concerned. Amar Hanspal, Autodesk's senior vice president for platform solutions and emerging business, told the Wall Street Journal that Apple is "acting as an agent for us" and is "commercially rewarded for doing that."

Autodesk's full-featured flagship AutoCAD for Mac product, which retails for $3,995, will not be sold through the Mac App Store. Hanspal noted "there is a price level you cannot exceed" at the online store -- Apple's maximum price for any App Store application is $999.99.

“Since the release of AutoCAD for Mac last year, customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, further validating the need for professional design and engineering software on the Mac platform,” said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president, Autodesk Platform Solutions and Emerging Business. “Bringing AutoCAD LT and AutoCAD WS to the Mac shows our continued commitment to making design more accessible for an ever-greater number of people to shape the world around them.”

AutoCAD for Mac 2012 software includes familiar AutoCAD capabilities, such as 2D and 3D design tools, and includes 3D free-form modeling capabilities; 3D visualization and rendering; network licensing; advanced customization of the menus; support for LISP and ObjectARX and ObjectDBX applications; and more. AutoCAD LT for Mac follows common native Mac application user interface guidelines, with a familiar Apple menu bar together with a number of workflow-based palettes. AutoCAD LT for Mac also supports native Mac OS X behavior, including Cover Flow navigation and Multi-Touch gestures.

AutoCAD LT for Mac is perfectly suited for designers, architects and engineers who prefer to work in a native Mac environment and need to create, edit or review designs, technical drawings and documentation.

AutoCAD LT 2012 is available for $899.99 on the Mac App Store. AutoCAD for Mac 2012 is $3,995 and purchasing options are available through Autodesk.

Following up on the interest generated by yesterday's disclosure that wireless carriers are using a special build of iOS containing unique property list files referring to LTE compatibility, Engadget now reports that AT&T has recently installed LTE network equipment in at least one Apple retail store.

Now we've received the image you see above, which shows some 4G LTE equipment that was recently installed in a major Apple store -- by AT&T, according to our source. Making things somewhat more interesting is the equipment itself, one piece of which supports only the 700MHz and AWS bands -- both of which AT&T plans to use for its LTE network if the T-Mobile acquisition goes through.

Rumors have indicated that the iPhone 5 will be supporting the HSPA+ 4G standard, with Apple reportedly holding off on supporting the more advanced LTE 4G standard for the time being until adoption spreads and chips meeting Apple's size and performance standards become available early next year.

But with Apple providing its carrier partners with special iOS builds referencing LTE and carriers like AT&T apparently installing LTE equipment on-site at Apple stores, it seems natural to speculate that Apple is indeed testing LTE-enabled iPhones, perhaps in real-world settings. The developments also provide hope for those seeking an LTE iPhone later this year, but the majority of reports continue to indicate that Apple will be holding off until 2012 to make the technology available to the public.

Update: Engadget's source has requested that the image be removed, and we have complied with the request.

Apple's blitz of retail store openings continues this week, with ifoAppleStore reporting that the company is set to open three new stores in three different countries this Saturday. The openings come after Apple opened five new stores this past weekend as part of a push to open over 30 new stores between July and September.

The stores opening this week include a new location in Berkeley, California, as well as locations in Leganés, Spain near Madrid and Basingstoke, United Kingdom.

- 4th Street (Berkeley, California): The latest of more than a dozen stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, the new Berkeley store is just three miles from Apple's Bay Street store in nearby Emeryville and is about 2.5 miles from the University of California, Berkeley.

- Parquesur (Leganés, Spain): Located in a large suburb southwest of Madrid, the store will be Apple's second in the Madrid area and third in Spain. The store is actually closer to central Madrid than the existing Xanadu store.

- Festival Place (Basingstoke, United Kingdom): Located about 50 miles southwest of central London and 30 miles northeast of Southampton, the new store is in a large mall near the center of town and will be the 31st Apple retail store in the United Kingdom. The closest existing Apple retail store is The Oracle, approximately 15 miles away in Reading.

HBO has been a popular programming source for iTunes Store users since its debut three years ago due to the premium cable channel's highly-regarded original programming. As noticed by one MacRumors reader, the iTunes Store has just begun offering HD versions of a number of HBO shows, adding another option for those looking for higher-quality content.

Among the shows now available in HD: Big Love, Bored to Death, Carnivale, Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 7), Deadwood, Eastbound & Down, Entourage (Seasons 3–7), Flight of the Conchords (Season 2), The Life & Times of Tim, Hung, Rome, Six Feet Under (Seasons 3–5), The Sopranos, True Blood

As with most HD content on the iTunes Store, episodes carry a $1.00 premium over their respective standard-definition versions. Most HBO content is priced at $3.99 HD and $2.99 SD, although some shows come in at $2.99 HD and $1.99 SD. The new HD offerings appear to be available in the United States and Canada.

Reuters briefly reports that Android smartphone manufacturer HTC has struck back at Apple with a new patent lawsuit targeting not only iOS devices but also Macs. The suit was filed in United States District Court in Delaware.

Smartphone maker HTC Corp sued Apple Inc on Tuesday, claiming infringement of three patents through Apple's sale of Macintosh computers, iPhones, iPads and other devices.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware seeks to halt Apple's importation and sale of infringing products in the United States. It also seeks compensatory damages, triple damages for willful infringement, and other remedies.

The lawsuit addresses the following patents:

- 7,765,414: Circuit and operating method for integrated interface of PDA and wireless communication system
- 7,672,219: Multipoint-to-point communication using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
- 7,417,944: Method for orderwire modulation

HTC was the first Android handset manufacturer to be targeted by Apple in the current web of patent lawsuits, with Apple having filed suit back in March 2010. Last month, an International Trade Commission judge ruled in favor of Apple in an initial determination, setting the stage for a more thorough review by a panel of judges and increasing pressure on HTC to settle the lawsuit.

Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt contacted Walter Isaacson and got some more details on Steve Jobs' biography that is due on November 21st. The above cover is described by Isaacson:

"The cover," writes Isaacson in private e-mail, "is the Albert Watson portrait taken for Fortune in 2009. The back is a Norman Seeff portrait of him in the lotus position holding the original Macintosh, which ran in Rolling Stone in January 1984. The title font is Helvetica. It will look as you see it, with no words on the back cover."

Isaacson also clarified to Elmer-DeWitt the moving forward of the publication date was not due to any health concerns or decline. The book was mostly completed in June, and is now "all done and edited".

The publisher describes the biography as being based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years. Meanwhile, hundreds of interviews were also conducted with family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues.