MacRumors

Apple today issued a second beta version of iOS 4.3 to registered developers, marking a quick turnaround since the initial beta version was seeded one week ago.

The new seed carries build number 8F5153d, up from the previous 8F5148b, and is similarly available in versions for the iPad, iPhone 4 and 3GS, and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch, as well as in a separate version for the new Apple TV.

There is no word yet on changes in the new build, but the first beta version added for support for a number of features including personal Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, new multi-touch gestures for the iPad, support for video streaming from third-party and web apps via AirPlay, and a new software option for selecting the functionality of the iPad's side switch.

Update: 9 to 5 Mac notes that Apple has clarified in the documentation accompanying the new build that the four- and five-finger iPad gestures added in the initial build will not be included in the public release of iOS 4.3 and are simply being included in developer versions so that Apple can obtain input from developers on their functionality.

This feature will not be enabled in iOS 4.3 for customers, but we are providing this preview to gather input on how these gestures work with your apps.

In a pair of reports today, Gear Live shares some information reportedly leaked from Best Buy's internal systems showing how the retailer and AT&T are gearing up to downplay the impact of the Verizon iPhone set for launch next month.

The first report indicates that AT&T will be simplifying its text messaging plans as of January 23rd, doing away with the existing plans offering 200 messages per month for $5 or 1500 messages per month for $15 and replacing them with a single plan offering 1000 messages per month for $10. The unlimited messaging plan priced at $20 per month will remain.

The document indicates that users currently on either of the two messaging plans being discontinued with be grandfathered in and be able to stay with their current plans, even through device upgrades.

According to the second report, Best Buy's training documents for its retail staff are offering arguments (apparently reprinted from a BGR report from last week) noting that with Verizon having spent significant time at CES 2011 earlier this month touting its 4G network and forthcoming devices, the Verizon iPhone will already be outdated at its launch.

Verizon's entire presence at CES last week was focused on one thing and one thing alone: 4G. Its LTE network is now live in 38 markets and a flurry of 4G phones will launch in the coming months. But their iPhone... the smartphone millions of Verizon Wireless subscribers have been dying for... is a 3G device.

The presumption is that Best Buy will not be carrying the Verizon iPhone for some time after the device's launch, making it advantageous for the retailer to convince customers to purchase alternative phones available in its stores. But at the same time, the company's arguments also curiously seem to argue against the AT&T iPhone, which is also a 3G device and available from Best Buy.

We've similarly heard from AT&T employees, even those who are not involved in customer-facing positions, who have received "talking points" from the company about why the iPhone on AT&T is better than the Verizon iPhone. Among the key talking points being highlighted by AT&T: network speed (memo claims 35% faster than Verizon on average nationally), ability to talk and surf simultaneously (memo claims one-third of customers use it daily), global network coverage, and Wi-Fi hotspots.

The memo goes on to note that AT&T is proud to have partnered with Apple over the last three and a half years on a ground-breaking device and that it continues to be on "great terms" with Apple. Finally, AT&T points to the fact that two-thirds of its iPhone users were already AT&T customers to begin with, and 80% of iPhone subscribers are on family or business plans, which make it more difficult to switch carriers.

Starbucks today announced that its mobile payments solution for the iPhone, iPod touch, and select BlackBerry devices is now available nationwide, allowing customers to pay for their purchases using the company's mobile app at nearly 6,800 traditional Starbucks locations and over 1,000 Starbucks locations in Target stores across the United States.

To experience mobile payment at Starbucks, customers just need to download the free Starbucks Card Mobile App for select BlackBerry smartphones, iPhone or iPod touch mobile devices. More than one-third of U.S. Starbucks customers use smartphones, of which nearly three quarters use BlackBerry smartphone or iPhone mobile devices. In addition to the mobile payment capability, the app allows customers to manage their Starbucks Card account, check their card balance, reload their card with any major credit card (iPhone users can also use the PayPal feature), check their My Starbucks Rewards status and find a nearby Starbucks store with the store locator feature.

Customers can pay with their smartphone by holding their mobile device in front of a scanner on the countertop and scan the Starbucks Card Mobile App's on-screen barcode to make a purchase.

Starbucks began testing the mobile app payment functionality nearly a year and a half ago in a handful of stores, expanding the trial to Target-based locations in March 2010.

While the Starbucks mobile payment system relies on a scanner being able to read a QR Code displayed on the iPhone's screen, many have been waiting for Apple to embrace more advanced technologies such as near field communications (NFC) that would allow users to make purchases by simply bringing their devices into close proximity with sensors at retail points-of-sale.

Rumors of NFC- or RFID-equipped iPhones have been circulating for some time, and Apple has also filed several patent applications related to the technology while also hiring several employees known to be experts in the field. One such employee, Benjamin Vigier, joined Apple last year, bringing extensive experience in NFC and other mobile payment technologies, including having developed the current Starbucks mobile payment system while working at mFoundry.

While full details of Apple's conference call yesterday covering the company's blowout earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2011 are available in our coverage post, we've compiled a few of the more interesting items that merit some additional attention:

- Record-breaking quarter: Apple set new quarterly records for Mac, iPhone, and iPad sales, as well as revenue and profit.

- iOS device sales booming: Apple has now sold over 160 million iOS devices since the original iPhone debuted in mid-2007, with iPhones accounting for the largest share at nearly 90 million. Apple sold over 360,000 iOS devices per day during the quarter, and iOS devices generated nearly two-thirds of Apple's quarterly revenue.

- iPad sales skyrocket: Apple's iPad sales of 7.33 million were well above analyst expectations and brought total sales to 14.8 million over the first nine months of availability.

- iPhone supply issues: iPhone supplies remain constrained, and the company believes it could have sold more than the record 16.24 million units sold during the quarter if supply had been available. Apple is continually working to increase production capacity, but it takes time.

- Long-term component contracts: Apple has entered into three long-term component supply contracts worth $3.9 billion. Executives declined to elaborate on the suppliers or components involved, but likened the deals to one signed in 2005 to secure five-year access to flash memory as the company made its push into flash-based iPods and eventually the iPhone.

- Tablet competition: Apple COO Tim Cook divided existing tablet offerings from competitors into two flavors: Windows-based tablets requiring a keyboard or stylus and small Android-based tablets running an operating system not designed for the form factor and consequently yielding a "bizarre" scaled-up smartphone experience. Apple doesn't consider either of the two categories competitive with the iPad. Looking ahead to Android 3.0 tablets, Cook referred to most of the CES tablet announcements as "vapor" for the time being and indicated that Apple will evaluate them as they come to market, also noting that Apple is of course not standing still with the iPad.

- "Cannibalization" by the iPad: Cook noted the iPad is slightly eating into Mac sales, but that with the Mac's relatively small share of the PC market, there is room for the iPad to replace a lot of PC sales while only marginally affecting the Mac. Cook also referenced the "halo effect" in which customers introduced to the company with the iPad are finding themselves turning to Mac for their computer purchases. "If this is cannibalization, it feels pretty good," Cook quipped.

- Jobs' health: Surprisingly, Steve Jobs' new medical leave of absence was not addressed either by Apple executives or analysts posing questions during the Q&A portion of the call. Brief discussion of the issue from the perspective of whether there will be any substantive effect on Apple's operations going forward was widely expected.

TechTrackr noted that Hugh Hefner revealed on Twitter that full uncensored issues of Playboy will become available on the iPad in March.

While Playboy has had an official App Store app, the app has been content restricted and contains no nude images. There are no further details on the iPad version of the magazine.

We suspect the magazine delivery may be related to Apple's recent plans to open up subscription billing for magazine and newspaper content which has been rumored to debut in the coming weeks. News Corp's upcoming The Daily has been repeatedly cited as the first to take advantage of the new subscription model.

Update: According to Forbes, a Playboy spokeswoman has clarified that the uncensored version of the magazine will be offered through a web-based subscription service accessible through the iPad. By offering a web-based interface rather than an App Store application, Playboy will skirt around Apple's previously-stated objections to adult content in the App Store.

We are releasing a web-based subscription service with Bondi Digital Publishing that will give users access to every issue of Playboy both past and present. The service will be iPad compatible and will utilize iPad functions.

We also have plans to release a non-nude version of a Playboy-branded iPad app in the coming months that adheres to all of Apple's policies and guidelines.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber weighs in on the recent rumors suggesting the next iPad will have a super high-resolution Retina display running at a resolution of 2048x1536.

I asked around, and according to my sources, it is too good to be true: the iPad 2 does not have a retina display. I believe the iPad 2's display will remain at 1024  768. Its display may be improved in other ways - brighter, better power consumption, thinner, perhaps.

Gruber believes that the iPad will eventually get this 2048x1536 and even claims there are prototype iPads in Apple's campus with this exact resolution, but seems certain the next generation iPad will not be that iPad.

Meanwhile, Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky stands by his source that the next iPad will indeed have "super high resolution" screen, though makes no claim on the exact dimensions. Meanwhile, Gruber admits that it could be another resolution, but he doubts it:

I think that's unlikely for reasons pertaining to UI scaling math (the same reason that the iPhone display resolution didn't increase incrementally) - but it's worth noting that my sources only claim "no retina display", not that the resolution is unchanged. The "double or nothing" line is my opinion, not information from any source.

Both Gruber and Engadget have had a history of having accurate sources. For what it's worth, Kevin Rose also claimed that the next iPad will have a higher resolution screen, though will fall short of being a "Retina" display.

Apple today announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2011, corresponding to the fourth calendar quarter of 2010. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $15.68 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38.5 percent, compared to 40.9 percent in the year-ago quarter, and international sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter's revenue. Apple's quarterly profit and revenue were both company records.

Apple shipped a record 4.13 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a unit increase of 23 percent over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached a record 16.24 million, up 86 percent from the year-ago quarter, and the company also sold 19.45 million iPods during the quarter, representing 7 percent unit decline over the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold a record 7.33 million iPads during the quarter.

"We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We are firing on all cylinders and we've got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can't wait to get their hands on."

Apple's guidance for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 includes expected revenue of $22 billion and earnings per diluted share of $4.90.

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2011 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights. Analysts will almost certainly ask about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' new medical leave of absence within the context of how it and any related changes will affect the company's business, although analysts and Apple officers will obviously touch on a number of other topics as well.

Conference Call Highlights- Peter Oppenheimer: "Very pleased" to report outstanding results. Quarterly records for Mac, iPhone, iPad, total revenue, and total profit.
- Macs: New record of 4.13 million Macs sold...growth 8x faster than overall PC market. Fueled primarily by strong MacBook Air demand, as well as MacBook Pro. Quarter ended with 3-4 weeks of channel inventory.
- Highlighting Mac App Store launch.
- Music products: 19.45 million iPods. iPod touch sales grew 27% year-over-year. Now over 50% of iPod sales. iPod continues to be top-selling music players in nearly every country.
- iTunes revenue exceeded $1.1 billion. Pleased to bring The Beatles to the store, and movies to Japan.
- iPhone: 16.24 million units for 86 percent growth. Average selling price of about $625. 185 carriers in 90 countries on board. Asia-Pacific and Japan strongest growth areas: more than doubled.
- Highlighting enterprise penetration.
- Ended with 3.5 million iPhones in inventory, up about 250,000 over last quarter. Could have sold more.
- iPad: Thrilled with customer interest. Available in 46 countries. 80% of Fortune 100 are using or piloting iPad, up from 65% in the prior quarter. Average selling price of about $600. Increased supply throughout quarter...channel inventory grew by about 525,000 to support new markets.
- Now over 160 million iOS devices sold in total.
- Retail stores: Record 851,000 Macs sold, up 24%. About half were to customers new to Mac. International stores grew more strongly than U.S. stores. Opened six new stores in the quarter...323 total with 87 outside U.S. Average revenue of $12 million, up 69% over year ago. Record 75.5 million visitors during the quarter.
- Gross margin at 38.5%, above expectations...factors included component cost savings and leveraging higher-than-expected revenue.
- Cash plus marketable securities on hand nearing $60 billion.

Q&A

Q: iPhone availability. With backlog that you couldn't meet during September quarter, how are you ensuring availability going forward with Verizon coming online?
A: We made a move in the previous quarter to move to 14 million, and we sold that many. We were able to step that up by another over 2 million this past quarter, and we've continued to work on increasing capacity. But it takes time. Relative to Verizon, we're thrilled to offer it to their customers. We're gonna do everything possible to get the iPhone into as many hands as possible.

Q: Thoughts on Mac App Store?
A: Just getting going, but thrilled to have announced over 1 million downloads.

Q: iPhone and iPad availability and supply/demand balance?
A: On iPad, we increased dramatically this quarter. This allowed us to expand...added 20 countries during the December quarter, with another 15 coming this month. On iPhone, we're working around the clock to build more capacity. I'm not going to predict when supply and demand will meet though.

Q: What's driving impressive sequential growth in Asia-Pacific?
A: We've put enormous energy into China, and the results have been staggering. Greater China revenue last quarter was $2.6 billion, up 4x from prior-year quarter. Korea has also been outstanding, primarily driven by iPhone and iPad. Japan is not in Asia-Pacific segment, but also performing extremely well.

Q: Any insight into long-term business plans...product roadmap?
A: Part of the magic of Apple is our roadmap, and I don't want anybody copying us. In my view, Apple is performing at a very high level. We've done outstandingly with our Mac, but still have a low share, so we still have enormous opportunity. Still have low share in the handset market, with smartphone market growing faster than a weed. iPad just got started, and we believe the market is huge. IDC is predicting it to quadruple in two years, although we don't really know what to predict beyond our expectations that it will be huge.

Q: Any thoughts on how many more iPhones you could have sold?
A: You can't run the experiment both ways, so we just don't know.

Q: Thoughts on component costs and what was the biggest benefit for you? Thoughts on future pricing?
A: We expect favorable pricing for DRAM, but some prices for some raw materials like metals are increasing. The bulk of everything else is in supply-demand balance, so we expect these commodities to fall in line with historical trends. As for last quarter, we saw favorable pricing in most areas, which was key to our strong gross margin performance.

Q: You're making long-term commitments with three suppliers. Can you identify the areas in which these are?
A: We don't really want to get into that. We're innovating in design. So I'll say that with something like the A4 chip, we focused on design and didn't need to invest in fab. We've also in the past signed long-term deals to secure supply. The most recent major one was a flash memory deal back in 2005. That was a fantastic use of Apple's cash, and we're constantly looking for more. And recently we've identified some other areas in which we can make similar arrangements for strategic long-term investment commitments.

Q: In the past, the bill of materials costs have come down over time that makes for favorable margin improvements. Any difference in expectations for iPad?
A: I don't think you can take a single product by itself, and as you know we don't guide a margin on the product level. We have always aggressively worked to lower our costs. We shipped a lot of iPads in the quarter and were very happy with our progress.

Q: Tablet competition...how are you viewing the coming offerings?
A: If you look at what's shipping today, there's not much out there. There's two kinds of groups on the market today: Windows-based tablets are generally big, heavy, and expensive with weak battery life and require keyboard or stylus. Customers are not interested in them. Then you have the Android tablets, and with the variety shipping today, the operating system isn't really designed for tablets. So you wind up having the size of a tablet below that offering a tablet experience. Instead you have a scaled-up smartphone, which is a bizarre product in our view. But the next-generation Android tablet introduced at CES and coming, they're not shipping yet. Generally they lack performance specs, pricing, release schedules...they're vapor. We'll assess them as the come out, but we have a huge first-mover advantage and we're not standing still. We're very confident to enter into a fight with anyone.

Q: Moves to iPhone non-exclusivity still not impacting average selling prices, even with Verizon? Should we expect more CDMA carriers globally?
A: Generally, we don't envision overall iPhone average selling price declining from last quarter to this quarter. And our policy is to not comment any further out than that. Regarding other carriers, we're always assessing every carrier and every country for opportunities, and we'll continue to do that. In every case where we've moved from an exclusive arrangement to dual or multi carrier arrangement, we've grown and our share has increased. But we look at each country individually. On the CDMA iPhone specifically, I don't have any specific thing to announce today other than that we're truly thrilled to be working with Verizon. We've signed non-exclusive multi-year agreements with both Verizon and AT&T, so we're very happy to have multi-carrier in the U.S.

Q: There are still some single-carrier countries, although you've said that there are no exclusivity agreements in place now.
A: I don't want to comment on any individual country, but yes, everyone wants to do business with us. I can confirm that we no longer have any exclusivity agreements anywhere in the world. The U.S. was the last one. And remember that our supplies continue to be constrained.

Q: Thoughts on Mac and any possible cannibalization by iPad?
A: We grew 23% year-over-year this quarter, almost 8x the market rate of growth. Asia-Pacific led growth with 67% increase, 10x the market there. U.S. and Europe also grew in double digits despite overall industry contraction. Is there some cannibalization? Yes, there is almost certainly is some. But there's also a halo effect from Apple product to Apple product. We've introduced many people in Asia and other places to Apple through the iPhone and now the iPad, and a lot of them are now turning to the Mac. If this is cannibalization, it feels pretty good. And keep in mind that we have low share of the PC market, so if the iPad cannibalizes computers, the other guys will hurt a lot more and the iPad will have a huge opportunity. Cannibalization isn't something we really worry about.

Q: You seem to be bringing iOS elements to the Mac, with Mac App Store and Lion glimpses. Is this the future?
A: Part of the magic of Apple is that there aren't high walls between these groups. It's a part of the way we run the company. We're always talking to each other. As Steve has said, if the Mac company were separate and iPad were separate, what would the Mac company build to compete with the iPad? It would be the MacBook Air, and that's a great way to put it.

Q: How does the iPad drive brand penetration in emerging markets?
A: iPad has gone through all the phases of early-adopters/enterprise/etc. very quickly, and we'll look at that as it all shakes out. But again look at Asia-Pacific where we've grown so quickly. It's clear we're introducing a lot of people to Apple who hadn't been introduced, and it's showing across all product lines.

Q: Thoughts on tablet opportunities between established and emerging markets?
A: The opportunity is so large, it's large everywhere.

Q: Revenue outlook for current quarter is down 17% from previous quarter, a bit larger than last year. And you have Verizon iPhone coming. Any thoughts on that?
A: We're working hard to increase iPhone supply, and that will come over a period of time. In terms of sequential guidance, we're thrilled to be giving you guidance of 50% year-over-year growth. We increased iPad and iPhone channel inventory by about 775,000, and that will have a bit of impact. On the Mac side, we're expecting a sequential unit decline, and a large one for the iPod, as is typical for both. We expect substantial increase for iPhone, and it's our first time through this on the iPad, although we expect a decline coming off the holiday season.

Q: Any thoughts on the battle with Android?
A: We had record iPhone sales, and we believe we could have sold more. From the estimates we've seen, it's suggested we're growing faster than the market. Continuing to expand countries and carriers. We're getting enormous enterprise traction. Have highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry. Have the largest App Store. Have sold over 160 million iOS devices. Believe that our integrated approach delivers a far superior customer experience than a fragmented approach. You can see this in the multitude of app stores coming on other platforms. Look at data on users running the latest version of any given OS...iOS is always way ahead of the other guys. We think our approach is much better for the end user because it takes out the complexity rather than making the user a system integrator. I don't know too many people who want to be system integrators. I think the same thing on the iPad...it's the same issues at the end of the day. The difference on the iPad is that we've been running for three quarters without any significant competition. I think we're in a very good position.

Q: Insight on iPad gross margins? Can you improve the features on the iPad and hold pricing?
A: I can't really talk about that. We're always trying to improve costs. We feel very very good about the performance of our products and our pricing.

Q: On the MacBook Air, any insights on how you're viewing the platform...a premium tablet or a notebook?
A: It was a phenomenal part of our growth during the quarter. The customers love it...they love the thinness, the precision, the instant-on, etc. We're really happy with it as a starting block. We've only been shipping it for less than 90 days, so we're just getting going.

Q: "Consumerization" of enterprise driven by employees bringing their iOS devices to work. Are there other barriers in terms of corporate training or whatever getting in the way of even faster adoption?
A: Most CIOs are coming to the realization that the productivity of the employee is more important than everyone using the same thing. The ability to write apps in a straightforward manner through the SDK is key, and you can literally run your entire business off an iPad or iPhone in some cases. There's an enormous potential there. The iPad started shipping in April, and we're already up to 80% of the largest companies already working with it. This is unheard of. In terms of inhibitors, the iPad has a huge advantage because we've always put in huge chunks of enterprise features with every software release. So we've always been focused on this.

-End of call

Yesterday, a report surfaced claiming that Apple is considering discontinuing some of its server-related offerings beyond the Xserve slated to disappear at the end of the month and suggesting that Mac OS X Server could eventually be cut from Apple's lineup. The rumors certainly generated significant interest and concern from those who are fans of Apple's server- and storage-related products.

The new report led one MacRumors reader to let us know that he had emailed Apple CEO Steve Jobs in early December specifically to inquire about whether Mac OS X Server might soon meet the same fate as the Xserve, and Jobs reportedly replied with a simple "no".

Q: If you are abandoning enterprise solutions by eliminating the Xserve, does that mean OS X Server is not far behind? It seems that way. I would hate to see that because I like the product.

A: No.

Sent from my iPhone

Jobs of course has a clever way of selectively addressing customer questions so as to not give away too much information, so readers should be careful of reading too much into his simple comment. His response could optimistically be taken to mean that Mac OS X Server's future is secure for the foreseeable future, although a more skeptical interpretation could be applied to suggest that Mac OS X Server may or may not be under consideration for discontinuation but that any discontinuation would be a bit further down the road and not "not far behind" the Xserve's demise.

Even that latter interpretation would be consistent with Hardmac's claims yesterday, which suggested that there would be a server version of Mac OS X Lion later this year but that it could eventually mark the end of the line for Apple's server operating system.

While Microsoft has released a small handful of apps for iOS devices, mostly notably with Bing and Windows Live Messenger, the company's Office team has been slow to bring iOS offerings to the App Store. Microsoft had indicated soon after the iPad's introduction that it was "looking at" the possibility of bringing a version of Office to the iPad, but clarified a few months later that it had "no current plans" to develop such offerings.

But Microsoft's Office team has now taken its first baby steps onto the App Store with its announcement that it has launched a version of OneNote [App Store] for iOS.

In case you haven't experienced the unsung hero of Office, OneNote is a digital notebook that lets you put everything you need to remember in one electronic place and then easily find it wherever you are. I use it every day. Think of it as a digital file cabinet for all the random bits of information that are too hard to keep track of in your head. According to comScore, 78 million PCs in the U.S. have OneNote - more than a third of all the PCs in the country.

OneNote Mobile for the iPhone lets you capture and review notes and lists on your phone. Notes are automatically backed up and synced with free Windows Live SkyDrive online storage, so that you can access them from virtually anywhere - your PC, phone, and browser. Collecting thoughts and ideas on the go is what OneNote was made for.

Microsoft has worked hard to extend availability of OneNote functionality, offering it in its Office suite for Windows as well as as a desktop web app and for mobile devices running Windows Phone 7 and now iOS. OneNote for iOS is currently free for a "limited time", and it is unclear what the regular price will be and when it will go into effect.

We've received information today from a source sharing the above screenshot claimed to be from a Best Buy inventory database showing both 16 GB and 32 GB white iPhone 4 models listed with expected in-stock dates of February 27th. The SKU and model numbers associated with the entries are identical to those previously used by Best Buy when it was taking pre-orders for the white iPhone 4 prior to last summer's launch, pre-orders that were canceled when Apple delayed availability of the white versions.

The discovery comes as Engadget notes that the white iPhone 4 has similarly showed up in the inventory system of Vodafone Germany. That report's source also indicated that a launch is expected "soon".

It is unknown whether these outlets have actual information on an upcoming release of the white iPhone 4 models or if they are simply preparing their internal systems in anticipation of Apple's most recent claims of a "spring" release for the long-delayed white versions. February 27th is a Sunday, which would be an odd choice for an Apple product release, as the company typically targets its launches of highly-anticipated products for Thursdays or Fridays in order to generate high-volume sales over the launch weekends.

The potential impact of a white iPhone 4 has likely lessened as the months have gone by, with customers who had been interested in the white version in many cases having moved on to second-choice handsets and consumers already looking forward to the expected release of a fifth-generation iPhone in the middle of the year. Rumors surfacing just after Apple's October announcement of the latest delay in availability had even suggested that the company has no intention of releasing the white iPhone 4 and will simply announce another delay sometime early this year that will lead into the release of the fifth-generation devices.

Reuters reports that U.S. prosecutors have filed criminal charges against two people involved in an AT&T security breach last year that saw email addresses and SIM identifiers for close to 120,000 U.S. iPad + 3G users exposed.

U.S. prosecutors filed criminal charges against two people accused of stealing the email addresses and other personal data of about 120,000 users of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPad tablet computer.

Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auernheimer were each charged with one count of fraud and one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization, prosecutors said.

The FBI has been investigating the situation over the past seven months, and authorities have apparently now finally gathered enough evidence to charge those claimed to have accessed and shared the information. A press conference is reportedly scheduled for this afternoon to allow prosecutors and the FBI to discuss the case.

Auernheimer had previously argued that he had done nothing wrong, simply accessing information made freely available on AT&T's site due to improper security controls. Questions remained, however, about what was done with the information and why he had shared the details of the breach and the harvested information with Valleywag rather than going straight to AT&T.

Research firm IDC today announced the debut of its Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker, offering a look at unit shipment data and market share numbers for devices such as the iPad and Amazon's Kindle. While the data included in the initial release is from the third quarter of 2010 and thus is a bit dated, it reveals that Apple held 87.4% of the worldwide media tablet market (distinct from the eReader market in which the Kindle competes) during the quarter.

- Apple definitively led the worldwide media tablet market in shipments and set the standard for technology innovation in 2010, with nearly 4.2 million units shipped in 3Q10 and an 87.4% share worldwide.

- During 3Q10 a handful of tier 2 and tier 3 vendors shipped media tablets based primarily on Android 2.1 and 2.2. In 4Q10, Samsung's introduction of the Galaxy Tab brought the first tier 1 device vendor to the Android media tablet market. Media tablet market growth is expected to accelerate significantly in 1Q11 with new products from multiple high-profile device vendors, including Motorola's Xoom, based on Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), and RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook based on BlackBerry Tablet OS.

In addition to dominating the "media tablet" market, the iPad's estimated 4.2 million units also compare favorably to sales of eReaders, where Amazon's Kindle easily topped the market with 45% share on just 1.14 million units shipped during the quarter.

IDC, which also tracks shipments of computers and phones on a quarterly basis, notes that it defines "media tablets" as those tablet devices with screen sizes ranging from 5- to 14-inches and running "lightweight" operating systems such as iOS and Android. The category is differentiated from "tablet PCs" that run full PC operating systems on x86 architecture on one end and the single-purpose eReaders on the other end.

Apple's stock opened for trading at $327.05 per share this morning, down over 5% from its close on Friday, with the dip clearly related to Steve Jobs' announcement that he will be taking a new medical leave of absence from the company. The stock has been rebounding in the few minutes the market has been open for trading, however, and currently sits at about $336 per share, or down 3.5%.

Apple appears to have strategically released the news of Jobs' leave yesterday morning on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a U.S. holiday when the stock markets would be closed and would give investors a day to absorb the news before making moves with their holdings of the company's stock. Apple's stock was being traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange yesterday, closing down about 6.6% and offering observers an expectation of what would happen this morning.

Another factor likely playing into Apple's timeframe for announcing Jobs' leave is the company's quarterly earnings announcement scheduled for after the close of the market today. Apple is widely expected to beat analyst estimates, performance that could offer the company's stock a lift to at least partially offset today's decline on Jobs' health worries. We'll have full coverage of the earnings release and accompanying conference call, where analysts are certain to question Apple executives seeking to learn more about how the company will be run during Jobs' absence and when we might expect him to return.

Update: As of 1:30 PM Eastern Time, Apple's share price has climbed back up to $343 per share, down only 1.5% for the day.

Update 2: Apple's share price close regular trading for the day at $340.65, down 2.25%. Apple's earnings release is forthcoming, and the stock will likely move relatively significantly in extended trading following the release.

The newest next-generation iPad case designs from Chinese accessory manufacturers show off two additional openings that haven't been seen before. The images above (via MIC Gadget and AppleInsider) reveal a left-upper slot and a top-middle slot that were not found on previously leaked designs.

A recent report from Engadget claimed that the new iPad will have an SD card slot. The most likely location for that seems to be the top-left (shown above) opposite the current volume buttons. Meanwhile, the top slot is more of a mystery, though the above articles both speculate that it could be the right size for a video output such as mini DisplayPort.

While it's hard to get excited over the growing number of case designs coming out of China, what struck our eye was that the two ports match up exactly to a leaked design document from December. Those images also have the distinction of being forcibly taken down upon legal demand, suggesting that there may have been some legitimacy to them.

DigiTimes reports that Taiwanese manufacturer Pegatron has recently bumped its production plans for the CDMA iPhone to 12-15 million units for 2011, up from earlier plans for 10 million units.

Taiwan-based notebook maker Pegatron Technology has recently started shipping its Apple CDMA iPhones orders with total volume is estimated to be around 12-15 million units in 2011, helping to cover the company's notebook manufacturing business, which has recently suffered loss of orders, according to sources from upstream component makers.

As we noted last week, the CDMA iPhone is expected to quickly make its way to a number of countries around the world, despite Verizon in the United States being the only CDMA carrier so far to announce availability. Reports on CDMA iPhone production have indicated that Pegatron is shipping units for international markets, while Foxconn is handling CDMA iPhone production for the United States.

A pair of reports last October had indicated that Foxconn and Pegatron would be splitting the CDMA iPhone 4 manufacturing load roughly equally, with Foxconn at the time planning for 15 million units in 2011 while Pegatron targeted 10 million units of its own. With Pegatron having raised its target in recent weeks, total CDMA iPhone production for 2011 is now pegged at up to 30 million units.

Apple is widely expected to introduce a fifth-generation iPhone around the middle of this year, with most observers assuming that it will be available in both GSM and CDMA versions. Consequently, manufacturers' plans are likely accounting for production of both iPhone 4 and the unreleased "iPhone 5".