The U.K. advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority, says Apple is correct when it claims its App Store is better than the Google store for the Android.

In a TV ad Apple claimed that the iPhone had apps for "just about anything". Fans of the Google Android, or at least ten of them, complained that their phone offered a similar and equal function.

Apple responded that it made the claim "only on the iPhone" because its App Store "provided users with a unique experience unmatched by any other application marketplace, including the Android Market".

"Because Apple had shown there were far more applications available for the iPhone than the G1 phone, and user experience of the iPhone and the App Store was distinct from its competitor, we concluded that the claim 'only on the iPhone' was justified and not misleading," said the ASA in its ruling.

The Apple App Store has about 50,000 applications, while Google offers about 2,100.

In the past, Apple hasn't done too well with the ASA. In November an iPhone ad was banned for misleading customers about the speed of the phone on the internet. Apple also had to pull ads for its first generation iPhone in August of 2008.

Apple's quarterly earnings aren't the only bits of good news going around: according to Betanews, the market research firm NPD has found that Apple's revenue market share in the premium price segment (computers costing $1000 or more) is 91 percent, up from 88 percent in May.

Not only is this good news for Apple, it is a continuation of a positive trend: their premium revenue share is way up from the first quarter of 2008, when their cut was about 66 percent. However, most original equipment manufacturers and Microsoft prefer to measure success by unit market share, or how many individual computers were moved regardless of price. Gartner and IDC place the unit market share of PCs running some version of Microsoft Windows at 90 percent, while Macs have 8.7 percent.

Breaking down the numbers, this news isn't too surprising. According to NPD, the average selling price of a computer sold at retail in June was $701. Splitting this figure into Macs and PCs gives an ASP of $515 for any Windows PC sold. A Mac, on the other hand, has an ASP of a whopping $1400.

Considering that Apple chooses not to wage the netbook price war and that the bulk of PCs purchased cost less than $1000, it makes sense that Apple would control the premium segment. They were also able to boost their sales figures in this bracket by lowering the high-end prices $100 or more on each model while keeping all but one computer in the $1000+ segment. But hey, we'll take good news however we have to slice it, right?

[via The Loop]

Neil Young (not that Neil Young, the other one), former EA exec and head of ngmoco, fresh from his appearance at the Apple iPhone 3.0 event the other day, showed up on a keynote stage at the Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco to talk about the big, wrapped present that the iPhone and the App Store are to game developers. The platform is "better than the DS, better than the PSP," he said, referring to Nintendo and Sony's handheld gaming devices, because not only is tops in terms of usability (it's "always on, always with you"), and not only is it easier than any other platform to develop for, but the market is gigantic and growing -- unlike Sony and Nintendo's markets, there are no first party titles to compete with.

Which makes a lot of sense (and Young should know -- his company is poised to become one of the platform's early big developers). Other game developers agree, too -- according to a survey at Games Beat 2009, the iPhone has beaten out social networks, web-based content and even consoles as the area that has the most potential for gaming. There's no question at all: the future is extremely bright for gamers on the iPhone.

Microsoft's share of the operating system market is dropping, while Apple computers and handhelds have topped 10 percent for the first time, according to a new report on Internet-connected computers.

NetApplications, the company that tracks browser and operating system market share for a variety of sites across the Internet, released its data for December 2008. According to a Computerworld analysis, the number of Windows users decreased in December by 0.94 percent to 88.7 percent.

The fall was the steepest in four years since Net Applications began collecting data, and was also more than twice that of any similar period in the previous three years. The Computerworld article does note that December statistics do slant slightly towards the Mac due to the reduced number of in-office days for corporate users, but the overall shift is decidedly Mac-ward even once that's accounted for.

Apple's share is just over 10 percent, if one combines the market share for both Macs and iPhones. Macs account for 9.63 percent of computers online. (Windows Mobile devices are included in the 88.7 percent figure.)

Also of note, almost three quarters of Macs online have an Intel processor. This time last year, less than half had one. Overall, Mac OS X's share grew by 31.7 percent compared to a year ago.

Windows XP remains the operating system with the largest installed base, with over 65 percent of the market.

Apple saw the iPhone's market share triple over the past year, capturing 12.9 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, according to a new Gartner analysis.

For the quarter ending September 30, iPhones accounted for 3.4 percent of the market in 2007. That figure was more than 3x higher on the same day in 2008.

Nokia is the leader worldwide in smartphone sales, with 42.4 percent of the market. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion comes in second with 15.9 percent. In North America, Apple is in second place behind RIM, with iPhones accounting for over a quarter of all smartphones.

Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza also noted that this quarter marked the first time iPhone sales exceeded those of Windows Mobile devices; that's pretty astonishing when you consider how many flavors of WM handsets are out there.

[Via Macworld.]

Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt notes some new Net Applications statistics that suggest 8.87 percent of all Internet users use a Mac: a new record.

Add to that the iPhone platform's 0.37 percent, and over one in eleven use an Apple product to browse the web. The iPhone gained 12 percent more users compared to the month before.

Also notable is that Windows users accounted for less than 90 percent of Internet users for the first time in recent memory. Also, market share for Internet Explorer dropped below 70 percent for the first time since its popularity surged in the late 90s.

Linux also gained ground, increasing almost 17 percent to 0.83 percent of all Internet users.

Net Applications tracks statistics from over 160 million visits to websites it monitors. The full report is here.

In a rollercoaster day on Wall Street, Apple shares closed up a scant $1.07 today, landing at $98.14, after a broad market sell-off this morning related to anxiety surrounding global financial markets.

AAPL once again hit a 52-week low of $87.54 per share around 10:45 Eastern this morning. However, shares regained momentum in a closing-bell rally, finishing up nearly half a percent.

Apple shares bucked the trend of many tech stocks today: Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, and AT&T all were less fortunate, losing between two and five percent of their value.

Shares were modestly higher in early after-hours trading.

Apple shares today reached their lowest price point since April 2007, closing at 97.07, down 3.03 points.

AAPL hit its 52-week low today, $94.65 per share, around 3:45 PM Eastern.

Early in the day, the stock was jarred with false rumors from CNN's iReport service about Steve Jobs suffering a heart attack. TUAW's own Michael Rose was among the first to contact Apple's PR VP, Katie Cotton, who said the rumors were untrue.

After the scare, prices rebounded, but never reached their highs for the day just before the rumor bubbled to the surface. Volume was at its heaviest before 10 a.m. Eastern, with about 16 million shares changing hands. In sum total, 82 million shares were traded over the course of the day.

Apple shares were slightly ahead in early after-hours trading.

A survey by ChangeWave says Apple is looking ahead to record sales for Macs, which smiles in the face of further declines in U.S. consumer spending. The survey polled 4,416 people between August 4 and August 12.

If the poll is any indication, Apple will do well in the next three months, with 34 percent of respondents planning on buying a new Mac laptop, and 30 percent planning on buying a new Mac desktop. It's unclear how many of those overlap (that is, people who want to buy both). That's a modest uptick since last month -- two percent more for laptops and three percent more for desktops.

Compare that to general consumer electronics spending: 15 percent said they'd spend more over the next three months, while 34 percent said they'd spend less. That's almost unchanged since last month, but 13 points lower since August last year.

Also in the survey, 17 percent of the respondents (who own an iPhone 3G) are now more likely to buy a Mac in the future; one percent said they were less likely.

[Via MacsimumNews.]

Are you sitting down for this one? Good. Here goes: Apple is going to keep taking market share from "traditional PCs." I know, it's a real shocker. But so says Zacks Investment Research (which is not, apparently, run by a dude named Zack as you'd think). They say that consumers are enjoying Apple's innovations, and that a strong product line lead by the iPod, iPhone, and the MacBook Air will continue to increase Apple's business and give them a bigger piece of the personal computing pie. Who knew?

But Zacks isn't jumping into anything -- they still say that the iPod line will slow down over the next few years, so they're going "hold" with AAPL. Still, it's a good thing they told us about that marketshare thing. Without analysts like these, we'd have no idea what we're buying lately.

[via MacBytes]

We've been talking a lot about Apple's remarkably strong 4th quarter results here on TUAW, but with the recent gains Apple passed an important milestone. Apple has a larger market capitalization than IBM, meaning simply that Apple is now the most valuable computer hardware maker in the world. Let me say that again: Apple is, as of this writing, trading above $185 per share giving it a market cap of $161b, compared to IBM at $153b, HP at $133b and Dell at a measly $65b. When you put it that way it seems almost preposterous, but the numbers are what they are. Of course, all the standard provisos about market cap apply, but nonetheless I'm sure they're savoring this in Cupertino.

According to the Dow Jones Marketwatch, apparently Apple's earnings last quarter are going to be much higher thanks to something called the iPhone. You probably haven't heard much about this device, but our sources tell us it's some sort of hybrid between a Personal Digital Assistant and one of those phones you can use in your car.

Investors are cooing about the tiny "iPhone", because even though it only appeared on Apple's quarterly cycle for two days, the estimated 500,000 units sold in the first weekend will probably be listed as at least partly responsible for the 34% rise in AAPL's profits. The iPod didn't do too badly either-- everyone's expecting Apple to announce that around 10 million iPods were sold last quarter also.

And not surprisingly, bigger things are on the way-- one analyst says "the iPhone will have an even stronger halo effect than the iPod on Macintosh's market share." If two days of the iPhone can do this much, how big will AAPL get with a whole quarter of the gadget?

Since the iPhone's introduction in January, the requests and baiting rumors for a touch-screen iPod that looks and acts like an iPhone - sans the actual phone - have sounded from every corner of the web. The world is inarguably intrigued by this new UI Apple developed for their highly anticipated gadget, and many are waiting with bated breath and credit card in hand, believing the iPod will naturally gain these touchy-feely features any day now. The only problem is: there's no way in Cupertino that's going to happen. At least, not anytime soon.

Put yourself in Apple's shoes: you've just smashed one out of the park with the iPod. You spent a few years working on it, polishing it, developing generation after generation of updates that instantly make the previous version look old 'n busted. After a slow start, you eventually take the DMP (Digital Media Player) market by storm, beating out a few major companies at their own game. Six years and a ton of 3rd party accessories later, you are the king of this particular domain, with what appears to be nary a formidable challenger in sight.

Next: imagine that, after introducing the iPod and giving it that nudge it needed to skyrocket in popularity, you embark on another project, spending at least four and a half years developing a killer mobile phone + DMP + internet device the likes the world has never seen. A gadget so cool and anticipated that it is not only shaking up the mobile phone market, but it single-handedly drowns out the entirety of CES during the week of its introduction. A key factor here, oh reader who is momentarily in Apple's shoes, is that the mobile phone market currently speaks in the mouth-watering language of 'billions,' while Apple's iPod sales - impressive as they may be - are playing in the kiddie pool at 'millions.' Whether you want a mobile phone packed into your iPod or not, you can't ignore the fact that the mobile phone market makes iPod sales look like the Zune's on a good day.

I don't give predictions of market analysts too much serious thought, mostly because the statistics don't really mean much other than to hype up a particular product. Or maybe these analysts just like to be able to say 'told ya so' if their predictions become true. Anyway, one Deutsche Bank analyst claims that the Apple TV can potentially capture 20-30% of the CD and DVD market within a few years after its launch this month. Not to be a naysayer or anything, but that is a huge percentage that seems way too optimistic to be taken seriously. There are a ton of factors at play here. (Oh, and let's not forget that only Disney, Paramount, and Lions Gate are on board to sell films through iTunes... and as far as I know, there are a couple more movie studios out there than just these three).

What do you think? Will the Apple TV cause that big of a shakeup in the home entertainment market once it lands? Will it appeal only to fervent Apple fans? What about those people that can barely operate the remote control of their DVD player, never mind tackling the prospect of downloading and transferring digital videos? Any thoughts?

Techcrunch's Michael Arrington has penned an interesting piece on why the upcoming .Mac webmail revamp is so important. Be sure to check it out, but in summary: Michael believes the combination of a killer AJAX-infused webmail service that both allows users to manage multiple accounts and syncs with a desktop client will give Apple a significant advantage and appeal over competing email services. Now, putting aside the fact that Gmail allows you to transparently send and receive email from non-Gmail addresses, I agree with Michael and I'm pretty darn excited about the first .Mac webmail revamp since the stone ages. However, I think he's missing a major point that many others overlook when discussing, praising or damning .Mac: it isn't webmail.

Or to be more specific: it isn't just webmail. Michael compares .Mac webmail to competing offerings from Google and Yahoo! - individual and free webmail services that can integrate with other offerings from their respective providers - or not. Google has their news, RSS reader (which just had a killer overhaul, by the way) and countless other sister products, just like Yahoo! has their own tool belt of web services. But the crucial fact here is that .Mac webmail is an unconditional component of a suite of products for which users have to pay a hefty yearly fee. You can't get .Mac webmail by itself, let alone for free, and while everyone is excited about the UI revamp (well, almost everyone), the mounting orchestra of criticism against .Mac still stands. The service overall, especially webmail, is sorely missing fundamental features that competing services have had for years, and our own Dave Caolo nailed one of the most significant on the head in his eulogy for .Mac: server side spam filtering. .Mac doesn't feature it, but it's become a standard (as in: four-wheels-on-a-car standard) with virtually any other service, webmail, POP or otherwise.

[Update: A reader named 'random' pointed out that .Mac apparently does feature server-side spam filtering, courtesy of Brightmail, as outlined in this support doc. While this is nice, it doesn't seem to work well (especially compared to the likes of Gmail and Yahoo!), and it doesn't allow users to adjust its sensitivity or peruse server-specified messages as spam in case some legitimate messages are being inaccurately marked. In other words: it's terrible.]

Stepping back from fundamentals and specifics, however, I think Michael is placing a little too much hope in this .Mac webmail upgrade. I highly doubt it will rake in the new users, even with the unique abilities Michael hails. At best, I think it will serve as a very welcomed upgrade that could convince a good portion of existing users to go the 'eh, ok fine I'll renew' route for just one more year. Don't get me wrong: as a member myself, I'm welcoming the upgrade and I was planning on renewing in a month before I knew about the webmail refresh. I just don't believe an update to one (admittedly major) part of .Mac will hold that much weight with those who aren't interested in the entire retail package, especially when competing services can stack up pretty well for the general user, and keep $99 their pocket to boot.