“We estimate that Apple’s iPad business accounts for 4% of the $267 Trefis price estimate for Apple’s stock compared to about 3% for Apple’s Mac desktop business,” Trefis writes for Seeking Alpha.

Trefis highlights the three factors that make the iPad more valuable for Apple than Mac desktops:

1. Pricing gap between iPads and Mac desktops expected to narrow over time
2. Unit sales of iPads will exceed Mac desktops sold (We expect Apple to sell 4 million iPads in 2010 compared to 3.8 million Mac desktops.)
3. Gross margins for Mac desktops are lower than iPad margins

Full article here.

“In 1998, Apple killed the floppy drive. It took a few years for the rest of the industry to catch up, but the handwriting was clearly on the wall,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “Of course, anyone who actually lost data on a worn or defective floppy would only cheer the end of that flawed storage scheme.”

“Segue to 2007. Apple introduces the iPhone without support for Flash. People complain, but iPhones sell at ever-increasing rates. Today, with some 40 million of them around the world, and the iPad on the immediate horizon, Steve Jobs has made it quite clear that Flash is the floppy drive of the 21st century,” Steinberg writes. “It’s time for it to go.”

“As tens of millions of additional customers acquire Apple’s mobile products, the number of visitors to Flash-based sites will also decline, which pretty much forces the issue. Web developers must either build two versions of their sites to accommodate the different requirements of their potential visitors, or just set Flash aside and try to work within open Web standards,” Steinberg writes. “That may be happening. Google is beta testing an alternative to YouTube without Flash, and just this week Virgin America, a small airline, decided to drop Flash from its site. In the Macworld article reporting on the change, writer Dan Moren concludes, ‘Because, as we know, all it really takes in the corporate world is one executive with an iPhone to ask why she can’t use the company’s site on her device.’”

Steinberg writes, “As has already been mentioned, even if Flash runs with decent performance, and even if it doesn’t hog system resources or compromise stability, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to magically access all or most Flash sites on your smartphone. Flash is designed to work with regular personal computers that have conventional input devices [not] multitouch… As a result, Web developers might begin to look for the free, open source alternatives to Flash that don’t require paying fees for Adobe’s products.”

Full article here.

“Google believes that in three years or so desktops will give way to mobile as the primary screen from which most people will consume information and entertainment,” John Kennedy reports for Silicon Republic. “That’s according to Google Europe boss John Herlihy who said that smart phones enhance Google’s mission to make information universal.”

Kennedy continues, “Speaking at the Digital Landscapes conference at UCD, Herlihy said that the cloud-computing opportunity will make sure that every mobile device will be capable of doing rapid-scale applications. ‘In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant. In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs.’ Herlihy [echoed] comments by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the recent GSM Association Mobile World Congress 2010 that everything the company will do going forward will be via a mobile lens, centring on the cloud, computing and connectivity.”

Full article here.

The Examiner’s Daryl Deino has confirmed with an “Apple Store manager in Southern California who wishes not to be named” that “The actual release date hasn’t been set, but March 26 is very likely. [Apple store employess will begin training on March 10].”

Additionally, the same source says, “The 3G versions won’t be available until April or May. Commercials will start airing on March 15 (and) e-book capabilities will be emphasized. People who camp out for the iPad lauch will receive a ’special gift.’”

Full article here.

“My column last week on the new iPad’s IPS display drew a raft of invective from the Mac faithful, who seemed to feel I had treaded on sacred ground for daring to question the 10-hour battery life claims made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the iPad’s rollout,” John Breeden II writes for Government Computer News.

“While preparing my response, I also heard from Jobs himself, who personally, and politely, reiterated Apple’s assertion that the iPad will run for 10 hours on a single charge,” Breeden writes. “The iPad has yet to be released, of course, so the jury’s still out, but Jobs’ personal note does, I think, lend credibility to the claim.”

“As I was finishing this column, I e-mailed him to say that I didn’t mean to imply that he was lying during his iPad presentation, as several people accused me of in their comments,” Breeden simpers. “People make presentations written by marketers all the time that are not 100 percent truthful, and it doesn’t make them liars.”

Breeden writes, “I told him I looked forward to testing it out in the lab soon. And I’m more hopeful than ever that Apple really has done something special with their new tablet. (It’s also worth noting that Jobs actually uses the iPad — at the bottom of the e-mail was the tagline “Sent from my iPad.” Nice to see he walks the walk, too.)”

Full article here.

Apple today filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

HTC responded to the suit telling The New York Times that, “HTC values patent rights and their enforcement but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations.’ The company also said, ‘HTC only learned of Apple’s actions this morning via media reports, and therefore we have not yet had the opportunity to investigate the filings. Until we have had this opportunity, we are unable to comment on the validity of the claims being made against HTC.”
[Read more →]

“Former Mozilla security chief Window Snyder has been hired by Apple,” Robert McMillan reports for IDG News Service. “Snyder started her new job Monday, where she’s now working as a senior security product manager…”

Snyder “previously had worked as a security strategist at Microsoft where she managed the company’s relationships with security consultants and had worked on the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems,” McMillan reports.

McMillan reports, “Snyder took a job with Mozilla in 2006 and was credited with professionalizing the Firefox security response team… She left Mozilla in late 2008, and worked as a consultant over the past year.”

Full article here.