Thursday’s Apple Rumors — Android’s App-etite

Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Thursday: Champ on the Way: A
report from research group Distimo reprinted at All Things Digital says Googles
(NASDAQ: GOOG ) Android Market will become the worlds largest app store by the
end of the year, with its number of downloadable apps finally outstripping
Apples (NASDAQ: AAPL ). This, of course, assumes Apples app-store growth wont
get a spike after it updates its mobile operating system later this year.
Regardless, the report demonstrates that Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM ),
Nokia (NYSE: NOK ), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ), and even app players like Amazon
(NASDAQ: AMZN ) will need to pick up the pace in order to catch up with Google
and Apples outlets. Verizon iPhone Drops Off: A Thursday report at DigiTimes
suggests that Verizon (NYSE: VZ ) iPhone sales have fallen off significantly in
the second quarter. Pegatron, a company that assembles iPhones, reported a loss
of more than $19 million for the first quarter of the year, due to
smaller-than-expected orders for Verizons version of the iPhone. The company was
expecting to ship 10 million of the newer models by the end of the year, but
that shrunk to 5 million, as of April. Apple has said Verizon activated 2.2
million iPhones since the device was released in February during its quarterly
earnings call. Its unclear whether the Verizon iPhones underperformance has been
caused by too small of a release (the phone has yet to be released on other 3G
networks around the world) or if Verizon customers are simply holding off a
purchase in favor of a much-rumored 4G iPhone due later this year. Apple Gets
Fit: An Apple patent application detailed by AppleInsider in a Thursday report
indicates a plan by the company to help its legions of iPad and iPhone users
trim down in the near future. The patent titled Systems and Methods for
Accessing Personalized Fitness Services Using a Portable Electronic Device
describes an app that would transform Apple mobile devices into a personal
trainer. The app will schedule workout sessions, lay out eating plans, locate
nearby gyms using GPS, and provide charts for progress tracking. Features will
be broken into categories like New Customers, Getting There, In the Gym, and
Post Workout. With a new version of Apples personal and office services software
suite MobileMe expected to be released this fall alongside the new iPhone, a new
fitness program seems like a perfect fit for the service. As of this writing,
Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
Follow him on Twitter at  @ajohnagnello  and  become a fan of  InvestorPlace
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