Here are your daily Apple news items and rumors for Thursday: Youre Next, Xoom:
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) doesnt really need to help stomp out the iPads competition
by suing other tablet makers. The iPad already is stomping out the competition
all on its own. That isnt stomping the company from savaging others, though.
Patent lawsuits leveled against Samsung have already blocked the Galaxy Tab 10.1
tablet from releasing in Australia and most European countries . Now Apple is
working its litigation magic against Motorola s (NYSE: MMI ) harmless Xoom.
According to a Thursday report at Tech Radar , Apple has filed a suit against
Motorola in Germany claiming that the Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) Android-powered
Xoom is too similar in design to the iPad. However, Motorola spokesperson was
quick to point out that it actually was the one to instigate this particular
lawsuit slap fight, having filed an infringement suit against Apple in Germany
in April. Investors might remember that Motorola sold between 25,000 and 125,000
Xooms since February , making it a success on par with New Coke. iBookstore in
Trouble: Speaking of lawsuits, Apple is getting sued by consumer rights group
Hagens Berman. Unlike most suits against the house of Jobs, however, this one
pertains to media pricing rather than technology patent infringement. The suit
claims that Apple joined a cabal of book publishers including News Corp .s
(NASDAQ: NWS ) Harper Collins, Macmillan Publishers, CBS s (NYSE: CBS ) Simon &
Schuster, Pearson s (NYSE: PSO ) Penguin Group and Hachette Book Group in an
effort to increase prices for popular e-book titles to boost profits and force
e-book rival Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) to abandon its pro-consumer discount
pricing. The lawsuit hopes to have the publishers and Apple give up profits
earned by using the agency model that allows the publisher to set e-book prices
rather than the retailer selling them. It also would block the iBookstore from
continuing to use the agency sales model. Given how well the iBookstore has
performed since opening in April 2010, Apple wont have to surrender much in the
way of profits. Intel Wants In: Spurred on by the ever-rising sales of both the
iPad and Apples slim MacBook Air laptops, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC ) is hoping to
give the portable PC business the kick in the pants it needs to get competitive
again. A report at The Wall Street Journal said that Intel has set aside $300
million to help fund its manufacturing partners efforts to develop Ultrabooks
portable PCs as compact and light as Apples MacBook Airs. The first Ultrabook
PCs should ship by the end of 2011. As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did
not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at
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