THE APPLE INVESTOR: Apple's Mac Is The Only PC Brand Making Progress In Europe (AAPL)

The Apple Investor is a daily report from SAI. Sign up here to receive it by email.AAPL Up In Wavering MarketMarkets are shaky in early trading as investors await euro zone leaders' possible resolution. Shares of AAPL are up with the rest of tech. Investors continue to be focused on iPhone adoption; update to the iPad; market share growth of the Mac business; further penetration in China and emerging markets; the evolution and potential re-conception of Apple TV; and platforms such as Siri, iAd, iBooks and social (Ping). Shares of Apple trade at 8.4x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (including long-term marketable securities).Another Report Shows Apple's Dominance In The Mobile Phone Business (Electronista)Looking at fourth-quarter results, Apple now represents almost 50% of cellphone / mobile computing industry revenues, and over 80% of its profits, says Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt. The industry is in fact said to have risen about 34% with Apple results included, but actually dropped 0.4 percent without the company. Some businesses might actually exit the market this year. McCourt calls it a "make or break" period.The iPad 3 Coming During A Great "Window Of Opportunity" (AppleInsider)Apple's third-generation iPad is expected to arrive during an advantageous "window of opportunity," in which competitors have nothing significant to offer, further increasing Apple's lead. Analyst Chris Whitmore with Deutsche Bank sees Apple announcing a new model with a high-resolution display, a quad-core CPU, graphics performance four to five times faster than the iPad 2, and Siri voice control. Additional power in the so-called "iPad 3" will only expand the potential uses for the device and leave competitors further in the dust.The iPad 3 Will "Satisfy" The Skeptics (The Register)Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner met with Tim Cook last week. The analyst asked the CEO several questions surrounding the iPad 3 rumors. While Gardner doesn't reveal Cook's exact words, he says he "walked away from this meeting with the impression that Apple feels iPad satisfies - or will soon satisfy - the needs of those who might have been interested in such a product." That implies Cook must have indicated that Apple is aware of users issues (better keyboard, docking ports, etc.).Halliburton Dumps RIM For The iPhone (AppleInsider)Oilfield services giant Halliburton will soon be migrating their BlackBerry workforce to run exclusively on iPhones. "Over the next year, we will begin expanding the use of our mobile technology by transitioning from the BlackBerry (RIM) platform that we currently use to smartphone technology via the iPhone," the firm told employees in an internal newsletter. The move comes after "significant research" into both Apple's mobile platform and Google's Android operating system. The transition of the 4,500 Halliburton employees with BlackBerrys to the iPhone is slated to roll out in phases over the next two years.Will Apple Partner With Carriers To Bring More Content To The iTV? (GigaOM)Evidence is slowly emerging that Apple could be working with operator partners for the introduction of the iTV. Last week, it was reported that Apple may get access to programs through partnerships with carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. And this week it is rumored that Apple is pursuing partnerships with Canadian operators Rogers and BCE. Why would Apple feel the need to partner? It offers a more complete lineup of content, enables it to offer a better user interface and gives it wider distribution. After all, Dish Network partnered with Google TV and Verizon partnered with Microsoft.Apple Rumored To Team Up With Sam's Club, Similar To Recent Target Announcement (9To5Mac)Apple and Sam’s Club (a Walmart subsidiary) are in early discussions to widen their already existing partnership and increase distribution, similar to the company's recent Target partnership. Apple is considering an expansion of its Apple Store-in-store program to the 47 U.S. retail warehouse chain locations. There's a backup plan in the works in case the two companies decide not to team up; Sam's Club may start carrying Apple computers as well as iOS devices. No word on whether or not these arrangements could include Walmart, parent company of Sam's Club.Apple Is The Only PC Brand Making Progress In Europe, Even Without The iPad (Gartner)Gartner released estimates for PC shipments (excluding tablets) in the Western Europe region during the holiday quarter, and only Apple and Asus made any meaningful progress. While the Mac maker remained absent from the Top 5 rankings, it was a sole first-tier PC brand to grow sales in the U.K. during the holiday quarter. Specifically, Apple’s Mac business in the country grew 17.2%, enough to rank fourth with a 9.1% market share. Everyone else’s business shrunk across the board. Imagine if they had included the iPad.Siri Accounts for One Quarter Of Searches On Wolfram Alpha (VentureBeat)The deep integration with Wolfram Alpha search engine is one of the many aspects of Siri that make it much more than just an upgraded version of voice commands. Being able to instantly tap into the computation engine makes Siri seem downright intelligent at times. Siri now accounts for 25% of all searches made on Wolfram Alpha. Siri’s heavy usage of Wolfram Alpha is all the more impressive considering that it’s only available on the iPhone 4S and it launched just a few months ago.Best Buy Apple HDTV Survey "Was Hypothetical" (Cult of Mac)No one expected the details in the Best Buy customer survey for the “Apple HDTV” to be accurate when it began circulating earlier in the week. But a Best Buy spokesperson confirmed that "The customer survey was a routine offer effectiveness survey conducted by one of Best Buy’s research partners. Any brand reference was hypothetical. The survey is no longer available." But why? Well, that’s unclear. What is clear is that the $1,499 price-point for the 42-inch TV is mighty steep. Would you pay that much money for the new iTV?The Post-PC Era Is Upon Us (Various via Scoople)There’s been a debate lately as to whether the iPad can fit into the so-called PC category. Or is there room for a third category in the middle of a smartphone and a PC. Given the copious amounts of data released last week detailing the rise of the tablet and smartphones outpacing PC sales, there has been much debate about what the post-PC era is, when it will arrive, or whether it's already here. We likely crossed the imaginary line from the "PC" era to the "post-PC" era at the end of 2011.App Economy Creating Jobs Where There Were None Just A Few Years Ago (TechNet)A new report from TechNet suggests that the nascent app economy created by Apple (iOS), Google (Android) and Facebook has generated 466,000 jobs in the U.S. economy since 2007. Of those jobs, 311,000 have been generated and another 155,000 jobs have also been indirectly created from the app boom. The figures are estimates and are based on calculations on the existing market for app-related jobs. These figures, however, could represent “jobs not lost” rather than net jobs gained. In any event, good for the economy and good for New York and California which saw the highest percentage of those jobs.Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:These Charts Show Why Apple Doesn't Need To Pay A DividendThe Fight Between Google And Microsoft Is Getting Ugly And PublicTHE MICROSOFT INVESTOR: Pre-Orders For The Nokia Lumia 900 Have Begun

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