Apple (AAPL) signed a long-awaited iPhone deal with China Mobile (CHL), the world’s No. 1 wireless operator, the Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday, citing a source. That continues a recent run of good news for the technology giant. The agreement would give Apple access to 700 million China Mobile customers — more than seven times the size of Verizon Wireless, jointly owned by Verizon Communications (VZ) andVodafone (VOD).
Apple (AAPL) stock rose Tuesday on bullish reports about the company’s latest acquisition and, separately, on reports the company might be closer to sealing an elusive iPhone distribution deal with China Mobile (CHL), the world’s largest wireless carrier by subscribers. Apple (AAPL) late Monday confirmed that it had purchased social-media analytics firm Topsy Labs, but declined to give further details. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that Apple paid more than $200 million for Topsy, which specializes in analyzing the global conversation on Twitter (TWTR). Topsy’s tools analyze Twitter posts for such things as trending topics and use of specific terms. Its tools also can measure the influence of an advertising campaign and track political subjects. Analysts say Topsy’s software and expertise could be useful for Apple’s iTunes Store, by recommending songs, movies and TV shows to consumers. Topsy also could reveal trends in Apple’s iOS App Store that could be used to promote apps to users.
Tablets, especially Apple (AAPL) iPads, were the hot gift category over the first weekend of holiday shopping. Already high demand was kicked into overdrive as retailers went promotional on the category. Retailers held 300 tablet promotions this weekend, up 50% from nearly 200 during last year’s Black Friday weekend, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. Tablets were the top-selling consumer electronics item this year, CEA said. Its survey of shoppers found that 35% bought a consumer electronics product over the weekend. Of those, 39% expected to have purchased a tablet by the end of the weekend, said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White, quoting CEA research. “We believe this increased tablet appetite is a clear positive for Apple (AAPL) with the recently introduced iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display, combined with the discounted first-generation iPad Mini,” White said in a research note Monday. Other popular items included headphones (25% of consumer electronics purchasers bought them), notebook computers (25%), smartphones (22%) and video game hardware (21%), CEA said.