Apple

Reports from third-party vendors indicate that Apple intends to remove all screen protection products from the Apple store starting in May. Any screen product sold alone or with a case will effectively be banned for any product including iPhones, iPods, iPads and Mac notebooks.

The change in inventory involves any and all screen film products including those marketed for protection or simply decorative use, and could affect the Apple online store as well as retail outlets. Speculation is rampant as to the cause of the change in policy.

Apple announced today the Wi-Fi only iPad is scheduled for release in the US on Saturday, April 3. The company is accepting pre-orders for all models (including 3G versions) starting on Friday, March 12. Shipping of 3G models in the US and iPad availability in other countries is planned for late April.

The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will appear as a free download on the App Store in the US on April 3. Apple has developed 12 new iPad-optimized apps that will be included on the iPad out of the box.

There could be long lines for the iPad launch after all if reports of a delay in production are accurate. Analyst Peter Misek from Canaccord Adams says production problems at Hon Hai Precision mean that Apple could have only 300,000 units ready at launch.

The company was planning to have one million units ready for sale in March, along with another 800,000 available in April. The limited numbers might result in Apple delaying the iPad release date or even limiting initial sales to the US only.

Incredibly, what began as a project in the shadow of Apple's computer business is forecast to account for 45-50% of total company revenues in 2011. Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi believes Apple is on track to hit these targets, as the iPhone made up 30% of its revenues in 2009.

20.7 million iPhones were sold in 2009. Apple is forecast to move up to 50 million units in 2011. Sacconaghi, agreeing with other industry figures, has also forecast iPad sales in 2010 at 2.2 million units.

After the controversial removal of over 5,000 apps from the App Store, Apple looks like it's going to change course on the issue again. Initially, the company sought to purge any overtly sexual applications due to customer complaints and its own decency standards.

Apple has come under fire for hypocrisy as several apps such as Playboy, Victoria's Secret, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2010, FHM, and Maxim remain in the App Store while some developers' businesses evaporated overnight. In the meantime, Cult of Mac reports that a new category labeled "Explicit" has appeared to developers interested in submitting apps for approval.

In a dramatic improvement since last spring, AT&T has defeated the three closest competitors in a PCWorld speed and reliability challenge. Carriers Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon were also tested for download and upload speeds in thirteen cities.

AT&T won download speed tests against all competitors everywhere except for Denver and Phoenix, where the carrier lost to T-Mobile by a slight margin. Reliability scores for AT&T were highest in Phoenix, Portland and Seattle, where they topped out at 100%.

Reports have surfaced that Skype and Verizon Wireless have cemented a 2-3 year exclusive deal to develop and run Skype applications on Verizon smartphones. iPhone owners have been waiting for a 3G-enabled version of the Skype app for some time.

Now that AT&T and Apple have lifted the Wi-Fi only restrictions on applications like SlingPlayer, Skype users naturally expected they would be the next to benefit from this change. In fact, Skype already has a 3G-ready app but the company has delayed its release due to concerns over AT&T's network.

Following a crackdown on "overtly sexual" content, Apple has had its censors remove 5,000 applications from the iPhone AppStore. The app purge began on Friday, with over 4,000 apps removed due to their "sexually arousing" or implied sexual language and images.

To date, the Apple cleansing is said to have removed almost three percent of the total number of iPhone applications previously available. In a strange twist, apps representing large media companies but still promoting sexual content remain on the AppStore.

Could it be that Apple plans to reveal iPhone OS 4.0 as early as March 14th? Multiple sources have received anonymous tips pointing towards a demo of the new OS by Apple next month. This date roughly coincides with the first iPad ship date, and has led to speculation that iPhone OS 4.0 may ship on the new device.

Apple has typically announced updates to its iPhone hardware in June. This year should be no different and the company is expected to reveal its fourth-generation iPhone on schedule. What has thrown industry watchers off track is that the iPad was announced in January running iPhone OS 3.2. This operating system is not yet available on the iPhone.

In a move said to be preparation for the iPad release, Apple has doubled the App Store size limit on 3G cellular network downloads to 20MB. Previously users were prompted to use a Wi-Fi connection or iTunes to download applications larger than 10MB.

The change could put more bandwidth pressure on the AT&T network, however the company has been frantically working to improve speeds and capacity nationwide ahead of the iPad and 4G iPhone releases later this year.