MacRumors

Bloomberg reports that Apple's earnings report later today will focus on Mac and iPod sales which make up for 75% of the company's revenue. Despite the prominent iPhone 3G launch last week, those sales fall outside the reporting window for today's earnings. In addition, the supplies of iPhones that were sold during this past quarter will not be reported upon until next quarter:

Supplies of the original version of the iPhone dwindled in May as Apple prepared the updated 3G model. Sacconaghi estimates that Apple shipped 715,000 iPhones in the quarter before running out. Because new software that was promised as a free upgrade wasn't available until July 11, those shipments won't count as sales until later, Apple said in April.

So, iPhone-weary readers may be spared extensive iPhone coverage during today's financial results. Despite the extensive media focus on the iPhone, one portfolio manager clarifies that "the Mac is the primary reason [they] own Apple shares". He specifically cites accelerated growth in Apple's PC business over the past few years.

Apple is predicted to have experienced 36% growth year-over-year from last year's revenue and will be webcasting their official financial results at 2pm PT/ 5pm ET on Monday, July 21st.

Amidst the rocky .Mac to MobileMe transition last week, Apple made one other mistake that it is now apologizing for. Apple had been preauthorizing charges up to 121 GBP to European customers who signed up for a free MobileMe trial. For debit accounts, this preauthorization charge may actually remove that amount of money from the customer's available balance. Apple is working on reversing those preauthorizations and sent out new apology letters to those customers.

Dear MobileMe Member,

Apple has identified and resolved an issue that caused an incorrect, temporary authorization hold of 121 GBP to be placed on your credit or debit card when your MobileMe trial account was created. We have addressed the issue and want to apologize for any inconvenience.

Typically when you create a new trial account, your credit or debit card is verified by authorizing a small charge (equivalent to USD $1). Unfortunately, an error caused the incorrect amount to be preauthorized for your card. Be assured that this is not a charge, but only an authorization hold. The hold is released by the card-issuing bank after a predetermined period, usually between a week and a month. Where possible, Apple is working to have these holds removed earlier.

To show our appreciation for your continued loyalty, we have extended your free trial period by 30 days. This extension is in addition to the 30-day extension of which you were notified on July 16, for a total of 120 days of free MobileMe service.

Look for the extension to be reflected in your account settings in the next few weeks. You may now enjoy MobileMe free of charge until [November 8, 2008], after which your annual paid subscription will begin.

Thank you for being a MobileMe customer.

Sincerely,
The MobileMe Team

Apple is now offering those affected an additional 30 days to their trial service above and beyond the original 30 day extension for the rocky transition. As a result, affected users will get a total of 120 days of free trial MobileMe service before they are required to start their subscription.

MobileMe is Apple's new $99/year service which replaces .Mac and offers customers web-based email, calendar, addressbook, online storage as well as sync services.

As noted on DaringFireball.net, Apple's popular Remote iPhone application adds a useful and unpublicized feature to your Apple TV - a keyboard.

The Remote App [App Store] is a free download from the App Store and runs on both the iPhone and iPod Touch. It adds remote control capabilities for both iTunes and your Apple TV through your local Wi-Fi network connection. For the Apple TV, it acts primarily as a media browser, allowing you to browse and playback both music and video.

However, if you navigate to YouTube Search or iTunes Store search on your Apple TV itself, this keyboard will appear on your iPhone or iPod Touch and allow you to wireless type in your search terms. This is a much nicer alternative than selecting letters individually with your television remote.

Apple released the Remote App as a free app alongside the iTunes App Store. Apple announced that over 10 million apps had been downloaded during the first weekend after the App Store launch.

Signs are starting to appear that Apple may be prepping for a revision of their Mac laptops in the near future. Following up a previous Commercial Times report that pointed to a Q3 (July-September) order for MacBook displays, the paper now reports that Apple has increased its order of "notebook-use printed circuit boards" by 20% this quarter.

Meanwhile, Apple has notified Best Buy that they would have limited MacBook shipments over the next two weeks. While retail inventories alone aren't typically an accurate predictor of Apple product refreshes, combined with these other reports it may be more suggestive.

Apple has been rumored to be working on new aluminum MacBook Pro designs that will adopt features of the current iMac and MacBook Air. Intel's recent Montevina introduction also provides Apple with suitable processor upgrades to power new laptops.

On July 19th, Apple is opening its first retail store in China in Beijing's Sanlitun entertainment district. The store opens at 10 a.m. local time.

"This is the first of many stores we will open in China," said Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president of retail, in remarks at the store. He later added that Apple will open stores "in Beijing, in Shanghai and beyond," and confirmed that another store will open in Beijing's Qianmen area, a shopping street south of Tiananmen Square that has been renovated ahead of the Olympic Games, which begin next month.

The store carries the same design as Apple's other retail stores but with a multilingual Genius bar. Since Apple has not yet negotiated a distribution deal with Chinese carriers, the iPhone will not be available initially. Apple's presence in China was reportedly minimal before the iPod's introduction about 5 years ago, but Apple appears to be continuing to expand their international retail push. This will be their 219th retail store worldwide.

The Wall Street Journal's China Journal provides photos from the new store.

iPhoneAlley notes that AT&T has once again posted information on their website indicating that all iPhone customers have free access to their more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots access across the U.S., including Starbucks locations:

AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter, which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network with more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks*. Now users can relax and access music, e-mail and web browsing services with their favorite blend in hand from the comfort of their favorite location.

AT&T provides an online tool to find a Wi-Fi spot near you.

We had first reported on this topic back in April when AT&T had turned the feature on at hotspot locations across the U.S. This was quickly disabled just a few days later. Another week after that, AT&T advertised the new feature on their iPhone website, and again quickly removed it. When the service was active, AT&T simply required you to enter your current iPhone phone number as authentication.

There was some speculation that the delay was due to the fact that they had not yet completed their Wi-Fi deployment at Starbucks. AT&T had won the Starbucks contract from T-Mobile in February and is already offering free Wi-Fi access for their DSL and business customers.

Update: AT&T says they made a mistake by posting that page and have made no announcements.

Apple will be webcasting their 3rd Quarter 2008 Financial Results on July 21, 2008. The 3rd fiscal quarter encompasses sales between April 1, 2008 and June 30, 2008. As such, results from the iPhone 3G and App Store sales will not be included in the earnings report.

Recent reports however, have suggested that Apple's U.S. personal computer marketshare continues to increase substantially with 30-40% gains year-over-year.

While the iPhone 3G has been well received, most reviewers appear most impressed with the App Store and the variety of applications that are available. As David Pogue describes:

The App Storeoh, man, the App Store. Its a candy store, dude. Its 550 free or cheap add-on programs that make the iPhone (or the iPod Touch) do absolutely amazing thingsstunts a cellphone has no right to perform.

Impressive apps such as Pandora Radio, BeatMaker, a VNC client and a Role Playing Game have certainly raised the bar for future apps.

A pair of quarterly research reports released today reveal that Apple is continuing to experience growing U.S. market share among PC shipments.

Gartner's report pegs Apple's share of U.S. PC shipments for the second quarter of 2008 at 8.5%, up from 6.4% in the second quarter of 2007. Apple's U.S. shipments increased 38.1% year-over-year, far outpacing the total industry shipment growth of 4.2% and allowing Apple to pass Acer for the third position in the U.S. rankings.

Meanwhile, IDC's report places Apple in a virtual tie with Acer for third place in U.S. market share at 7.8% in 2Q08, up from 6.2% in 2Q07. IDC's estimates yield shipment growth for Apple of 31.7% year-over-year in an overall market growing at only 3.6%.

Despite these gains in the U.S. market, Apple still has not broken into the top five vendors for worldwide shipments in either survey. Toshiba continues to hold the fifth spot with a 4.4% market share in a worldwide PC market that experienced 15-16% growth in shipments year-over-year.