Apple

Proview, the Chinese firm that says its owns the iPad trademark in China, isn’t settling for an offer Apple made.

Washington Post:

The Smithsonian Institution is preparing an exhibit featuring Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ technology patents on the National Mall in conjunction with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.The exhibit opening May 11, entitled “The Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World” will be on view through July 13 at the Ripley Center near the Smithsonian Castle.

Apple and Samsung have been ordered to trim their patent infringement lawsuit before it goes to trial in July.

Travis County, Texas officials have signed off on tax incentives to get Apple to double its workforce and build new offices in Austin, where it houses customer support personnel.

AllThingsD:

As the person who six years ago this month revealed in BusinessWeek that Apple had incorporated in Nevada where the corporate tax rate is zero, I found the account by Charles Duhigg and David Kocieniewski of the many financial tricks that Apple employs to minimize its tax exposure fascinating. Who couldn’t love phrases like “Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich” to describe arcane accounting and legal tricks?But the implication the story leaves you with that Apple is somehow doing society a disservice by not paying its fair share of corporate taxes is simply wrong on many levels.

Perfect example of the “read all you can” theory. The New York Times account is getting a lot of notice but Arik Hesseldahl adds some more details the Times missed or didn’t include.

New York Times:

Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains.California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada’s? Zero.Setting up an office in Reno is just one of many legal methods Apple uses to reduce its worldwide tax bill by billions of dollars each year.

Apple has run into a legal snag with its plans to double the size of its customer service facilities in Austin, Texas.

Seems that Apple has removed Chomp for Android from circulation, opening the way for similar apps in that ecosystem to gain momentum.

Forrester’s CEO says Apple is doomed for decline without having another Steve Jobs running the ship.

Apple is planning on building an off-campus private restaurant for employees, to help prevent competitors from overhearing sensitive conversations.

Apple announced $11.6 billion in profits on $39.2 billion in revenue.

Apple violated Motorola patents, says an International Trade Commission (ITC) judge.

Chris Martucci offers a very different perspective on Apple’s trouble with the Department of Justice than the Wall Street Journal’s L. Gordon Crovitz.

Wall Street Journal’s former publisher explains why the Department of Justice’s price fixing complaint against Apple’s periodical pricing is wrong.

ABC News:

Apple Inc. has agreed to pay local governments $150,000 a year and get a 15-year property tax exemption for the data center it is developing in Central Oregon.In an agreement with Prineville and Crook County, Apple also commits to minimums of 35 jobs at the center, wages 150 percent of the county’s average wage and $250 million invested at its 160 acres of land.The city of Prineville and Crook County will have to work out how to split the $150,000 payment called a “project fee,” The Bend Bulletin reported Friday.

This will likely be the “twin” of the one in North Carolina.

The Irish Times:

Apple is to expand its presence in Cork, creating more than 500 jobs in what is being described as a “huge boost” for the country.The technology firm is expected to construct a new office block to accommodate the additional staff in the coming 18 months.Apple has based its European headquarters in Hollyhill. The technology firm employs about 2,800 people at its distribution, supply chain and back-office operation there.

Another huge boost will be in Heineken consumption when Jim Dalrymple arrives in Dublin next week.

Asymco:

RetailSails compiled a table of the top 20 chains by sales per square foot. Annual store sales in the range of $300 per square foot is considered respectable in the US. The US national average for regional malls is $341. The average for specialty apparel retailers is $400 per square foot. The average for jewelers is in the range of $600 per square foot. The median for the best 20 US retailers is $787/sq. ft.The data shows Apple leading by a significant margin. It’s more than twice as efficient as the second place Tiffany and Co. It’s also more than seven times the median of the top 20 and seventeen times better than the average mall retail space.

By any measure, the Apple Retail Stores are a remarkable success story.

Fast Company:

If Steve Jobs’s life were staged as an opera, it would be a tragedy in three acts. And the titles would go something like this: Act I–The Founding of Apple Computer and the Invention of the PC Industry; Act II–The Wilderness Years; and Act III–A Triumphant Return and Tragic Demise.Rummaging through the storage shed, I discovered some three dozen tapes holding recordings of extended interviews–some lasting as long as three hours–that I’d conducted with him periodically over the past 25 years. (Snippets are scattered throughout this story.) Many I had never replayed–a couple hadn’t even been transcribed before now.