Apple's MacBook, shown on the left, and Dell's Studio 15, at right, are vying for consumer attention this holiday season.

Two-thirds of prospective PC buyers in the U.S. plan to buy either a MacBook or a Dell laptop this holiday season, according to a study released Monday by ChangeWave.

ChangeWave's survey of 3,699 consumers found that of those looking to buy a laptop over the next 90 days, 33 percent indicated a preference for the Mac, and another 33 percent said they would buy a Dell. The survey cited Apple's recent MacBook redesign and … Read more

Updated at 4:55 p.m. PST with comment from Apple.

A judge has granted IBM's preliminary injunction aimed at preventing former executive Mark Papermaster from reporting for duty as Apple's new iPhone leader.

Apple hired Papermaster as the new head of iPhone and iPod development earlier this month, but IBM sued Papermaster last week claiming he is violating the terms of a noncompete agreement with IBM in accepting the job at Apple. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas ordered Papermaster on Friday to "immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this … Read more

Apple knew full well that Mark Papermaster would have to learn his new role as iPod and iPhone chief "on the job" when it hired him.

Papermaster's former employer, IBM, filed a lawsuit against him last week, claiming that he broke the terms of a noncompete contract with IBM in accepting a high-profile job with Apple. InformationWeek spotted Papermaster's formal response Friday morning, in which he declares that the two companies are not competitors and that his experience at IBM is not the primary reason why Apple sought his services.

The court filings reveal the interesting … Read more

A survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates found Apple's iPhone generated the highest amount of customer satisfaction among smartphone-using businesspeople.

The survey of almost 1,400 respondents, which was conducted during August and September, ranked the iPhone first on a scale that asked respondents to rate the smartphones for ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects. Apple's favorite gadget scored 778 points out of a possible 1,000 points, beating Research In Motion and Samsung.

The iPhone received perfect rankings in four of the five categories, with the exception of "… Read more

Apple's blowout quarter for iPhone 3G sales lifted it into second place among all smartphone vendors worldwide.

Canalys released market share stats on Thursday showing strong growth for the smartphone market even as the worldwide economic situation takes a turn for the worse. A total of 39.9 million smartphones were shipped during the third calendar quarter of the year, a 28 percent increase over last year's totals.

Nokia is still the leading vendor by a comfortable margin, holding 38.9 percent of the market. But shipments declined slightly, and market share fell 12.5 percent, compared to … Read more

AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega confirmed on Thursday that iPhone 3G users will be able to use their phones as wireless modems at some point next year.

De la Vega made the comments during a conversation with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington at the Web 2.0 Summit on Thursday. "Tethering" an iPhone to a laptop, and using the iPhone's mobile data connection to get online, is a service that iPhone users have wanted for some time but that AT&T was reluctant to provide, perhaps because it feared that a huge influx of traffic … Read more

Apple appears set to turn on over-the-air podcast downloads with the next version of the iPhone software, making it much clearer why it rejected a third-party application that did the same thing.

A German blog called Flo's Weblog has published screenshots purportedly from the next release of Apple's iPhone OS, version 2.2. One of the new features in that software, along with additions like Google Street View, will allow iPhone or iPod Touch users to download podcasts directly to their devices without having to connect the device to their computers and go through iTunes.

Sound familiar? That … Read more

Apple customers awaiting their new MacBook Airs may have to wait a little longer than they had thought, but potential Mac Mini customers should sit tight.

That seems to the state of the Mac this Wednesday, according to AppleInsider. The site notes that customers who ordered the new MacBook Airs with the 120GB hard drive option are receiving notices from Apple apologizing for a shipping delay.

The systems were expected to go out this week, but now won't go out until the end of November. Those who ordered the more expensive solid-state drive option have already started getting their … Read more

Apple's retail operation doubled in size during 2008.

Todd Bishop's TechFlash noted a paragraph in Apple's 10-K annual filing released Wednesday that the company now employs 32,000 people on a full-time basis, up from 21,600 at this time last year. Almost 16,000 of those people work in Apple's retail segment, which now has 247 stores.

In last year's annual report, Apple said it had almost 8,000 people working in the retail group, which comprised 197 stores. During fiscal 2008, or the period ended in September, the retail segment accounted for $6.… Read more