NEWS: Apple iPhone, Safari, iPod

Apple Ordering 10 Million 3G iPhones?

An interesting third-hand rumor: Apple has supposedly ordered 10 million 3G iPhones, says iPodObserver's John Martellaro, citing Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, citing rumors from Asia. Think that's loosely sourced? It gets hairier:

In a phone interview, Mr. Dulaney told the iPod Observer that he believes Apple has ordered a second round, amounting to 10 million more units, based on what he's heard in Asian circles. This is in addition to the ten million first generation iPhones that Apple has said it will sell by the end of 2008.

The problem: Apple never said anything about selling first generation, second generation, or any generation. All Apple ever said: It 

iTunes Competitors: We're Number 2! No, We're Number 2! (AMZN, AAPL)

Amazon's MP3 store, launched last fall, is now number two behind iTunes, says USA Today. No way, says eMusic CEO David Pakman: We're in second place -- just like we've always been!

There's no way to actually referee the dispute, because USA Today isn't playing fair: It doesn't actually provide any sales or market share numbers for Amazon (AMZN). Instead, Pakman says on his blog, reporter Jefferson Graham called the four major labels and asked them who their second biggest digital retailer was, and they said Amazon.

Pakman notes that since his company primarily sells indie music, it isn't on the big labels' radar, but that doesn't mean it isn't selling music. He says eMusic sells 7 million tracks a month via its subscription service, and has sold 40 million tracks since Amazon opened its store.

The big picture: Even though its growth rate is slowing, Apple (AAPL) sold 2 billion tracks via iTunes in the last year or so. And until we see real numbers that indicate otherwise, there's no evidence that anyone is chipping away at their hammerlock on the market.

Firefox boss fumes as Apple 'forces' Safari upgrade  ZDNet Asia - Mar 25

Mozilla CEO John Lilly has hit out at Apple, accusing the company of doing a disservice to Windows users everywhere by including its Safari browser as a default add-on installation in the latest iTunes update, likening it to the way malware is distributed.