Credit: Thomas Schlijper

It’s no see-through glass exterior, but Apple’s new Amsterdam Apple Store is still offering some pretty good retail eye-candy. The overall motif, with white walls and classic, ornate architectural details, seems to call for marble statues rather than electronics on display. But you’ve still got the Apple design mainstays that let you know exactly where you are: the marble floors, modern wood tables and — of course — the clear-glass spiral staircase.

The Amsterdam location, which opens Saturday, is the first Apple Store in The Netherlands, which means Apple now has stores in 12 countries.

Fore more pictures, see Thomas Schlijper’s website.

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Apple Store in Shanghai

The fight over whether Apple has the right to sell the iPad in China continued Wednesday in Shanghai, China’s most populous city and one of the most important places for Apple doing business in the country. Chinese manufacturer Proview wants to ban the iPad from all stores in Shanghai over a trademark dispute. Apple’s lawyers argued that it is in China’s national interest to keep iPads on the market.

Apple contends that Proview is trying to dispute a trademark and remove a product for sale even though it has no alternative product. ”Proview has no product, no markets, no customers and no suppliers. It has nothing,” one of Apple’s lawyers told the court, according to Reuters.

Proview Technology, a manufacturer of flatscreens, launched a tablet called IPAD in 2000 and registered the trademark. In 2006, Proview Electronics, which shares a parent company with Proview Technology, sold Apple the use of the IPAD name, but the companies are at odds over whether Apple is covered to sell the devices everywhere in the China market. Proview is also in some deep financial straits, so it is probably to be expected that it is offering Apple a deal: Proview says it will settle the case for about $1.6 billion.

Apple wants to continue the fight. Here is Apple’s official statement:

 “We bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter. Our case is still pending in mainland China.”

Apple lost this argument in lower courts in China, including a ruling back in December. Proview has since broadened its case, and asked last week that the iPad not be shipped in or out of China.

Though not being able to sell in Shanghai — Apple has three stores in that city alone — would be a a huge setback, not being able to ship the devices, which are made in China — would be a bigger blow to the iPad business. China is the second-largest market for Apple, and the company’s expansion there in the last year has been a huge boon to its bottom line. But Apple’s argument of how important the iPad is to China too is undeniable.

Apple’s lawyer in Wednesday’s proceeding put it this way: “Apple has huge sales in China. Its fans line up to buy Apple products. The ban, if executed, would not only hurt Apple sales but it would also hurt China’s national interest.”

The Shanghai court has not yet issued a ruling on the matter.

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Credit: CNET

Updated. The scheduled delivery of petitions asking Apple for better treatment of workers in factories that produce iPhones and iPads happened on schedule in New York City Thursday morning. Observers say there were far more press in attendance than actual protestors, but that the mission — to hand deliver the signatures of more than 250,000 people — was accomplished.

CNET’s Roger Cheng was at the petition hand off at Apple’s store in New York’s Grand Central Terminal and took photos.

Cheng also reports that Apple “was ready” for the representatives of Change.org and SumOfUs.org, the groups who organized the event. In all, there were  a”little more than a dozen supporters” who showed up, some holding up signs depicting an “ethical iPhone.” The Change.org representative who delivered the signatures to an Apple employee told him that the employees of the store “were very polite.”

Update: The same type of staged petition delivery is scheduled for Apple stores locations in San Francisco, Washington D.C., London and Bangalore.

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The headrest mount, which works with Wallee’s existing iPad case mounting system, attaches to the headrest rail of any vehicle, and rotates in and out to provide viewing to one or more unruly kids who need entertaining in the back seat on long trips. It’s a simple, sturdy design in and of itself, but it’s really more impressive as the latest proof that Wallee’s creators at Studio Proper are into delivering long-term value rather than chasing short-term gain.

A lot of my favorite cases for the original iPad, including the ZAGGmate iPad keyboard case, required me to buy a new version in order to play nice with the iPad 2. The Wallee also required a new case, but it stung much less since all the accessories the case is designed to work with remained useful. Wall mounting disks, stands and a VESA mount still work with the new iPad 2 version of the Wallee case, and recent additions to the line, including a hand strap for easy one-handed use, and the upcoming Wallee Lock for secure, interactive iPad-based displays mean investment in the system continues to feel fresh, two years after the original Wallee’s introduction.

Most mobile device users will likely go through piles of device accessories that quickly become as outdated as the gadgets they’re designed for, so it’s nice to see a system that embraces and builds on its past, rather than simply starting fresh with each new whim of Apple’s design department.

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Munster claims discussions with a “major TV component supplier” which had been contacted by Apple about its TV display parts lead him to believe Apple is still on track to introduce a dedicated television device in late 2012. However, there’s a caveat: Munster thinks if Apple can’t get a revolutionary new content model in place, then it won’t move on the market this year.

The analyst then goes on to suggest three possible scenarios that might constitute a unique Apple approach to the television market. Those potential solutions break down roughly as follows:

1. Changing the experience, not the service

In Munster’s first scenario, Apple would basically leave TV programming to existing operators and simply layer its own interface software on top, including menus, guides, DVRs and content discovery. Munster notes that Apple was expected by some to manage its own wireless network in the U.S. ahead of the iPhone launch, but instead partnered with AT&T and focused on UI and UX instead of content. Remember that apps came after the iPhone’s original introduction.

2. A hybrid content model

Apple could also partner with existing networks to offer live TV, and at the same time, deliver on-demand content from providers like Netflix, Hulu Plus or any other content partner willing to play via an App Store-style distribution channel, Munster suggests. It’s a “best of both worlds” type solution, and would probably still come complete with an overhauled UX, but might be trickier to negotiate than option number one, since it involves negotiating with two different types of content providers.

3. A la carte

Munster’s last option is a completely customizable, a la carte option that would see users subscribe to live TV packages from content providers. This would be the most revolutionary of the options in terms of the existing TV experience, but it would also involve a dazzling shift in the way providers make their content available, and the negotiations involved in doing so would be challenging, at best. In the end, there’s also no real guarantee that selective programming is what viewers are after, especially if existing, less flexible bundles from other sources cost less.

GigaOM’s Ryan Lawler wrote last year that Apple’s television effort was more about experience than about content, and described a likely outcome of Apple’s TV endeavors that pretty much mirrors Munster’s second scenario listed above.

Given the challenges involved in negotiating the third solution, I have to agree that a system that works with existing content sources, but also opens up the possibility of apps for different kinds of content makes the most sense as a solution that could still make big waves in the TV industry while also remaining realistically possible in the near-term. Which of Munster’s Apple TV predictions, if any, make the most sense to you?

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Enterprise mobile security provider Good Technology on Wednesday released its quarterly data report for the fourth quarter of 2011. The report detailed the progress of iOS and Android devices in enterprise activations among its customers, which include half the companies on the Fortune 100, among others. Apple’s iPhone 4S was the big winner of the quarter, nabbing the top spot as the most-activated device, followed by the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.

Credit: Good Technology

The 4S represented 31 percent of all device activations counted during the quarter, nearly matching the total for all Android handsets, which accounted for 35 percent of all smartphone activations. Apple’s iPad 2 and iPad together accounted for 94 percent of all tablet activations.

Much like we’ve seen with new consumer device purchases, the release of Apple’s iPhone 4S in October began the reversal of a trend in which new Android activations were approaching Apple’s numbers, as you can see in the chart below. From October to December, Good saw a steady monthly increase in the percentage of iOS activations, matched by a decrease in Android device activations. Good says bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies likely had a strong impact on Apple’s enterprise success with the iPhone 4S.

Credit: Good Technology

A new phone from Apple was bound to incite a buying spree, but the numbers have remained strong in the months following launch. It will be interesting to see if the trend of growth continues, both in the consumer and enterprise markets, now that the 4S has been on the market for some time.

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On Tuesday, on the company’s earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of 2012, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company definitely has its eye on Brazil as a possible place to one day open Apple stores:

On the second country on the list of those four [China, Brazil, Russia, India], for us, would be Brazil. I think there’s a huge opportunity for us there, and we’ve more than begun to go deeper into Brazil. But I don’t want to signal that, that means that Apple retail will be there, because I don’t envision that occurring in the near term.

So it may not be thinking of building stores in the “near term,” but it’s clear Apple has plans for the country and its growing population of urban consumers with increasing buying power. Brazil is an easy choice for Apple to make its grand entrance in South America: The country of well over 200 million people has one of the best economies in South America right now, and it is seen as a prime place for foreign investment.

Apple does already have a presence in Brazil — through online sales and devices sold through carrier resellers and retail partners. And just this past quarter it finally opened up the iTunes Store to customers in the country. Also, it just so happens that this month, Apple hired a new general manager for its Latin America business, Anderson Teixeira, who is from — you guessed it — Brazil.

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Stock prices may have been buoyed by news that Apple continues to regain mobile market share based on the strength of its iPhone 4S sales. Nielsen reported Wednesday morning that since the introduction of the 4S, Apple’s share of the smartphone market has climbed steadily in the U.S. The Nielsen report’s findings are very similar to U.S. smartphone numbers released by NPD last week.

Apple also has an earnings call scheduled for Jan. 24, at which many analysts expect the company to announce record sales across its device lineups. We’ll likely see some numbers revealed early at tomorrow’s special education event in NYC on Thursday, since Apple typically spends some time at media presentations talking up recent successes and revealing information like up-to-date App Store download numbers, for example. We’ll have live coverage of that event beginning at 10 a.m. EST.

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Michael Deverett sued Apple after his new MacBook Pro, an iPod touch, cables and software were stolen from his car immediately following a purchase at the Apple Store in Toronto’s Yorkdale Mall. The grounds for his suit? Apple has “a duty of care” to warn store customers about the potential threat of theft, since, Deverett claimed, rings of thieves in the U.S. have been directly targeting Apple Store customers for some time now.

Deverett managed to settle for $2,300, roughly the cost of his stolen goods, as well as $345 in legal fees, but I tend to agree with Apple’s statement in the court filings that “[i]t would be next to impossible to warn each customer that, depending on what part of town they may drive to next, they may be the target of a theft,” and that as a result “Apple Canada does not owe a duty of care regarding stolen products, in particular if it is not notified by the owner.”

But Deverett also says that his MacBook Pro was serviced by Apple even after being reported stolen, which is a much more valid cause for concern. When similar issues regarding stolen iPhones were brought up earlier this year, however, TheNextWeb’s Matt Brian rightly pointed out the policy might have more to do with protecting employee safety than an unwillingness to help out.

Apple already provides Find My iPhone and Find My Mac tools to help those who’ve lost devices potentially recover them; that’s more than most other electronics manufacturers can currently say. Deverett seems to think that’s not enough. Does anyone else agree?

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We do indeed appear to be approaching the crucial moment, as Bloomberg reported recently that production of Apple’s next-generation tablet is now underway in earnest ahead of its official consumer availability, and the device includes LTE connectivity as well as a new, high-resolution display. Macotakara’s new report merely puts a more specific timeline on something many suspect to be imminent.

It’s worth noting Macotakara also accurately called the release timeline of the iPad 2, though they were a little off on the announcement; it had cited February as the month for the unveiling event, and March as when it would make its way to consumers, and Apple actually announced the device on March 2, 2011, and began selling it March 11. The site also said in Oct. 2011 that the iPad 3 would begin wide production in January, with release planned for March.

If you’re a user pinching pennies in advance of an iPad 3 release, budgeting for March definitely seems like the best course of action at this point.

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