AAPL

Apple: World's 'most desired' brand

But it comes in behind BMW in China, Trader Joe's in the U.S., Singapore Airlines in Singapore and the World Wildlife Fund in Germany, according to M&C Saatchi

There's a wealth of information in the 56-page "Brand Desire" report issued this week by the Clear marketing division of M&C Saatchi, the advertising firm formed by the Saatchi brothers in 1995 after they were booted out of Saatchi & Saatchi.

The headline for MORE

"At Apple you can get fired for saying K48"

A supplier is overheard tipping a hedge fund off to the project that became the iPad

On Oct. 1, 2009, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday, a Flextronics director named Walter Shimoon had a telephone conversation with an an unnamed "cooperating witness" (CW-2) employed by a hedge fund.

During this conversation, secretly taped by the FBI and now entered into evidence, Shimoon allegedly gave CW-2 actual third quarter iPhone sales figures MORE

Why Apple's revenues grow nearly 3 times faster than its expenses

The key, according to Goldman Sach's new Apple analyst, is how it leverages its platform

"Apple's hardware products often capture the hearts of consumer with their innovative and elegant designs, and this has been the case throughout the company's 34-year history. Nevertheless, we believe Apple's tremendous success in its most recent decade has been primarily driven by the evolution of its content and software platform, with the hardware devices serving primarily MORE

Andy Rubin: Android 'Perfect Storm' brewing in emerging markets

The falling prices of handsets and the buildout of advanced mobile networks will help Android grow at unprecedented rates in the developing world, according to Google's head of Android.

Andy Rubin tweeted last week that Google (GOOG) was activating 300,000 Android phones a day.  That number reflects incredible growth in a year that started with a tenth as many activations.  At 300,000 phones/day, Google is on track to activate over 110 million MORE

Apple pops on Goldman note

Opens $3.79 (1.2%) higher after the firm resumes coverage with a $430 price target

Goldman Sachs (GS), one of the few major U.S. investing firms that wasn't covering Apple (AAPL), resumed coverage Sunday with a price target of $430.

The stock reacted immediately when trading began Monday, quickly setting an all-time intraday high of $325.06 as 1.4 million shares changed hands at the opening bell. It gave up some of its gains MORE

Andy Rubin: Google activates 300,000 phones every day

Google may now be the biggest smartphone vendor on earth.

Andy Rubin just Tweeted that Google (GOOG) is activating 300,000 phones a day.  That passes Apple's (AAPL) iOS, that passes Blackberry (RIMM).  That even matches any figures that Symbian has ever put up (though Canalys says Nokia might be at 325,000/day).

Google is closing in on an astounding 10 million phones per month.  Recall that Apple just had its biggest quarter MORE

Is there anybody left to buy AAPL?

An analyst asks whether it can keep outperforming the market without paying a dividend

Toni Sacconaghi just won't give up.

For more than two years, Bernstein Research's top Apple (AAPL) analyst been after Steve Jobs to spend some of the company's growing cash hoard ($51 billion as of September), preferably on a stock buyback or cash dividend.

"Shareholder frustration," he wrote in an open letter to the board of directors in August, "is MORE

Apple closes above $320 per share

Apple (AAPL), which has been trailing the market recently, reversed the trend on Monday and closed up $2.71 (0.85%) in a down market to set a new all-time intraday high of $322.33 and a new high closing price: $320.15.

A few useful stats courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

How much is an iPad worth?

A couple hundred dollars less than Apple charges, according to a new consumer survey

This one is a little hard to follow, so you might want to mute your TV for a minute.

Gene Munster's team at Piper Jaffray recently ran a small survey of 65 consumers who don't presently own tablet computers.

They were shown a pair of  competing devices -- a $629 Apple's (AAPL) iPad 3G and a $599 Samsung Galaxy MORE

Apple TV swings hard but misses

The previous version of Apple TV was dubbed "take two." Will the new model be known as "strike three"?

By John Patrick Pullen, contributor

By most accounts, Wednesday was a good day to be Steve Jobs. In fact, if you were looking at a box score of Apple's big game, their CEO's line might look something like this:

ab r h rbi

Jobs 5  4 5  MORE