Microsoft

The average Apple analyst's price target has fallen to $740

Eleven lowered their 12-mos. targets in December, yet few stocks have as far to go

FORTUNE -- Analysts tend to get nervous when a stock they follow drifts too far from their published price target, and few stocks are as widely followed or as far out of whack as Apple (AAPL).

Eleven analysts lowered their Apple targets in the final weeks of the company's first fiscal quarter of 2013, which ends Saturday. MORE

Chart of the day: Christmas messages from new tablets

For what it's worth, iPad tweets outnumbered Kindle 7:1, Google Nexus 18:1, Surface 50:1

FORTUNE -- I can't vouch for the accuracy of the information in this chart. The nominal source -- A.X. Ian --  describes himself on Twitter and other venues as "Purveyor of pseudo-random ideas. Information massage therapist. Always prolific, seldom profound."

But the ratios square with other signs we've been seeing -- including store traffic -- and bode better MORE

Christmas Eve at the Apple, Microsoft and Sony stores

In Los Angeles' Century City mall

FORTUNE -- In his second entry in our continuing series of contrasting store photos, reader Howard Kaplan paid another visit Monday afternoon to the Westfield Century City mall, half-way between Beverly Hills and Westwood, California.

The photo at right and the first one below were taken at the Apple (AAPL) store at about 3 p.m.

The next two were shot at the mall's Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony MORE

Chart of the day: Apple shares are still up nearly 29% this year

Which is more than you can say for most of Apple's competitors -- or the S&P 500

FORTUNE -- Despite the three-month-long drubbing that lopped $248 billion (26%) off Apple's market cap, its shares are still up 28.39% for the year.

In fact, many analysts believe those gains are the primary reason the stock fell from its all-time intraday high of $705.07 in late September to Christmas Eve's close of $520.17. Investors hoping MORE

IPad vs. Surface: Let the tablet war begin

Apple dominates tablet sales. Now Microsoft is going after the iPad head on.

FORTUNE -- Apple and Microsoft's relationship has had more twists and turns than Liz and Dick's. The two have been bitter rivals, vital partners -- even coolly indifferent. Microsoft's new Surface tablet could change things again. Apple's iPad has some 55% of the market. Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG) have largely offered cheaper alternatives to compete. But Microsoft MORE

Interest in the Surface fell 53% after its price was announced

Meanwhile, 44% of tablet shoppers plan to buy an iPad versus 24% for Kindle Fire

FORTUNE -- Consumer preferences in one of this holiday's hottest categories -- tablet computers -- shifted pretty dramatically between the third and fourth quarters, according to a new survey of U.S. households with broadband access published Thursday by Parks Associates.

Among its findings:

For the first time, more U.S. broadband households plan to purchase a tablet for the holidays MORE

Apple Store v. Microsoft Store: Picture of the day

Century City Mall, Los Angeles, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, 3:30 p.m.

FORTUNE -- For those who still bear the scars of last century's desktop wars between Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) we offer another in our series of contrasting store photos. This one was shot Tuesday afternoon by reader Howard Kaplan at Los Angeles' Westfield Century City Mall, half-way between Beverly Hills and Westwood, Calif.

You can write your own caption.

Chart of the day: WinTel gives way to Apple and Android

Microsoft's post-PC dilemma couldn't be clearer in Mary Meeker's latest slide show

FORTUNE -- Kleiner Perkins' Mary ("Queen of the Net") Meeker gave her annual Internet Trends presentation at Stanford University Monday night, and as always her slide deck is a trove of cleverly presented data.

The chart above builds on the work of Asymco's Horace Dediu to show the rise and fall of what for decades seemed the unassailable duopoly of MORE

Apple at the crossroads

A doomsday analysis sees Apple, fat on margins, overtaken by a pack of hungrier rivals

FORTUNE -- Apple (AAPL) investors aren't going to like it, but it behooves them to consider "Can a Leopard Change its Spots," Paul Sagawa's critical analysis of the company's competitive position vis a vis Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN).

Sagawa, a former analyst at Stanford Bernstein, now covers technology, media and telecom for Sector & Sovereign MORE

11 Apple iPads per hour vs. zero Microsoft Surface tablets

A survey compared sales at an Apple Store and a Microsoft Store in the Mall of America

FORTUNE -- On Saturday we posted side-by-side videos showing Black Friday shopping activity at an Apple Store and a Microsoft Store in Lone Tree, Colo. The videos left the impression that there was a lot less shopping going in the Microsoft Store.

Thanks to Gene Munster's team at Piper Jaffray, we can support that impression MORE