Apple | featured news

When it comes to tech rivalries, everyone loves a good smackdown -- but the race for smartphone dominance is starting to feel like a blowout sporting event where there's almost no point in watching.

Apple dominated the global market for tablets in the third quarter amid limited competition for its iPad, a situation that is likely to change as more devices come to market.

Over the last few years, Apple used technologies from its Macintosh computers to create the iPhone and the iPad, building a multibillion-dollar mobile computing business that now accounts for 60 percent of its revenue. Now Apple is doing the reverse, taking technologies like the multitouch user interface from the iPhone and the iPad and using them to refresh its Mac business.

A new 11.6-inch model and a redesigned 13.3-inch model are both anticipated, with a second USB port and an SD card slot improving the expansion for at least one model.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab, one of the first tablets to rival Apple's iPad, will hit Verizon Wireless stores Nov. 11 and cost $599.99.

Apple Inc easily surpassed profit and revenue forecasts again but supply bottlenecks curbed iPad sales to below Wall Street's bullish targets, sending its shares more than 6 percent lower.

AT&T (T) said today it will sell the Apple (AAPL) iPad directly to business customers.

Stuart Hughes, the British jeweler known for his expensive remakes of popular gadgets, is at it again, this time with a diamond-clad iPhone 4 with a price tag of 5 million pounds, or roughly $8 million.

Verizon Wireless will begin selling Apple's iPad at its 2,000 retail stores nationwide on Oct. 28, the companies announced Thursday.

Apple Inc's shares cruised past $300 for the first time on Wednesday, as investors anticipated another strong earnings report from the iPhone maker next week.