Figures to ponder:

• US$200 - per-share stock value hit by Apple briefly today, an all-time high
• US$170,000,000,000 - current market value of Apple Inc.
• 3 - times Apple’s size is now compared to Dell
• 1/2 - times Apple’s size is now compared to Microsoft
• 10 - times Apple’s stock value is today compared to mid-2003 when it was just starting with iPods
• 34% - increase in sales of Macs in the most recent quarter
• 143% - percentage Apple stock has risen this year, making it one of the top performers for 2007 (in contrast, Google gained 53% in 2007)

(Via Mashable)

The ongoing Apple - Think Secret legal wrangle is over, with the end result bringing about the demise of the notorious and sometimes uncannily accurate Think Secret rumor site perenially engaged in a running gun battle with the secretive Apple.

This agreement ends a two-year legal action by Apple to try to flush out Think Secret’s source of a leaked story about a Firewire-based input device for musical instruments that was never actually made. The confidential settlement resulted in Apple dropping the lawsuit and not pursuing the identity of the source, in exchange for the shutting down of the site.

Nick Ciarelli, publisher of Think Secret, said of the decision

I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits.”

Ciarelli also told Engadget

I’ll just say that I’m very satisfied with the settlement, and that I’d like to thank the Electronic Frontier Foundation and my attorney, Terry Gross of Gross & Belsky, for their support.”

That’s how the beachball bounces.

As I’ve mentioned in a couple of previous posts, when I was in Japan the other month, I lined up at the Ginza Apple Store in Tokyo on Leopard Day and caused quite a bit of attention when I pulled out an iPhone to pick songs to listen to. As a phone it was useless because the Japan telecom setup requires 3G to work. So seeing an iPhone in Tokyo wasn’t as common a thing as in other countries - hence the ruckus in the Ginza line.

Goes to show that in Apple-crazy Japan (where the leading OS is Mac OS X, and seeing MacBooks and MacBook Pros was a common sight everywhere), an iPhone would be more than a phenomenon if and when it comes out than it was in the US. Well, it seems progress is finally being made in that direction, reports the Wall Street Journal.

According to a report from the Journal last Wednesday, Steve Jobs has apparently been in talks with NTT DoCoMo, the top provider, and has also met with SoftBank, the third most popular one.

Aside from 3G, Apple might have to have a more-beefed up model to satisfy tech-savvy, spoiled and demanding Japanese users, which is good news for all concerned as it raises the bar for everyone concerned. No details or confirmations on the news, but two weeks previously, Apple was also talking to China Unicom and China Mobile.

Apple’s just reversed themselves and have increased the number of iPhones an individual can buy, from their previously mandated two units, to five iPhones in the US and the UK, according to Macsimum News.

Nice. Which means the third-party unlocked resellers are getting a break and can get more stock now. Which begs the question, why give them bad boys the opportunity to restock, and then clamp down on them at the same time (see previous MAD post)?

Go figure.

Ooh. Apple seems to have finally gotten off its butt and is starting to throw its weight around.

Wireless distributors in Singapore who are selling unlocked iPhones have been told to stop under threat of legal action, and Sim Lim Square shops have started pulling the units off their shelves. Reuters reports that Apple is intending to charge these distributors a penalty of US$700 per unit sold “illegally.”

Danish wireless distributor Telekæden, which is selling unlocked iPhones for US$1200 online, was also threatened by Apple to cease and desist. Canadian website iPhonenow.ca is running ads to sell iPhones online during the holiday season, and is expected to be targeted by Apple any time now.

At the moment, the only entity allowed to sell unlocked iPhones is France Telecom’s Orange, which is doing so legally at about US$1100 per unit. Everyone else watch out.

This news bodes ill for itinerant iPhone enterpreneurs worldwide making a killing selling them openly, now that Apple seems bristling for a fight. Things have gotten interesting again all of a sudden.