Year: 2010

Apple shares hit an all-time high on Thursday, a day after the retail and technology bellwether said it sold more than 600,000 iPhone 4s.

Shares hit US$272.90 before slipping to $270.96, up 1.4 percent for the day. And as noted by “Fortune” (http://macosg.me/2/ea), the analysts have been bumping up their share price targets. Here are the ones we’ve heard about; we’ll add more as they come in:

Kaufman Bros.’ Shaw Wu raised his estimate from $320 to $340. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster: raised his to $348 from $340. And Caris and Co.’s Robert Cihra upped his from $310 to $325.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty says in a note to clients that a survey by her firm suggests the upgrade rate from older iPhones to the newer iPhone will be more than 50%, but not much more. Even 50% is considerably higher than the 18% upgrade rate found in a November 2008 survey and 25% since the launch of the original iPhone in 2007, notes “Fortune” (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/17/whats-driving-iphone-4-sales/).

The executive team at Apple said it would happen, and it seems they’re right: tablet devices like the iPad will outsell netbooks by 2012, according to the Forrester Research Group (http://www.forrester.com).

Fueled by a growing interest in tablet computers, nearly half a billion computers will be sold to consumers in the US between now and 2015, according to a new report by the research group. Over the next five years, computer unit sales across all form factors — desktops, notebooks and laptops, tablets, and netbooks — will increase by 52%.

Clearwire Corp., a provider of wireless broadband services, has announced the upcoming availability of three new Mac compatible products that will extend the potential for super-fast speeds and unlimited 4G usage plans to the millions of mobile devices available today, according to Dow Draper, vice president of product development for Clearwire.