Twitter and Apple were in the spotlight last week with the social media company rallying to the best level in a month and the smartphone manufacturer which hit the highest point in a year. The timeline of the events which led to these moves for Apple is the following:

On Wednesday, 4th of December, Apple announced the acquisition of Topsy for 200 million dollars, a company that analyzes Twitter data by allowing users to analyze millions of Twitter posts, helping them figure out trends, identify influential Twitter users and measure the effectiveness of campaigns on the social network. According to The Wall Street Journal, Topsy is one of Twitter Inc. partners that have access to all tweets since 2006.So why did Apple buy Topsy? Or, let me put it this way, why would Apple ever be interested in Twitter’s data? Because social media is kind of THE thing at the moment, could be one answer.

Remaining the top U.S. smartphone manufacturer in the October quarter, in a market where 149 million people in the U.S. own smartphones and according to comScore with a market share of nearly 41% bring me to a second answer. In a more challenging mobile and social world in which Apple’s stake is threatened by its competitors, the smartphone manufacturer made a smart move adapting to the social media business ecosystem of our days.
Who is the winner of this deal? Both of them, Apple by integrating Twitter within its own software which in turn could be used to boost Apple’s own social networking strategy and Twitter by enhancing its image of a growth company and proving it is on right path towards the profits every investor expects from the social media company.

Thursday, 5th of December, was that kind of day when you buy on the rumor and sell on the news. Following a Wall Street Journal report late Wednesday that citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter, said Apple signed a deal for Chinese telecom giant China Mobile to carry the iPhone beginning in mid-December, Apple reached a 52-week-high on Thursday as the iPhone maker’s shares rose $10.17 to $575.14.

“We are still negotiating with Apple, but for now we have nothing new to announce,” China Mobile spokeswoman Rainie Lei said, declining to elaborate. Apple also declined comment. After all, there was no deal yet and Apple ended the day with a gain of $2.90 a share, closing at $567.90.
Why it is so important that Apple make this deal? China Mobile is the world’s largest mobile-phone carrier in terms of subscribers, with more than 700 million. The move would make Apple’s latest iPhone models available to a network that has more than 700 million mobile-phone subscribers which translates into big business for the Silicon Valley-based company.

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