For a company to threaten the existence of PCs with unprecedentedly high consumer appeal in the mobile devices market, Apple’s battling two industries with a pretty short lineup.  With only three products in its portfolio, Apple really does have some guts. It first took the modern age by storm with the iPod, and further expanded in the market with the iPhone, going on to establish the whole of the tablet market with the release of the iPad.

To give an indication of how influential Apple’s design is, there’s currently an iPhone 4 prototype being auctioned at eBay for $2,025. For something that doesn’t have warranty or any impressive features, and can’t even be activated for network use, it seems like Apple has way to many fan boys.  The prototype hardly seems to warrant such attention, resembling a regular black iPhone 4 minus the “+” and “-“ sign for the volume, and with a “DF1692” marked in the lower right corner in the front.

But Apple’s products reach far and wide, making the company the most popular maker on InMobi’s mobile ad network in Europe, outperforming Nokia and Samsung, which owns the biggest chunk of the entire European mobile market.  According to a set of data compiled in May, InMobi serves 35.7 billion monthly mobile advertising impressions worldwide, with 3.8 billion of those coming from Europe.  Apple now accounts for a 19.5 percent share of the European market, with a 6.3 percent increase over the past three months. Eighty million impressions are generated by the iPad, subsequently making it the region’s 6th most popular device.

Mobile security hurts industry growth

Meanwhile, Android’s shares dropped by 6.1 percent during the same time frame. It is still the biggest mobile platform in terms of ad requests, but Android runs across multitudes of devices while iPhone is only a single device.  This is a differentiation that’s helped Android take the lead, but as security issues plague Google’s mobile platform, Apple’s diversification of its own devices in features and price range puts them closer to a level playing field.

But even Apple’s not safe from cyber attacks. Apple may be the next victim of a cyber attack, following Sony and AT&T, as hacker group Anonymous claims to have breached through one of Apple’s servers. They announced it in their tweet as @AnonymousIRC saying, “Not being so serious, but well (…) #Apple could be target, too. But don’t worry, we are busy elsewhere,” along with a link to a text file that contains user names and passwords from an SQL database table on one of Apple’s servers which appears to be an Apple Business Intelligence website.

Apple’s passwords are encrypted, and while the hack is not likely to cause any major damage, it will serve as a warning to the company and the industry at large. About the same time, a Lebanese hacker who calls himself Idahc said on Twitter that Apple’s servers has an SQL vulnerability. He claims to have successfully attacked Apple Consultants Network server but didn’t leak anything out. He also said he’s not part of LulzSec or Anonymous.

There’s a clear aim on the security front to outline the flaws of the mobile and social industry, as they take over consumer culture and drive a burgeoning economy in software design and distribution.  Devices are important aspects of this initial industry development, but its the operating system supporting these devices that truly matters in the long run.  Apple’s made its intentions clear with the upcoming launch of the iCloud, and even HP hopes to provide webOS as an alternative for device makers.