Apple’s iTunes Festival to hit the U.S for the first time

Because you like keeping up with everything going on in the Apple world, we’ve culled only the finest stories making the rounds on Wednesday morning.

Apple Announces iTunes Festival Coming to SXSW―Five Amazing Nights, Five Amazing Shows

For the first time, Apple will hold its iTunes Festival concerts in the U.S. The musical events, which have run for several years in London, will debut at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas from March 11-15. Featured performers include Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Pitbull, Keith Urban, and ZEDD, with more to come. As always, the concert will also be streamed live and on-demand on Apple devices for those of us who can’t make the trip.

Why Can’t Amazon And Apple Catch a Break on Madison Ave?

Apple’s iAd mobile advertising network has never really caught on. According to industry folks who Advertising Age talked to, much of it has to do with Apple’s attitude towards advertising (“slow, cocky and downright stingy”) and—even more importantly—its reluctance to share customer data with advertisers. Of course, from Apple’s perspective, the company gets only a very small percentage of its revenue from advertising, which is well outside of its strengths. So why spend more time investing in something that more often than not just annoys its prime customers?

Apple Gains Some Ground in China Smartphone Market

Good news for Tim Cook: All that time and energy Apple’s spent on China looks like it’s paying off. Market research firm IDC (who shares a parent company with Macworld) reports that Apple’s share of the mainland China smartphone market went from 6 percent in the third quarter of last year to 7 percent. Of course, it’s still behind Samsung, Lenovo, Coolpad, and Huawei, so there’s plenty more ground to make up there, but it’s being pressed from below by local company Xiaomi, which has been increasing its own share.