Important Updates for Investors
Carla Pasternak's Premiere Issue of High-Yield International Just
Released
Income expert Carla Pasternak's debut issue of High-Yield
International covers a Taiwanese manufacturer yielding 9.5%... a
rare Mexican monopoly yielding 13.4%... and other top-performing
investments yielding up to 19.0%.
Government's Biofuel Timetable Could Spell +15,900% Growth
+15,900% growth might seem far-fetched... but it's not. In fact, it
is mandated by law. And I've identified the ONLY stock positioned to
capture this growth.
The
Silver Lining to a Falling Dollar
Despite the U.S. national debt, there is a silver lining for income
investors. This massive spending, combined with movement out of U.S.
Treasuries, is going to take its toll on the dollar, and
international income investors could reap the rewards in the form of
higher dividends. |
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At the Tipping Point: Profit
from the Smartphone Revolution |
Published:
July 21, 2008
In October 2001, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) released its
first iPod music player. The original device was roughly the
size of a pack of cards, held about 1,000
songs and operated for close to 10 hours on a single charge.
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For a device that would soon become a household name, the
initial reaction to the iPod was lukewarm at best. Some derided
the iPod's $399 price tag as too high; one early critic even
suggested that iPod was an acronym for "Idiots Price Our
Devices." And other technophiles felt that the device was
evolutionary, not revolutionary; after all, dozens |
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of portable MP3 and media player devices were on the market,
even in 2001.
But apparently, these criticisms didn't register with consumers.
In its most recent fiscal year, Apple reported selling more than
51.6
million iPods. In fact, sales of iPods, music and related
devices accounted fornearly half of Apple's total sales in 2007. And
according to industry data provider NPD, Apple continues to
dominate the media player market with a market share of more
than 70%.
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And Apple's shareholders have been amply rewarded for the
company's success -- Apple's stock has risen more than +2,000%
since the iPod's October 2001 launch, compared with a roughly +70%
gain for the Nasdaq Composite and just above +50% for the
S&P 500 during the same time period. That means a
$10,000 |
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investment in Apple on the day it launched the iPod is now worth more than $210,000.
So what exactly accounts for Apple's success? It identified an emerging new market and
captured consumers with a superior product.
Every great product eventually reaches
a tipping point -- the point when its addressable market becomes large enough to
make the product profitable. The wave of growth that follows
these magic moments routinely powers tremendous returns for
well-placed investors. Apple jumped into digital music with iTunes and the iPod just as the technology was reaching its
tipping point of widespread consumer adoption. Apple
shareholders have since benefited handsomely from that move.
At various times in history, computers,
automobiles, cell phones, televisions and the Internet all reached tipping
points. Investors who recognized these shifts stood to make
tremendous gains as growth accelerated. And like digital music, the smartphone
is passing its own tipping point and has entered an era
of tremendous growth potential.
Cellular telephones have been around, in one form or another,
since the 1980s. As of late 2007
there were 3.3 billion mobile telephones in use worldwide -- one for every two people on the planet.
There are, by comparison, only 1.3
billion fixed-landline phones.
Until recently, most people used cell phones to
make voice calls or to send short text
messages. That's changing. More and more consumers want to
access their e-mail on the go or look up stock quotes, phone
numbers or other pieces of information when they're away from
their computers. A smartphone allows these tasks to be completed
anywhere there is a cell signal. Full mobile Internet
access, e-mail and GPS services are just a few examples of the
sorts of functions smartphones offer.
While the mobile phone market is huge and growth is slowing,
smartphones are still a technology in
its infancy. Less than 12% of the 330 million mobile-phone
handsets sold globally in the fourth quarter of 2007 were smartphones. Even in the U.S. and Western Europe, smartphones
account for less than 15% of handset sales.
But smartphones' popularity are growing rapidly. Most analysts
peg year-over-year growth in smartphone sales at more than +35%.
That's roughly three times the growth of the traditional mobile
telephone market. Given this extraordinary rate of growth, it's
likely smartphone sales will continue to grab share from
traditional cell phones in coming quarters, which should mean
big gains for the companies that manufacture smartphones...
Important Note: In the remainder of this article,
Market Advisor
editor Paul Tracy provides in-depth profiles of two companies
poised to profit the most from the coming boom in smartphone
use -- one of which has long-term projected earnings per share
growth of +35%, and the other provides the chips many major
manufacturers rely on to operate this advanced technology.
However, in order to view the remainder of this article, you'll
need to subscribe to our premium investing newsletter --
Market Advisor. After you subscribe, you'll
receive immediate access to this full article, as well as our
monthly
Market Advisor newsletter and a host of
additional premium content. Please visit one of the following
links to continue.
-- Paul Tracy
Editor
StreetAuthority
Market Advisor
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receive in-depth guidance on today's leading investing
opportunities each month, plus access to five model
portfolios, please subscribe to Paul Tracy's premium investment
newsletter -- the StreetAuthority
Market Advisor. |
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Investing Doesn't Get Any Easier Than This |
Stock picker Amy
Calistri's strategy is as simple as investing gets -- just one idea
a month designed to make money in today's market. Invest this way
and you don't have to worry about oil prices, automaker bailouts, or
what the Fed is up to -- because every "bad" economic development
actually helps some investment or another.Your investing life can
get a lot simpler -- starting today.
Go here to learn about Amy's simple investing strategy.
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