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Technology Article

How to Profit from the Verizon iPhone

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler - • Print | Email

After three years of rumors, the Verizon iPhone has finally arrived.

Well, almost.

Existing Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) customers can pre-order the phone today (Thursday), with the long-awaited device going on sale to all on Feb. 10.

Of course, as soon as Verizon confirmed the existence of the iPhone Jan. 11 speculation turned from when the product would arrive to how many units would sell in the first year. Initial projections from analysts ranged from 9 million to 12 million handsets, although last week an analyst from R.W. Baird & Co. estimated the number of Verizon iPhones activated in the next three months alone could go as high as 25 million. Compare that to the 9 million iPhones AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) sold in the second half of 2010.

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Buy, Sell or Hold: Be Prepared for a Market Pullback with Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)

By , Money Morning - • Print | Email

The market moves in mysterious ways. After months of a bullish run, signs of a pullback are showing up everywhere – the most obvious being the move from momentum stocks into defensive stocks.

Portfolio managers rarely make large shifts in their core holdings, but they adjust the bias inside of a portfolio fairly frequently. That is, they shift the percentage of the fund's holding to prioritize growth or value weighting or momentum stocks and defensive stocks.

Basically, the "risk on" trade is rotating into a "risk off" trade. Fund managers are preparing, and investors should be as well. If you're not, a good way to start would be to pick up a stock like Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).

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Goodbye, Steve Jobs: "Leave of Absence" Could Drop Apple Stock 50%

By , Money Morning - • Print | Email

Steve Jobs is sick, again. And his latest "leave of absence" from Apple could drop the stock more than 50%. During Jobs' last illness, Apple stock plummeted from $176 to $83. Could it do the same again? Or is Apple strong enough to survive without its creator? Steve Jobs runs the most valuable technology company […]

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Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) and AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) Betting Big on Combination Chips

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning - • Print | Email

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicks off tomorrow (Wednesday) night with a keynote address from Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) Chief Executive Officer Steve Balmer. But the big attraction at the Las Vegas conference will be the so-called "combination chips" expected to be unveiled by Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD).

The highly-anticipated chips could deliver one of the biggest advances in years for the
technology that powers laptop and desktop computers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The new chips are designed to incorporate the microprocessors that calculate formulas and run the software on most personal computers with the more obscure graphics processing units (GPU) – the devices responsible for rendering images in video games and movies and converting audio files for listening.

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Motorola 4G Phone Comes to Verizon - Will the iPhone be Next?

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning - • Print | Email

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) last week struck a deal to make Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) the first handset maker to enter the market using the carrier's new, fourth-generation (4G) high-speed network.

The network, which employs a technology called Long-Term Evolution (LTE), is designed to provide wireless Internet connections fast enough to compete with land-based cable modems or fiber optic technology.

"We've got LTE smartphones on the horizon," Stratton told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. "Motorola will be right there."

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Tech Stocks Set To Soar in 2011 as a New Era of Personal Computing Dawns

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning - • Print | Email

Technology companies, and tech stocks, started a revival in 2010 and are heading toward an even more profitable 2011. That's because a new age of computing – one that prioritizes mobility and efficiency – has dawned in the computing world.

Indeed, we've entered what researching firm International Data Corporation (IDC) calls a "new era" of computer usage.

Roughly half of all regular Internet users in 2011 will use non-PC devices, according to IDC, which says a trend becomes mainstream when it constitutes more than 15% of the market.

Just as the smaller PCs of the 1980s supplanted the lumbering terminals of the 1960s, PCs are being replaced by a variety of hand-held devices – like Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and iPad and Research in Motion Ltd.'s (Nasdaq: RIMM) Blackberry.

"The PC-centric era is over," IDC said in its annual report, released in November.

The firm predicts 330 million smartphones will be sold worldwide next year along with 42 million media tablets.

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Apple's Server Farm Hints at Cloud-Based Ambitions

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler - • Print | Email

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) has secretly built a massive server farm in Maiden, North Carolina that should come online any day now, if it hasn't already. The facility is five times larger than Apple's existing data center in Newark, California.

Apple has been typically cagey about the purpose of this data center, which ultimately could cost as much as $1 billion.

"North Carolina is on schedule," Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said during the July earnings conference call. "We expect to complete it by the end of the calendar year and begin to use it."

Much of Apple's existing business relies heavily on content delivery already, but building a 505,000 square-foot facility – which ranks it among the largest in the world – hints at far more grandiose plans.

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FCC's Net Neutrality Plan Disappoints Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX)

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning - • Print | Email

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved its net neutrality proposal, aiming to protect the free flow of information over the Internet and limit the power of Internet service providers (ISPs) to act as Web gatekeepers.

Net neutrality means providers like Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA) must treat all Internet content equally and cannot interfere with legal Web traffic. It also prohibits "unreasonable discrimination," meaning ISPs can't deliver Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) faster than eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), or block bandwidth-straining Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX).

The rules also require ISPs to provide customers with more information on download speeds and usage limits, and give the FCC power to reject "paid priority" agreements where a content provider like Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) would pay Comcast more for faster delivery.

"We must take action to protect consumers against price hikes and closed access to the Internet – and our proposed framework is designed to do just that: to guard against these risks while recognizing the legitimate needs and interests of broadband providers," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wrote in a blog posting earlier this month.

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Will New iPhone Give Boost to Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Shares?

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning - • Print | Email

The buzz surrounding the long-awaited release of a Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) iPhone is reaching a fevered pitch as it appears the telecom giant is ready to bring the device to market.

Verizon is expected to confirm it will start providing service for the iPhone early next year, according to a report last week in The Wall Street Journal.

January may be a strange time to launch the much-anticipated product, but AT&T (NYSE: T) reportedly convinced Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) to give it one last holiday season as the iPhone's exclusive U.S. provider, according to a report in Tech News World.

With millions of frustrated AT&T network users making noise and millions of loyal Verizon customers anticipating the iPhone's release, investors are wondering if the iPhone could give shares of both Apple and Verizon a shot in the arm.

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