smartphones

Mid-Week Update 02-03-10

In Monday’s Market Update, we highlighted the few information technology companies that we feel qualify as franchises. With one exception, all of those companies are represented in our Growth Portfolio. Today, we add Qualcomm (QCOM) to the portfolio – completing our technology franchise portfolio.
 
As we noted, Qualcomm’s business centers around patents regarding wireless technology, with many related to the CDMA mobile communication platform. In fact, over 25 years of research and development have translated into a portfolio of approximately 11,600 U.S. and 54,100 international patents and patent applications. Qualcomm has become a technology supplier to myriad companies, providing either the semiconductor chips or licensing its technology for a fee, with the company’s business model being to provide wireless companies big and small with the know-how needed to bring their innovations to the market. We think they’ve succeeded in that quest, and are reaping the benefits of decades of hard work.
 
The CDMA platform is front and center of the shift to third generation or 3G wireless communications, a platform supporting faster speeds for larger packets of data.
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Mid-Week Update 10-07-09

With the market’s attention focused on the minute details of economic readings, the recovery of the fragile banking sector, and gold hitting all-time highs, some of the most stable companies have been left out of the headlines. However, that recently changed in regards to two Income Portfolio members over the last couple days, as both AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) made announcements that could shake-up the mobile phone industry.
 
In a policy reversal, AT&T announced that it would now allow internet phone service providers to use its 3G data network. This means that companies like Skype could use a smartphone’s data connection to provide phone service, essentially bypassing AT&T’s own mobile phone service. This marks a shift from only being able to use wifi (wireless) internet connections with these applications. While the move gives more freedom to subscribers to use their phone and data connections as they wish, it does raise a few questions.
 
The first question is how much the move will cannibalize AT&T’s own mobile phone plans, i.e. whether its customers will downgrade to the cheapest plan and simply use their unlimited data packages in conjunction with their internet phone service? The second, and possibly more important, question is what effect the move will have on AT&T’s data network.
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Mid-Week Update 07-01-09

An impressive quarter is now in the books. The second quarter of 2009 saw the S&P 500 rally almost 16 percent, its best quarterly return since 1998. Of course, this is on the heels of the sharpest market downturn in 80 years. Despite the rally, which took stocks deserving and undeserving alike from cheap valuations, there are still some bargains to be had.
 
Case in point is one of the most dominant companies on the planet – Intel (INTC). Intel is the leading semiconductor chip maker, with a global market share of approximately 80 percent. The company manufactures microprocessors, chipsets, flash memory and motherboards for computing and communications products under two business segments: the Digital Enterprise Group and the Mobility Group.
 
In Fiscal 2008, the Digital Enterprise Group accounted for 56 percent of the company’s $37.6 billion in total sales. With chips for desktop computers, servers, and enterprise applications, the group boasts high margins, and account for nearly three quarters of Intel’s annual profit of $5.2 billion. Meanwhile, the Mobility Group, with products for notebook computers and netbooks accounted for most of the remainder.
 
The Mobility Group is also an area in which Intel is concentrating on growth – centered on its new Atom processor.
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