Consumers’ desire for mobile connectivity — the ability to access information and digital applications any time, anywhere, and through any wired or wireless medium — is on the rise. With the launch of its new smart phone, the iPhone 3G, Apple is likely to figure prominently in the advance of this global mega-trend. That’s the conclusion of the latest Sector Focus commentary by five technology sector analysts at Turner Investment Partners.
Turner, an investment firm based in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, publishes Sector Focus commentaries monthly as part of the continuing efforts of its five analyst teams to monitor the market sectors for its growth-stock portfolios.
The commentary, entitled Apple’s iPhone makes a mobile connection, was written by Tara Hedlund, security analyst/portfolio manager; Dan Hirsch, security analyst; Mike Lozano, security analyst; Chris McHugh, senior portfolio manager/security analyst; and Bob Turner, chairman and chief investment officer. The authors contend that Apple enjoys several competitive advantages in the mobile connectivity market and its iPhone could be “the smartest and most popular of the smart phones, in light of Apple’s design, technical, and marketing savvy.”
The analysts point to Apple’s complete control over the iPhone’s design and development, the quality of the phone’s operating software, and the ample number of outside application developed for the phone as factors that could propel the company’s share of the smart-phone market from 3.7% in 2007 to 28.0% in 2009.
The analysts estimate that the “worldwide market for mobile connectivity is likely to generate accelerating double-digit growth over the next five to 10 years.” And they note that emerging markets present the greatest growth potential for telecommunications, due to the massive numbers of people there who use their handsets as both their phone and their computer in the absence of desktop or laptop computers.
August 2008 Sector Focus in its entirety is available via Turner Investment Partners’ Website here.
