A BITE OUT OF THE APPLE

At the last minute, Motorola pulled the plug on the roll-out of the i-tune telephone. Speculation is that the cell provider decided not to offer the service without getting a piece of each down-load. Cell phone music is about to become one more reason every person will want a cell phone.

Maps and GPS services will soon become necessities. Insurance companies will offer discounts to those who allow GPS tracking of driving habits. Maps already include search capacity and directions. Has there ever been a time in your life when you would have given a quarter to know which way to turn to get to the nearest gas station or rest-room?

BULL BOOM BUBBLE are around the corner. Infrastructure is being added quickly to support advanced features. A significant portion of the population are late adopters. Late adopters kept their horse and buggies for years after cars were available. Today, only 1% of US citizens have signed up to save money on an internet phone. A very large number of electronic boxes will be sold in the next 5 years as we progress along the product growth curve.

Apple has a leading position in down-loading songs. NBC, FOX and ESPN are producing mini TV "shows". The cell phone companies own the toll roads. I continue to hold NXTL and AMX because I believe these firms will collect a lot of tolls in the next five years. I do not own Apple and have trouble seeing how Apple can lead in distribution over the cell phone networks.