Apple becomes underdog again

So Android phones sold more than iPhone in the second quarter according to some data from NPD or Gartner. First, quantity has nothing to do with quality. Now I am an iPhone fanboy, and I still think iPhone 4 is the best phone out there, and i am actually very relieved (or semi excited) as a consumer that Apple has become an underdog at least in the quantity factor. I am sure this would drive Apple engineer to work even harder, and would also make Apple to make iPhone available on Verizon and other carriers sooner. I am sure as a consumer I would benefit from the fierce competition between Google'sAndroid and Apple's iOS, Apple's hardware and HTC's and Motorola's. However, I am also an Apple share holder and I am not sure the competition would benefit me as an Apple share holder at all.

Warren Buffet once gave a powerful presentation at a summer Idaho sun valley retreat. In that presentation he mentioned that return for trend chasing investor was miserable. For example, airplane might be a great invention and many company competed in the airline industry but as a whole there had been zero money made from the aggregate of all stock investment in the airline industry in history. We could certainly recall the painful lesson chasing the internet stocks in the early 2000s.

Palm Inc., and probably its share holders have been the first victim of this phenomena. Nokia is in the middle of becoming a second victim. RIMM has lost its momentum and is looking to be the third one even if they are to make a switch to use Android.

How would this fierce competition affect AT&T and Verizon stock performance? As more people upgrade to smartphones AT&T and Verizon should be able to reap the benefits of more data plan charges. Moreover, they don't face global competition at all unless congress passes a law to force them to share their bandwidth. Currently both AT&T and VZ have a dividend yield of more than 6 pct. I think they are good diversification for your investment portfolio.

Buyer be aware.

Disclosure: long apple and google. No position on VZ and T.

Well... if he's not here, he has a reason, because there is not a cruel or careless bone in his body. But I wouldn't expect you to understand anybody like that. You with your theme park, multi-level, homogenize-the-world mochaccino land. You've deluded yourself into thinking that you're some sort of benefactor, bringing books to the masses. But no one will ever remember you, Joe Fox. And maybe no one will remember me, either, but plenty of people remember my mother, and they think she was fine, and they think her store was something special. You are nothing but a suit! -- From You've Got Mail, by Kathleen Kelly