XXX Smartphone apps are coming - a guide for investors, parents, kids, and the rest of us

It's going to be a trillion dollar market.

The "it", that I am referring to is the coming onslaught of XXX apps that will be hitting the smartphone marketplaces in coming years.  Porn. Sex. And smartphones, oh my.

And no, we don't have any porn app reviews up on my new app reviews and news website AppConsumer.com.  We're not planning to either, ok?

And yes, unfortunately for the remarkably safe, secure and Puritanical iPhone/iTunes App marketplace whether the high-minded well-intentioned folks at Apple want it or not.  Think of it this way -- what kind of social networks for it are already being built utilizing the new iPhone video cam?

I mean, I'm watching Law & Order: SVU the other night and they're trying to catch a serial rapist who uses an app called "Quickies" or something like that, an app for people who want to connect and have quick anonymous sex.  I don't consider myself prude, but holy STD, batman, that episode freaked me out.  And more importantly, got me thinking about such applications being built right now for the latest smartphone technologies.

Yes, with the advent of the iPhone's real-time video calling, people are already, shall we say, "opening up" to the possiblities.   Just as chat rooms, instant message services, myspace, craig's list, ebay, facebook --- even plain ol' email, have long been exploited by people with bad intentions, so too shall it be with what will soon be a normal reality of video chat rooms and video social networks.

Long ago, I trademarked the term "They can't stop the revolution", meaning that nobody can stop these technological revolutions that are built upon the networks and the technologies employed by those networks from building their own revolutions.  The demand is there, so the market will deliver it.

For concerned parents, as always, be smart, be aware and communicate the dangers.  For kids, please be careful and listen to what your parents are warning you about...the dangers are real.  And for the rest of you, same thing -- be careful. But for the rest of you, have fun too.  You'll also have tons of high-brow applications for these same smartphone technologies.

For investors -- and this is where I get really interested in the topic, for the record, all right? -- as usual, playing the guys selling the shovels to those doing the digging is the way to go.  We've had Riverbed Technology, a company that sells equipment that makes all these new video chat, video conferencing, etc technologies work on all these networks, in the Revolution Investing portfolio from much lower levels, but it's recently pulled back a little bit, and I'd look to get in for a long-term investment.  Same goes for another stock oft-highlighted in my newsletter -- FFIV, another equipment vendor who makes this stuff happen.  Cisco, Juniper, are good plays on this too, though in a more "rising tide lifts all boats" kind of way, as usual.

Porn. Sex.  XXX.  These are going to be huge markets and will drive demand for Riverbed and F5 equipment. There I said it.

What?

Here's a walkaway prediction: In ten years from now, the biggest app markets will be, in order:

1. Enterprise
2. Entertainment
3. Gaming
4. XXX
5. Children

My suggestion is to stick with the non-XXX markets.  I'll remind you that they will entail billions of people using trillions of apps.  That's where AppConsumer.com will be focused.

Here's to the future.

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