This week in the app revolution

Here's what you have to know if you want to know what's "appening" in the app revolution right now:

Dude Records “Eye of the Tiger” Using Only an iPad - Music video.  Done very well. A modern one man band?  Awesome.  And the music itself ain't bad.

Full review of iPhone 4 after seven weeks of love. Exclusive and very insightful, helpful (and funny) review of her iPhone 4 from AppConsumer's own Nathania Johnson. Pics, videos and good details from someone who's actually been using the phone for weeks.

Revolution Investing Newsletter: Appetite for apps ($) - My newsletter last week details some of the most important app revolution and their impact on some of the biggest tech stocks.  (Subscription required.)

MOMA iPhone App a Worthy Work of Art - Very cool concept and beautiful app. I've had several friends visit the MOMA recently and tell me I need to go.  I guess I'll go.  But I'll get the MOMA app first.

Voice Actions for Android Looks Very Suh-weet! - Another cool video.  I'm going to start playing with this still wildly futuristic technology asap.  Killer app: spoken text messages. Count me in.

Network neutrality explained - I break it down for you in real world terms...and explain why Google's YouTube is the big winner in the death of net neutrality.

Evidence Mounts for Verizon iPhone - Last year I predicted that Verizon would have the iPhone by Christmas 2010.  Getting down to the wire.

Only Nokia, Apple and Google have reached critical mass in the smartphone wars. - Gotta love it! “Cody, You are a CROOK reviewer. Stop with the FAKING reviews FOOL. iphones are garbage, stop with the LIES"

iPhone vs Android - everything you need to know - My first in what will be many reviews to come.  Got good traction on this one, picked up by AOL.com's home page, on MacDailyNews (who critiqued my critique), and others.  Let me know what you think.

The app revolution: the biggest market in the history of the planet - Another article by me...Within ten years, more than a billion people will have bought their first app-enabled smartphone.  Trillions of apps will be have been downloaded. Think about it. Get involved.

Let's tackle net neutrality

Let's tackle net neutrality.  Net neutrality, as I'm sure you've read, means that the telecom/cable/satellite/wireless networks that connect you to the Internet have to allow you to access anything on the Internet equally, without making it easier to connect to one site vs. another.  And that matters, not only to the companies and websites that you use right now and might someday use in the future, but it matters hugely to you too. More on that in a minute.

But first, let's break network neutrality down into a real world example.  Say you've just launched a website that focuses on delivering the best reviews and news about apps, games and devices.  Pretend you call it AppConsumer.com, like I did mine. Let's say the traffic is going thru the charts in just the first few days, blowing away even your highest expectations for the site.

And then let's say since you use Google Ads and since Google searches are starting to drive traffic to your awesome app review site that somebody at Google says, "Hey, we should get into the app, game, and device reviews and news business like those guys at AppConsumer.com."  Google also knows just how huge the growth in searches for app reviews and news that I've cited on here many times lately is.

Anyway, the point is, let's say Google decides to start a direct competitor to your company.   Google starts adding lots of very expensively-developed technologies to their app reviews website, but the networks are clogged because of people still coming to your site and other small-business-owned app reviews and news websites, so Google says to Verizon and the other carriers:

"Look, we'll pay you if you'll carry our content and make it work better on your networks than anybody else's.  Especially those damn rebels at AppConsumer.com!" (Okay, maybe I made up them saying that last part for effect.)

And that's where the fissure starts. Network neutrality might be good for competition which might be good for you, the consumer.  But then again, if Google's invested in new technologies that can only be delivered if they get the extra broadband on the networks that they're now paying Verizon for, then why would we want to suppress that?  Don't you, as a consumer, want access to the very best technologies, and if you've got a problem with companies like Google that bribe the people selling you access to the Internet, then don't use Google products and try to only use networks that remain net neutral.  It's a free country, right? (ha!)

On that note, isn't this arrangement between Google and Verizon a lot like the illegal payola arrangements of the music industry?  You're not allowed to pay to get your music content on the radio, but you can pay to get your web content on the network?

And finally, maybe it's up to us at AppConsumer, as a competitor of Google's, to figure out ways to build on top of their new app reviews technologies to enhance the experience of my users and also thereby gain access to Google's preferred network status at Verizon et al?

One of the main reasons for Google abandoning their former positive-on-net-neutrality stance is because they want to kill off any chance of anybody ever competing with YouTube as the de facto standard for delivering user-gen video on the Internet.  With this agreement with Verizon, Google's formally announced it's game over for YouTube competitors.

And there's the point of this article for Google investors and for followers of my Revolution Investing newsletter.   What if I told you that Google could pay millions of dollars to ensure that YouTube never loses to a competitor, ensuring that all user-gen content creators (and any small business and most medium and large businesses, including media/entertainment companies) would use it and therefore creating a perfect virtuous cycle.  Not this year, but ten years from now, when we're all consuming almost all of our content wirelessly with apps on our smartphone/devices and YouTube will deliver the vast majority of it.  Can't you see Google search type market share here? say 60-70%? of video delivered on smartphones?

That business, supported with ads and search and all the other things that Google does, will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.  I've said before that I can see a Google $2000 price tag before 2020. This emboldens me on that prediction.  Google, via YouTube, wins big with the death of net neutrality.

In the meantime, stick with Google the stock and help support a small business content provider while they still exist - http://appconsumer.com, the best reviews and news of apps, games and devices on the net.

Everything you want to know the iPhone vs Android war

I've been using and reviewing cell phones, gadgets and devices professionally for more than a decade now. I've played with and written about Hewlett-Packard's iPaq (not quite the success of Apple's iPad, eh?), VoiceStream services (remember that brand?), Microsoft's Zune, and about a thousand other tech products. More recently, I've used every version of the iPhone (including the latest 4g), several versions of the iPod (including the latest Touch), several versions of Android, an iPad, several global Nokia's, most of the latest Blackberry's, and just about every device out there right now (somehow I missed Microsoft's several hundred million dollar flash-in-the-pan Kin, but who didn't?).

Now I've founded AppConsumer.com, an app reviews and news company, and I'm once again going to be regularly reviewing tech products once again for our AppConsumer Originals page, where I'll be joined by the funny tech expert, Nathania Johnson, and several other contributors. As I keep telling anybody who will listen, you have to be investing in the app revolution and if you're investing in anything related to tech at all, you have to be on top of all the app trends.

Only about 10-20% of all cell phone users have a smartphone (much less an app-centric smart phone that is all about enabling you to connect to the information, other people, and entertainment services using apps) Take a look at how many people are googling "iPhone vs Android" these days.

So let's talk Apple's iPhone platform vs. Google's Android platform and see what trends (and therefore investment implications) come from the analysis.

The good in both: Both platforms use an effective touch screen interface and both are far and away the leaders of the app-centric smartphone industry (though both are still marketshare takers in the smartphone industry, which is taking huge share from the non-smartphone device industries). And both are rather remarkably easy to use, as my father, a 65-year old veterinarian in rural New Mexico loves his Motorola Droid, while my girlfriend's mother, a 65-year old landscape architect in Venezuela loves her iPhone. The app store for each platform is easy to access and both offer more apps for free and for pay than you could ever download.

The bad in both: Having more apps than you can look at has its downsides - I think most people who use apps are desperate for better app filters and app guidance (did I mention I started an app reviews website?).

Both need more RAM. Some of these apps, some of these services, some of these features on our phones are serious processor-hogs, and I'm sick to death of waiting for emails and big files to process. My girlfriend and I might have a problem, but we have indeed sent so many texts to each other in the few months that I've been sticking with the HTC Incredible that it literally takes 30 seconds or more to open the text string everytime she sends me a new text. That means looking at Micron and Sandisk.

Both need more processing power. Sure, the functionalities in these things already blow the mind and put Gene Roddenberry's most futuristic gadgets from even the 1990s' Star Trek: Next Generation's generation of gadgets to shame. But what about when we want to broadcast the 2018 World Cup in HD using our 109" built-in projector to the Motorola Droid XXX (that'd be the third generation of the Droid X, no? Er, wait a minute...perhaps not) -- that is, what about when we want to broadcast the 2018 World Cup in HD using our 109" built-in projector to the Motorola Droid 3X? Anyway, they need more processing power and graphics power and that means sticking with Intel with its steady exposure to the growth in this market. And it also means digging into the Nvidia once again to see if it can catch this next cycle because that would mean a 5-fold hit for investors if so.

Both need more memory. People are running into memory problems as they shoot HD video on their smart phones, and as they shoot high-pixel pictures, and as they add more information and entertainment to their phones. Think Sandisk and Micron once again here.

The biggest differences: You can only get the iPhone on AT&T. And we all know that AT&T's network sucks. Verizon's network, which runs most of my Motorola's and HTC's, rocks. The Android, while remarkably easy to use, isn't as easy to use as the iPhone. For example, you have to push one too many buttons to dial from other applications than you do on the iPhone. The iPhone ain't perfect in its interface, but it's the best. Just like it was on day one. Still.

The Android's not quite as reliable as the iPhone. I think it's got something to do with the extra software that Verizon adds on to these Android phones that I use, but the very fact that my Android phone requires reboot about 25% of the time I get in my car and try to use it with the built-in bluetooth car phone technology sorta defeats the purpose of the supposed increased safety of handsfree dialing.

The upshot is that although there's going to be differences between each Android-power device, I'd give the Android OS an overall rating of 4 AppConsumer Stars out of 5. And I'd give the iPhone OS an overall rating of 4.5 Stars out of 5. Both set very high standards for the mobile OS field and therefore both do get very high ratings for this reviewer.

Check out all our AppConsumer Originals. And come see the aggregation of only the best reviews and news about apps from all around the Internet at http://AppConsumer.com.

The app revolution: the biggest market in the history of the planet

When you find the single largest target market in the history of the planet, it's time to get excited -- perhaps even consumed by apps.  I've certainly been obsessed with all things apps since I started looking at the growth ahead and the ultimate size of a market that will entail billions of people using trillions of apps.

Seriously, those are real numbers, and as I wrote in Invest in the app revolution any way you can, I'm not only obsessed with finding the best publicly-traded plays on the app revolution, but I'm even launching AppConsumer.com.

And as for those publicly-traded plays on the app revolution, you really do have to do the ol' Peter Lynch methodology and look at Google and Apple as the purest ways to get involved.  I like both stocks and companies a lot and my partners and I owned those stocks for years when I traded money, but I think Google's a better play right here right now on it.  That's what I wrote in this week's Revolution Investing Newsletter and that's also what I told Riva Froymovich in a video interview for the WSJ/Marketwatch network.

Nokia and its Symbian OS are also going to be huge, but unlike Google's Android and Apple's iPhone, Symbian's got to be defending its current outsized global marketshare, and I prefer market share takers in growing markets to get even bigger upside over the long haul.  RIMM and Softee and Palm et al, are going to see big growth too, but I think we'll looking at three primary platforms in five or ten years from now.

Billions of people, trillions of apps, and un-count-able app transacactions, interactions, and entertainments and games played...there are going to be a lot of winners and a lot of money to be made by those winners.  The app revolution is an opportunity I'm taking very seriously with my time and money and I think any serious investor should be too. Check out the AppConsumer Original Reviews page, where I'm writing and reviewing apps and devices, keep reading this blog and/or sign up for my Revolution Investing newsletter for more as this whole app revolution gets started.

http://AppConsumer.com - app reviews and news.

Why I'm launching AppConsumer.com, an app reviews and news website

You know I love to find revolutions that are changing the marketplace and exploding in growth and enable us to ride their wave to big profits over time.  I've talked about the China Middle Class revolution, the food-consumption revolution, the Internet video revolution...and my favorite of all for a while has been the App Revolution. Yes, the App Revolution is worthy of capitalization.

More than 100 million people will buy their first app-enabled smart phone this year.  More than a quarter billion people will buy an app-enabled smart phone this year.  There will be more app-enabled smart phones sold than PCs next year.  There will be more than one billion app-enabled smart phone users on the planet within the next three years.  And by the year 2020, more than one billion people will buy an app-enabled smart phone every year and more than one-third of the world's population --more than two billion people -- will be using apps on their smart phones. (All these estimates come from Gartner, RBC Capital Markets and Willard Media Ventures).

That's a market I want to play in, and while we've already got some great publicly-traded investments in the Revolution Investing model portfolio, I want way more exposure to this industry that will be exploding like no other in our history.  So I've started AppConsumer.com which I hope will become the de facto standard resource for app reviews and news.

App wasn't a household term just three years ago, but with the advent of the iPhone and then the Android, not to mention the latest rounds of Blackberry, Palm, Nokia and Windows phones, everybody knows about apps now.  Take a look at the growth in searches for "App Reviews" from Google Trends:

Or even the explose growth in even just the word "app":

I've been looking at growth charts for twenty years now, and I don't recall ever seeing such consistent, clear and straight up pure growth in any industry like we are about to see in the app world.  The growth in those charts are just getting started.

We're talking about a target market of billions of people using hundreds of billions of apps reading literally trillions of articles about apps, app reviews, app news, app devices, app games, app-anything.

And on that note, I've also founded AppConsumers.com, the social network of the app world, and AppWikipedia.com, the wikipedia of the app world.  I always tell people the best investment they can make is to invest in themselves and to start their own businesses in a growing industry that they have passion about.   Well, I'm putting my money where my mouth is, and as I continue to search for the best publicly-traded themes to play this unique app-world explosion opportunity, I'm going to go full-speed in making AppConsumer.com the only place people think of when they want to find all the best app reviews and news from around the Internet.

I guess you could say I'm consumed with apps?  (I hope my mom, at least, will like that play on words.)

CodyWillard.com Moves to Fox (or, Am I Just Another Sell Out?)

People tell us that we play too loud
But they don't know what our music's about
We never listen to the record company man
They try to change us and ruin our band.

That's why we don't wanna be good
That's why we don't wanna be good
We're prisoners of rock and roll.

When were jammin' in our old garage
The girls come over and it sure gets hot
We don't wanna be watered down
Takin' orders from record company clowns.

That's why we don't wanna be good
That's why we don't wanna be good
We're prisoners of rock and roll.

We're prisoners of rock and roll. - Neil Young

CodyWillard.com is, alas, becoming cody.blogs.foxbusiness.com.

Am I just a classic sell out at this point? I have to wonder exactly that if I can flatter myself for a minute, don’t I, as the move is made…

The whole of my blog, starting with TheCodyBlog.com or even the original TelEconomist.com days, is something which frankly I’ve come to associate my self-identity with, at least in some part. And it is now fully engulfed by a mainstream media outlet… The Man. Hmm.At any rate, rest assured that there will be absolutely no change in the the thrust of the content and what I write and say around here. I'll not pull any punches -- none that I'd not pull on my own anyway at least, you know. I'll still write in exactly the same voice, calling it exactly as I see it, Flipping It as best as I can (though I suppose being as fully part of a mainstream media company, a giant conglomerate makes my trying to Flip It [Flipping It - a term I've trademarked and defined as doing or thinking exactly opposite conventional wisdom] a bit more challenging by definition, doesn't it?) and basically being exactly who I've always been as best as I can.

I’ll post lots of stock, economic, and societal analysis and commentary, lots of music, personal stories and home videos and photologs and whatever else I want, whenever I want, however I want...as long as the technology's supported and all that, which, come to think of it, means one change to the blog will be that I won't be able to embed videos any more until FoxBusiness.com chooses to greenlight that ability. Sigh, the control starts even as I say it won't, doesn't it?

Well, at least they can't stop me from writing that the control starts, can they?

We're Prisoners of Rock n Roll, but let's keep on rockin' in the free world, eh?

Yes, ironically, you'll have to click on the link below since I can't embed the video since I've sold out and now don't have the control I did if you want to scream with the Godfather of Grunge himself.

All that said, as far as my media career is concerned, you guys do realize I started off with a telecom stock website called TelEconomist.com and got a break from Jim Cramer and TheStreet.com by responding to one of his columns back in 2000 and now, yes, my blog is moving to Fox? I am pretty proud of that too, you see!

See you on the other side then.

Happy Hour 4.07.08

We have the following guests booked for this evening:
-John Huddy

-Lama Pema, Monk

-Dan Mchugh, VP of Budweiser & Bud Light

-Don Peebles, Peebles Corp. Chairman & CEO

-Bruce Vincent, Swift Energy President

-Steve Grasso, Stuart Frankel

-Kirsten Haglund, Miss America

-Tiernan Ray,Barron's

Join Cody and Rebecca Gomez for a live Happy Hour at the Bull and Bear at 5:00–or at 5:00 and 11:00pm on FB

Click HERE to find out where you can See Happy Hour where you live.

Google Time Travel

I think I'll just link to this one for now...

Introducing Gmail Custom Time^TM

Be on time. Every time.^*

Google's all about empowering that end user, eh?

PS.  I still say Google's a screaming buy below $500 these days.

Moto Mojo Gonna Lead to Momo, or, Buy MOT Below $10

Icahn's down pretty huge on this Motorola trade as far as I can tell, and he's gonna need it back to $15 or so to make any money on it, again as far as I can tell from having been following his activism in this name over the last few years.  But he's finally getting a large part of what he's been looking for, as Moto finally announces that it's going to be spinning off its handset division from the rest of the company.

The handset division, in case you haven't been around anybody in the developed world in the last few years, peaked at about the same time the Razr was featured on HBO's Entourage in 2004 or so...it's been all down hill from there as Motorola and its supposed and now-departed savior Ed Zander bet the next half-decade on the Razr form factor somehow convinced that tapping on a 12-button phone platform that'd been around since the punch phone replaced the dial phone a quarter-century ago was a good idea as convergence made smartphones king.  In other words, the Razr was great in 2004, but it sucks in 2008 but Moto's idiots were still hoping it'd catch back on.

The good news is that Moto's finally going in all kinds of new directions, and they're going to be rolling out some really great phones this year and next.  On top of that, the spin off will probably squeeze out some market value further.  And the rest of the company's undervalued so long as the economy stays steady as she still is.

Will talk about this more on Happy Hour tonight, but the upshot is that Moto's a darn good looking investment (and even several-month-long trade) here below $10, just about 10% above its recent lows and still 50% from its highs last year.

Endless Google Domination

I must have written hundreds of articles and blog posts for RealMoney.com, on these pages, for The Financial Times and elsewhere for the last few years about how Google's dominance will grow for a long time.

Take a look at the Tech page on NYTimes.com today.   It's really all about Google, isn't it?  Fastest growing company in the history of capitalism.  Still a screaming buy below $500 even if I'm not jumping up and own about it like I was when Whoopi was on Happy Hour and said she was bummed about owning it at $415...