"Before the iPhone, Motorola's RAZR was the world's must-have handset. But the company failed to come up with a successor and has been bleeding market share ever since," notes Nathan Slaughter.

The editor of Street Authority Market Advisor explains, "Now, Motorola Mobility (MMI) is back. After being lost in the woods for a few years, this former leader has found its way.

"By last summer, Motorola clung to just a 3% sliver of the global mobile phone market and had slipped into 8th place. But the tide began to turn shortly thereafter -- and I am expecting a big comeback in 2011.

The Motorola, Inc. (MOT) story is a complicated one. There are a number of catalysts, however, which could make the shares a bargain at current levels.

In early 2011, the company is expected to be broken up into two distinct entities. Motorola Mobility, which will include the mobile devices business, and Motorola Solutions, which will consist of the networks and enterprise mobility businesses.

Research In Motion (RIMM) on Tuesday introduced its new smartphone -- the BlackBerry Torch 9800. The company's latest phone will feature both a touch screen and a slide-out keyboard. RIMM hopes that the Torch will help it reclaim its earlier importance in the smart-phone market.

The Canadian company has lost a great deal of the cell phone market share to competitors Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) -- both of which have introduced wildly popular cellular devices. The Torch will be available on August 12.

It seems that nothing is stopping Apple, Inc. (AAPL) from continuing to produce good numbers. In May of 2010, the tech giant increased its sales of Mac computers 8% from April and 35% year over year, according to NPD.

Further NPD findings show that the Mac has performed even better in June than in May over the last three years. This trend should not stop this year, as June will only be the third month of the new MacBook Pro's availability and seasonal education spending unlikely to falter.

In the third quarter of last year, Skype users accounted for a whopping 8% of global international calling minutes (which translates into 3.1 billion minutes across landlines and mobile phones). And expect the momentum to continue.

Today, Skype announced a deal with Verizon Wireless (VZ) -- which is the biggest U.S. carrier -- to seamlessly integrate its technologies on a variety of smartphones, such as the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, DROID by Motorola and DROID ERIS by HTC. The partnership is expected to launch some time in March.

When Google (GOOG) released its Nexus One concept phone last weekend to some of its employees, the blogosphere and industry pundits went on a feeding frenzy: Would Google try and release its own wireless phone and compete directly with its existing carrier customers? Could a Google Phone give Google even more power of the information that controls our daily lives? Amol Sarva, founder of the Peek device that resembles a smartphone but only does email, chimed in on the Google Phone, which Google has coined the "Nexus One."

Sarva called Google's offering "every bit as good a piece of hardware as the Droid or the iPhone." To many, those are fighting words. Apple's (AAPL) phenomenal success with the entire iPhone ecosystem (iTunes and App Store) won't ever be matched, but Google has the best chance of anyone to get close. Indeed, the Google "Android Market," which offers applications for all the various Android-powered handsets, now has 20,000 programs available for download in just over a year. Apple had 50,000 in its first year.

Verizon (VZ) is betting the farm on a high-stakes bid to supplant the Apple (AAPL) iPhone with its Droid device. In the long run this may be a good move, but in the short run the ad blitz and high cost of this rollout are really going to eat away at Verizon's bottom line.

While spending on tech devices has been strong, the bottom line is that the initial price point for the Droid may be a bit high and it will take some time for consumers to catch on to this smart phone, considering how loyal Apple users are. Things may change in a few weeks if I hear some favorable news, but for now VZ is a sell.

Next: Dog of the Dow #13: Walmart (WMT)

Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) were once favorite friends. When Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board of directors, though, the gloves came off. With Apple's venerable and extremely popular iPhone selling for $99 (for the base edition), Google's "Android" phones -- made by several manufacturers and sold by many carriers -- have not matched those low Apple prices. Not any more.

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY) is selling the Samsung Moment and the HTC Hero for $99 through December -- matching Apple's iPhone pricing for a two-year contract. That's with no rebates, either. So, the question is this: will Google's Android-powered phones start gaining traction on the iPhone? With AT&T's (T) penchant for poor service and for exorbitant calling plan prices, this may be enough to get those on the iPhone fence switching over to a touchscreen Android phone.

An article in Barron's suggests that Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is on the verge of regaining some of its former mojo. The company recently offered a solid outlook for the remainder of the year, and it could garner new business after debuting two smartphones featuring Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system -- namely, the Droid and the Cliq.

The author cites analyst Ed Snyder of Charter Equity Research, who believes Motorola is on the cusp of "an extended upswing in handsets ... over the next several quarters." Snyder believes that the firm's ailing handset division could achieve break-even results as soon as the second quarter of 2010.

Ever since Apple Computer (NASDAQ: AAPL) introduced the iPhone to the world, other cell phone companies have been working hard to compete. Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is hoping to find success with the Motorola Droid, which will come with a $199 price tag.

The phone will be running on Google's Android operating system, and could be a serious contender against the iPhone, and while most people knew this phone was coming, the real news is that it will start to be sold next week at Verizon's across the nation.