The recent Japanese earthquake led to supply constraints and consequently higher prices for many of Apple's component suppliers. However, Apple has agreed to absorb the additional costs related to components in exchange for smooth shipments. Although Apple's profitability could be slightly impacted due to higher costs, we believe it's still a market share game for Apple's hit products like the new iPad 2 and so ensuring on time deliveries will put more pressure on the likes of Motorola Mobility and Research in Motion that are trying to work their way into the tablet market. We maintain $420 price estimate for Apple stock, which is about 20% above market price.

"We live in a networked world. And much of the backbone of that wired and increasingly wireless data/voice/video network is built on equipment produced by Cisco Systems (CSCO)," says Stephen Leeb.

The editor of Leeb's Income Performance Letter explains, "A colossus of the technology sector, it's the market leader in each of its business segments, including area networks, routing, switching, wireless LANs, web conferencing and digital video.

ARM Holdings (ARMH) is far away from Silicon Valley. Its headquarters are on the campus of Cambridge University in England. ARM holdings has carved out a unique niche in the computer chip market.

It is a different kind of chip maker. Its core business is licensing chip designs to larger companies like Apple (AAPL), Samsung (SSNLF) and Qualcomm (QCOM.), as reported in the New York Times.

When it comes to picking trends, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has nailed the latest market to experience explosive growth. It is the fast-growing tablet market, as reported in Reuters.

Morgan's analyst, Mark Moskowitz, has upped his forecasts for tablet sales in 2011 and 2012. For 2011 he raised his numbers from $24.9 to $26.1 billion. For 2012 his numbers are increased from $34.1 billion to $35.2 billion. Unit sales were upped by over 1 million to 48.1 in 2011 and 79.6 in 2012.

Over the past few years, cloud-computing -- which uses the Net to deliver applications -- has grown at a rapid rate. Investors have certainly benefited.

And yes, it should be no surprise that the IPO markets are seeing more cloud deals. As for the latest filing, it came this week. Active Network plans to raise $150 million in its offering.

We are being bombarded with data from a host of sources, including mobile devices, broadband and cloud computing. Bringing all of this data together will create a new business opportunity.

Ericsson (ERIC), the Swedish network equipment maker, has already foreseen the potential for bringing data together on its fourth generation Long Term Evolution Network (LTE).

Bellwether technology company Cisco Systems (CSCO) reported second-quarter profit fell, although it still topped analysts forecasts. Net income sank 18% to $1.5 billion or 27 cents a share, from $1.9 billion or 32 cents a year ago, as reported in the New York Times.

Revenue climbed 6% to $10.4 billion from $9.8 billion in the quarter a year ago.

On an adjusted basis, income was 37 cents a share, beating Thomson Reuters forecast of 35 cents a share on revenue of $10.24 billion.

Chip maker giant Intel Corp. (INTC) will be reporting its fourth-quarter results following Thursday's market close, with analysts expecting to see another strong quarter from the California-based company.

Going into tomorrow's report, analysts are expecting to see Intel report earnings of 53 cents per share on revenues of $11.37 billion. During the same period last year the company had earnings of 40 cents per share.