There is an "all out" price war among the three big cellular service providers in Japan which may give companies like Verizon Wireless and Sprint (NYSE: S) some ideas about how to steal one another's customers.

NTT Docomo (NYSE: DCM), the largest cell company in the Japan, lost almost 23,000 customers in August. Rival KDDI picked up over 158,000, and up-start Softbank added almost 189,000.

Reuters reports that switching providers has become easier "after a rule change allowed subscribers to keep their phone numbers when changing service providers, speeding up price competition in a saturated mobile market."

Docomo, which has just over half of the $78 billion mobile market in Japan, is preparing to cut its basic rates in half to stay competitive with its two rivals.

Saturated is the key word. In the US, the three largest cell service providers, AT&T (NYSE: T) Wireless, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint, have nearly 180 million subscribers. T-Mobile runs in fourth place. In a country with 300 million people, many of whom are not old enough to use a phone, the big growth years are probably over.

Cellular division are the most profitable operations at AT&T and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). Their landline businesses are being taken from them by cable VoIP offerings. If the US mirrors Japan, and price wars come to the US, profits at big telecoms are in for a slide.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) made a big fuss today as it launched an online music system and several multimedia phones. Some will have new touch screens like the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. These are going to market in Europe almost immediately. Apple has not given a date for an iPhone launch there.

Most of the competition for Apple's music and device products is laughed at on Wall Street, Steve Jobs & Co. have sold over 120 million iPods which fuels traffic to iTunes. The iPhone is the most anticipated handset launch ever.

But, Nokia has what no other company can claim--a 36 share of the global handset market. Reuters writes that the company estimates that the global multimedia phone market will grow by 50% to 120 million units this year from 80 million in 2006.

With such a large market share, investors want to know where Nokia will go for future growth. It says the new revenue will come from software and service. The software will power multimedia phones. The services will include its new music store.

It is a frightening exercise for Motorola (NYSE: MOT) shareholders to look back at the launch of the RAZR and hit tremendous success which was still evident less than two years ago. Nothing prevented Motorola from riding the sales of that handset to get into the mobile media download business.

And, now it is too late.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Last night Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) gave the Street much more than it had expected. For the quarter, the company earned 55 cents per share (excluding its investment arm) compared with estimates of 51 cents per share. Revenues also came in above consensus -- $2.33 billion versus $2.26 billion.

Qualcomm also managed to increase expectations or average selling price of mobile phones for 2007 fiscal year ending in September from $208 to $216.

However, Wall Street still isn't completely sure about the stock's prospects, primarily due to patent litigation risks. For example, this quarter the company paid almost $20 million to Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM). Qualcom shares are trading down today in active trading.

The stock's valuation looks fairly in-line with comps -- cheaper than Motorola (NASDAQ: MOT) but more expensive than Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO). Although the handset markets are very healthy, Qualcomm remains a rather risky play due to the litigation risk, as aforementioned.

All in all, Qualcomm's quarter was certainly nothing to scoff at. If litigation issues aren't raised this quarter, the stock will most likely be higher in coming months simply due to strength in its handset business as the overall fundamentals for that sector are very strong.

Lost in all of the hype about the Apple (AAPL) iPhone is the fact the Federal Communications Commission had not approved the product for sale. That changed yesterday as it got the "thumbs up". It may be that there was little risk involved in the approval process, but it certainly signals that Apple cannot blame any delay on outside forces. There have been some rumors that the project had been pushed back. But, Apple shot those down.

Apple's shares moved up yesterday, to over $109, perhaps due to the FCC news. But, now it is the iPhone that has to carry the ball for the shares. Good sales of the Mac and iPhone are almost certainly built into the price.

Berstein Research projects that Apple will sell 7 million iPhones in 2007 and 15 million in 2008. "At a minimum of $499 each, that's $3.4 billion to $7.5 billion in annual iPhone revenue for Apple." With a current annual revenue run rate of about $25 billion, that would be a significant boost.

But, all of that is "priced into" the stock, as they say on Wall Street. If the iPhone does not sell two million or three million units in the July though September quarter, those numbers will be viewed as too aggressive. And, that is what expectations can do to share prices. Investors will be looking to that quarter as perhaps the key quarter for Apple since the iPod launched. One glitch, one stumble, and Apple's stock price cannot hold.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

It was only a few weeks ago that I started reading about the plight of commercial bees in Oregon, where I live, and other nearby agricultural states: some mysterious force was causing what's called "Colony Collapse Disorder" for untold (but, by all guesses, large) numbers of bees used for pollinating crops up and down the Pacific Coast. One beekeeper said that the vast majority of his colonies had just disappeared -- the bees would leave, and never return to the hive, presumably dying from hunger. Despite the seeming widespread nature of the problem, agricultural authorities wouldn't confirm its severity, and no one had solid numbers.

Until now, a variety of unrelated and unsatisfactory theories had been surfaced, though none even seemed half-right. Global warming. A bad batch of the high-fructose corn syrup typically used to feed commercial bees. Genetically modified crops. Pesticides. Mites. In the past few days I've seen several bees around my home, buzzing in and then fizzling out, dying slow, awful deaths on the sidewalk or windowsill. My stomach began to sink. Bees are vital to the health of so many of the world's plants. What could be done?

Now a report from Britain, where bee losses are still denied by agricultural authorities, although beekeepers are raising the alarm (U.S. beekeepers claim 60% of West Coast populations and 70% of East Coast bees have vanished): cell phone signals are disrupting bees' natural navigation systems. While alarmist, it makes sense; when cell phones are on, they're constantly crying for attention, pinging whatever tower is nearby every few minutes so that the home tower can keep track of the signal and send in whatever calls or messages come its way. Think of all the millions of pings that bounce back and forth across agricultural areas every week.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist and never worried about fears that cell phones cause brain cancer and cell death (although the reports seem to indicate this could be true). But after reading these reports my first urge is to turn off all the cell phones in the family and only use them for emergencies. If this is true, cell phones could become the SUV of 2008; a public display of a human putting its own comfort above the needs of the environment at large. And I'm sticking to land-based stocks for now!

Lots of cool things are coming from this week's CTIA conference. One is the launch of a mobile service from V-ENABLE. The company is a leading developer of voice-activated technologies for mobile devices and has relationships with biggies like Verizon Communications(NYSE: VZ).

Now, it has Mobile411. Basically, you can talk into your phone and get directory assistance -- for free. Other features include maps, directions and weather reports.

The service is completely supported by ad revenues. It's a also a big market. There were about three billion wireless 411 calls last year in the US.

I had a chance to talk to V-ENABLE's founder and chief technology officer, Dipanshu Sharma. Here's his take:

"411 has so far been a voice application. We launched today the world's first visual 411 service that brings 411, mapping/directions and local advertising together. Now users can use our patented multimodal interface to ask for businesses using their voice or type their request. We also have full operator integration so the user can get a live operator, ask for a business and get the maps and directions to that business on the phone screen once the call with the operator ends. Complimenting phone screen to traditional voice services is the trend. As we all know, Apple Inc. [NASDAQ: AAPL] will be launching visual voicemail in June and we just launched the most advanced visual 411 offering."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

"We let users consume content in mobile phones easier than ever before," said Joacim Boivie, in an interview with me recently. "Besides having features such as mobile video blog capabilities, anyone can add an RSS feed to your phone. No more writing geeky URLs."

Boivie is the founder of Mobispine, a tech company based in Stockholm, Sweden. "I started the company in 2004," said Boivie. "At the time, I was working on a leading Swedish real estate web site/community. I wanted to send real estate information to users, and struggled with the problem that the only way to send mobile messages to consumers was by using expensive SMS or in some cases even more expensive MMS. Also, both SMS and MMS were limited in formatting."

So, with Mobispine, a mobile users can use the system for all carriers.

The company is getting traction. It raised venture capital in early 2006 and is currently in the process of closing a major round. According to Boivie: "The funding environment in Europe is quite different from the US. In Europe, the VCs generally invest in companies that show early revenue and make profits. This forces entrepreneurs to put all efforts in maximizing revenue rather than usage and traction on the market."

Some of the cool features of Mobispine include: IM with presence (that is, see who's online); mobile blog (this is something YouTube is still trying to figure out); and RSS (to receive content, such as news). And, to use the Mobispine system, a user needs a mobile data plan – as well as a phone that supports a technology known as J2ME.

OK, so what does Boivie see for the future of mobile?

"Everything you do today with your desktop will move towards the mobile side during 2007-2008. Today, consumers start subscribing to online information feeds. During the coming years, banking, payments, online shops, betting and so on will be used more and more on the mobile devices.

"Today, the biggest hurdle for such services is the pricing plan where most people pay per MB data transmitted, unless they stay within your carrier's gated community (own carrier's services). Just as with the landline Internet, the Mobile Internet will move towards flat fee plans during 2007-2008. This will be the single most important change that will make everyone use mobile services. As we saw on the landline Internet, flat fees will be the turning point where carriers no longer control the information on the mobile Internet. The consumer will chose the content they like, from the sources they like. This forces the carrier to narrow their offering and focus on their core business model which is what they do best: Providing the infrastructure."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates DealProfiles.com.

With new research showing that Yahoo! has a lead in many key mobile device applications, the company is not resting to help its competitors like Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) AOL, and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) catch up.

After cutting a deal [subscription required] to put its e-mail and messaging software onto a number of Nokia Corp. (NYSE:NOK) phones, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has announced a joint venture [subscription required] with Europe cell service provider Vodafone. Under the terms of the agreement, Vodafone will target ads to specific customers based on their behavior. Yahoo!'s technology will be used in helping to identify characteristics like gender, demography and geographic location.

Yahoo! needs to demonstrate that it can come up with a new avenue for rapid revenue growth. Over the last two years, Yahoo!'s stock is off nearly 30% while Google's has risen well over 150%.

Yahoo!'s CEO, Terry Semel, recently said that the growth potential for Internet advertising is grossly underestimated. For his own sake, he should hope that his company's wireless initiatives prove that statement right.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Soon, you may not have to miss a moment of your kid's first school play, even if you're at work.

The convergence of digital-age technologies continued Tuesday with the marriage of a Web video service and a mobile phone carrier.

Web video service YouTube, a unit of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), and mobile phone giant Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) announced Tuesday a deal that will enable Verizon's cell phone subscribers across the nation to access YouTube's videos. The deal is part of YouTube's mobile service, expected to be launched later this year.

YouTube will deliver a sample of the most popular videos to Verizon Wireless' V CAST subscribers in the United States. As of November 2006, YouTube had amassed the largest community for online video entertainment. Verizon has 57million mobile phone subscribers.

Wall Street's initial response to the deal was favorable, as it will expand each company's service area and brand awareness, which should provide increased opportunities for revenue. Verizon was up 20 cents to $34.45 on the news, while Google was down 60 cents to $484.01 in early afternoon trading Tuesday.

Investment Analysis: Are YouTube, via Google, and Verizon suitable for the typical investor? Yes, if you can tolerate a low amount of risk. Consider buying GOOG in stages, 25% of your position for each of the next four weeks. For VZ, buy half your position today, then wait to see if it holds at $34. If it does, buy the other half of your position. If it doesn't hold $34, delay your remaining 50% purchase until VZ shows signs of resuming its ascent.

Post courtesy of theflyonthewall.com. (Subscription required)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) today struck back at its nemesis Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), announcing a new advertising offering that will let companies connect to people through their PCs, Xboxes, mobile phones and personal digitial assistants.

Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, which the largest software maker will discuss today at the Advertising Week conference in New York, underscores how eager the company is to gets its share of the dollars that are flowing online from traditional media. Earlier this year Microsoft unveiled some well-received improvements to its MSN search engine. It also signed an advertising deal with the red-hot social networking site Facebook. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Microsoft tried to buy Facebook though now the startup is in talks with Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

"Microsoft's advertising business is growing quickly and becoming more sophisticated," says Joanne Bradford, Microsoft's corporate vice president of sales and marketing, in a press release. "It is our responsibility to clearly articulate to advertisers how they can apply our broad set of assets and relationships to reach consumers across the many digital touch points of their day."

Microsoft is putting all of its digital advertising eggs, including MSN and Windows Live, in one basket to ``better package its multiplying offerings'' to media buyers, according to the trade publication Media Week. Nonetheless, this is a fine line for the Redmond, Wash. company to walk.

I suspect that people aren't going to be thrilled to see advertisements in places where they aren't used to them. Plus, Microsoft will have to be careful that it doesn't put too many banners in one spot because advertisers don't want to annoy consumers either or have their messages get lost amidst clutter. Companies will have to get creative and design spots for new platforms instead of just repurposing television commercials.

Wall Street is plenty worried about Microsoft's online ad push. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer vowed last June to ``catch Google'' in terms of search relevancy in the next months, according to reports in Cnet and other media outlets. That's a mighty cocky attitude for the company that badly trails both Google and Yahoo! by a wide margin. His statement seemed to be just Bravado at the time.

Ballmer struck again in May. This time, he vowed to put $1.6 billion in MSN and its other online businesses. Investors paid attention and sent Microsoft's shares plummeting to their lowest level in five years, according to Bloomberg News. Analysts derided Ballmer for putting good money after bad and wondered whether he would ever catch Google. They also freetted about Google's efforts to steal Microsoft's core business through free offerings like spreadsheets and email. This coupled with the delays of the new Windows Vista system and worries about the economy made Microsoft the tech stock that Wall Street loved to hate. Between January and May, seven analysts downgraded the stock.

But a funny thing has happened lately. Microsoft is rebounding. The shares, which traded at $23.44 after Ballmer announced the big investment on May 4, recently traded at $26.79. A huge stock buyback and a boost in the dividend no doubt helped.

Don't take this as a sign that investors are thrilled witih Microsoft's online push. Sometimes even unpopular stocks get too cheap to ignore.