During the challenging market conditions over the past year, the telecom sector has felt its fair share of the pain. BusinessWeek brings Standard & Poor's Todd Rosenbluth who suggests that some of these telecommunication stocks could now be good investments for traders as they have a safe dividend.

Despite worries tied to the slowing U.S. economy and increased competition, "we think that some of the concerns are overdone and believe selective stocks are attractively valued," Rosenbluth stated. Rosenbluth also noted that telecom stocks have started showing signs of recovery for the past few weeks, helped by the launch of new handsets and merger and acquisition agreements.

Some of investors' favorite companies are AT&T Co. (NYSE: T) and Citizens Communications Co. (NYSE: CZN). Rosenbluth believes that the launch of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s new iPhone, 3G iPhone, will stir increased demand for smartphones, helping such companies, while putting pricing pressure on some of their competitors.

As expected, Apple announced today the launch of its next generation iPhone, and the new phone will come with a price tag that is $200 less than the current model. The new 3G iPhones are going to hit the market with a $199 price tag.

A big reason for the release of the the new iPhones is the desire by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to hit their goal of selling 10 million phones by the end of the year. The new phone will have faster Internet connection and satellite navigation capabilities. If you are like me, and have been postponing the purchase of a new phone in anticipation of today's announcement, you will have to wait a bit longer. The new phones will be available on July 11.

While the new phones will be about half the price of the current models, the monthly service plans will be a bit higher. Look for a $39.99 monthly plan, plus another $30 monthly fee for unlimited data. This works out to be about a $10 monthly increase, but considering the improvements of the new phones, not too bad of a deal if you ask me. Supposedly the new iPhones will be able to download data twice as fast as the current model.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been on the rise today, as renewed enthusiasm over future iPhone sales has brought buyers into the stock, pushing shares up $7.67 to $130.63, or 6.2% .

The company has stated that its goal for overall iPhone sales by the end of 2008 was 10 million units, and according to Apple's COO, Tim Cook, the company remains confident in hitting that hefty goal.

Since the highly anticipated release of the iPhone last year, there have been a couple of points that Apple has taken a bit of heat over, the first being that outside programmers were not allowed to write programs for the iPhone, and the second being the company's decision to grant individual carriers rights to sell their phones in their respective countries.

According to management at the world's largest cellular carrier, China Mobile (NYSE: CHL), talks to sell the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone have ended. Reuters reports, "News that the two telecom giants were in talks over the device's potential launch in the world's largest telecoms arena helped Apple's stock climb more than 10 percent on November 13."

It would be easy to say that the iPhone will not be in China soon because Apple wants revenue-sharing agreements that the Chinese think are too one-sided in Apple's favor. Or, the phone's $500 price is too high for an emerging market. China does have a large middle class, so that excuse may be thin.

What is probably more accurate is that China Mobile does not need the iPhone and can afford to walk away from a partnership. Unlike cellular carriers in the U.S. and Europe that are facing market saturation, China Mobile has over 350 million subscribers. But that is not a large number compared with the country's overall population. It does not need one "hot" phone to keep growing.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

The question of whether or not Americans would be willing to dish out close to $600 for a new iPhone has already been answered. The iPhone was definitely one of the (if not the) biggest product launches of 2007, and just how successful Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s new iPhone has been doing was made even more obvious with its third quarter sales figures.

Sales have been so good in fact, that in its first full quarter of sales, the revolutionary iPhone outsold all other smartphones with the exception of the BlackBerry from Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM). This is an accomplishment that is even more impressive when you consider the obstacles that the iPhone was up against:

• iPhones have been placed on sale only in the United States
• iPhones are available for service only with AT&T (NYSE: T)
• iPhones were not available in some pretty large markets inside the United States, including much of Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska

The next frontier for social networking is mobile. And, early next year, News Corp (NYSE: NWS)'s MySpace will launch its own offering.

Interestingly enough, Sprint (NYSE: S) wants to be a part of the crowd and has struck a deal with MySpace (terms were not disclosed). Sprint customers will get free access, so long as they have a data plan.

It's been a great year for Nokia (NYSE: NOK)'s investors, with the stock up about 76%.

But at its Investor Day conference, things were not so sanguine. The company announced that its operating margins should be 16%-17% over the next year or two – which was a bit disappointing.

Yet, the company expects to gain market share (especially in emerging markets like China), as well as introduce new content services. For example, the company struck a deal with Universal Music for free unlimited music downloads, so as to blunt Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iPhone.

I had a chance to interview Frank Dickson, who is the Chief Research Officer of MultiMedia Intelligence. According to him:

"Nokia is seemingly taking pages from the lesson book developed by IBM (NYSE: IBM). IBM was once the dominant PC manufacturer. As open platforms and technology vendors leveled the playing field, IBM lost its position to lower cost manufacturers. However, IBM was able to leverage its hardware position to create a value-added services business. Nokia, in turn, is leveraging its dominant position in handsets to create a value-added services offering to the end consumer.

The head of AT&T (NYSE: T) is saying that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will launch a 3G iPhone next year and the big phone company is anxious to start selling it. Barron's quotes AT&T's CEO as saying, "The 3G iPhone, when? You will have it next year."

Although the iPhone has sold extraordinarily well in the U.S., one of its only drawbacks is that it runs on AT&T's 2.5G network. The phone does not have the capacity to run on the company's faster 3G network, but the handset is obviously being adapted.

An iPhone on a faster network is likely to encourage people to use the phone more for web surfing and data downloads. AT&T makes money off of usage fees, so this should increase its revenue from iPhone customers. It is widely assumed that Apple gets a piece of these usage fees, so its income-per-phone could go up as well.

Customers waiting for a 3G version of the phone will probably flood AT&T stores when the new version hits the market. It could look like the original launch all over again.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 247wallst.com.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), the world's largest manufacturer of wireless handsets, saw a very admirable rise in Q3 profit levels -- to the tune of 85% growth -- on the backs of increasing awareness and sales in emerging markets. Nokia, which has about 39% share of the global cellphone market at this time, also explained that it expected this level to remain throughout the Q4 period.

Years ago, the word was that Nokia had lost some edge and that Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and South Korean stalwart Samsung Electronics would eat handily into Nokia's market share. That has not happened, as Samsung has still been growing, and Motorola's product lineup has completely stagnated until just recently. Nokia went on the offensive at the end of 2005 with higher-end smartphones, decent mid-level phones and an attack into the entry-level, emerging market and has not looked back since.

Nokia's Q3 net income beat analyst estimates as well, coming in at €1.56 billion ($2.21 billion), or 40 eurocents per share. Nokia executives explained the growth as coming from new, lucrative multimedia handsets in addition to growing sales in emerging markets. One gray cloud over the company for Q3 was from its mobile networks joint venture with Germany's Siemens AG. As what seems always to happen, handset sales are the growth engine, while infrastructure and related equipment take a back seat. In Q3, that seat was at the very rear of the bus for Nokia.

Research in Motion Ltd.'s (NASDAQ: RIMM)'s Blackberry is giving users in New York and Washington a "blackberry data connection refused" error when they try to access their e-mails. I can only imagine the frustration that this endorphin drip cut-off is causing those seeking money and power in these cities.

If you are experiencing this problem now, please comment below and let us know what's happening and what you are trying to do about it. Perhaps the exposure will encourage RIMM to get to the bottom of the problem faster.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Research in Motion securities.

Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) seems to be a company with little direction these days. In the minds of many, the company that basically invented the popular smartphone market over four years ago with its Treo PDA/cellphone product has done little since that time in product innovation. As a result, competitors like Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Research in Motion, Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are now chomping heavily into Palm's core business of smartphone production.

When Palm acquired Handspring in 2003 and began setting the world ablaze with its Treo product, it was happy times for the company. The Treo line quickly became Palm's lifeblood as its PDA products (like the Palm Tungsten and Zire) continued selling in decreasing numbers. Those customers moved into smartphones, and the Treo was timed at the right moment to capture those folks.

Based on news from Engadget, Business 2.0, and other sources, "unlocked" versions of the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone have begun to go on sale. This means that the handset can work on networks other than AT&T (NYSE: T) Wireless.

The phones will not be available directly to consumers. A company called iPhoneSimFree will offer the software to modify the phone to resellers who already market the iPhone. The handsets can be used on some networks overseas and the T-Mobile network in the US.

For AT&T, the new software is clearly bad news. The phone company is likely to have real problems with losing customers from its network due to their new found ability to change the handset over to other networks. AT&T has spent a huge sum of money marketing the iPhone and it was hoping to switch a number of customers from competing cell providers. That advantage could now begin to erode.

From Apple's side, a report from Piper Jaffray estimates that Apple is receiving $3 a month from AT&T for each iPhone user, and an additional $8 a month for new subscribers to AT&T's network lured by the iPhone. Despite losing some of the cut it gets from AT&T's calling plan revenue, Apple may not hurt badly over time.

Overseas, Apple is also in the process of signing deals with with T-Mobile of Germany, Orange of France and O2 in the UK, according to the FT. Under these contracts, Apple will get 10% of the fees charged for phone calls and data. Unlocked phones would certainly threaten some of that revenue.

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

USA Today reported that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone Users Shocked by Huge Bills, but the story is not the headline. The cost of the iPhone is high, both in its initial purchase and its monthly cost, but it is by no means shocking anyone. Most iPhone users love them. The only shocking thing is the lengthy, very detailed statements that on occasion run 50 pages or more!

In relation to customer expectations, it is the physical bill that is HUGE, not the cost. This will work itself out eventually. As is often the case, today's news, is tomorrow's bird cage liner.

My 18-year-old daughter still thinks the iPhone is the coolest, and she's very happy after pounding on it frequently over the past six weeks. She has also just returned from England (yes, dad spoils her), where she found it worked just fine and was able to call home with no trouble.

The iPhone is not for everyone. Among my business associates who have recently acquired phones, the Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) Blackberry Curve is much more popular. I'm still happy with my Motorola (NYSE: MOT) RAZR.

Is Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone a flop? That's what the stock market seems to think, judging from the decline in the share price of Apple and the phone's exclusive vendor AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), after the telecom company reported disappointing sales numbers.

AT&T, which also had lackluster earnings, signed up 146,000 iPhone customers in the first two days of sales, below analysts' forecasts of more than 500,000, according to Reuters. How meaningful is this? After all, there is no possible way analysts could have accurately predicted sales of the iPhone since it's so unique. About the best analysts could do is make educated guesses, which have proven to be wrong.

Sony, in competition against Sling Media of San Mateo, CA, announced a new version of its LocationFree line of electronic devices that allow a user to stream TV programs from the TV at home to any computer connected to the net in some fashion. Although Sony has been marketing this technology for the past two years, the installation process was too geek-heavy to appeal to a large customer base. Sling Media's products had copied a page from Gateway computers: open box, plug in device, begin using. Sony had finally simplified its own line of "place-shifting" devices accordingly.

Beginning later in the fall in the US, customers can purchase new LocationFree products with simplified set-up starting at $200. Wirless options will be priced higher. Ideally, a customer can TIVO or select a live TV program on a home TV, and then have the programming forwarded to whatever location is most convenient for mobile computing at any given time. Plans are in the pipeline for software for a LocationFree product that will connect to smart phones. Sony is collaborating on the software development.