Suman Chatterjee's  Instablog

Recently, an iPhone application has been released to detect skin cancer. All you have to do is to take 23 nude pictures of yourself. Although how viable this iPhone application will be is still under apprehension, skin cancer detection technology seems to be improving by the day.

Two months back, Verisante (VRS.V)(VRSEF)(V3T.F), a leader in cancer detection technology, completed the designation and fabrication of the beta version of the Verisante Aura units. Today, it accepted the first two completed pre-production units from Starfish Medical Inc.

Aura has been approved for sale in Canada, Europe and Australia. Verisante is continuing regulatory efforts to obtain approval to sell Aura in Mexico, Brazil and the United States, while also continuing the product development of its Core series of products. The Core series utilizes the same platform technology as the Aura™ for the early detection of cancers of the lung, colon and cervix.

…and it seems Verisante is all set to capture the global market of skin cancer detection.

How Serious And Grave Is The Situation?

Melanoma seems to be the most common type of skin cancers, and according to the Melanoma Surveillance in the United States, from 1992 to 2006, based on data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results programme that were available for about 14% of the population, the annual percentage change in the incidence of melanoma increased in both sexes and in all age groups (age ≥65 years, 4·6 in men vs. 3·8 in women). The annual percentage change in the mortality rate generally decreased in people younger than 65 years, but increased for older individuals (women 0·7 and men 6·6).

Regarding the non-melanoma skin cancer, there have been 2,000,000 new cases and nearly 1,000 deaths this year.

Why only USA? The curse of skin cancer is not confined only in US, but has significantly pervaded other parts of the world as well. In a recent study in UK, "there were about 480 50 to 59-year-olds diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 1981, but that figure soared to almost 1,950 a year by 2010". In 2010, 12,800 people in the UK were diagnosed with the disease compared with 12,100 in 2009. It seems that skin cancer is on the rise and that's applicable for all age groups.

Skin cancer is growing at a rate of 10% per year. Perhaps that's the direct effect of global warming.

…About the Investment Aspect of This New Innovation

Before we speak of Verisante Aura, let's see what other companies are doing.

MedX Health Corp (MDX.V), a global leader in developing drug-free, non-invasive therapeutics for tissue repair and pain relief, announced the acquisition of the FDA approved and Health Canada cleared SIMSYS-MoleMate Skin Imaging System, thus heading into the US and Canadian market in January 2011. It had already achieved much popularity in Europe, UK, New Zealand and Australia. It was launched around the fourth quarter of 2011.

In June 2011, MedX Health acquired the worldwide assets of MoleMate and related products and sales of these products amounted to $254,815 or 29% of fiscal 2011 sales. Q4 revenues for fiscal 2011, the largest revenue quarter in over 6 years, were 51% higher than Q4 fiscal 2010, and MoleMate contributed over 60% of that total.

Straying to another niche, PhotoMedex (PHMD), in the skin repair and treatment industry, is already reaping huge benefits from their legacy products.

Dr. Dolev Rafaeli, PhotoMedex CEO, commented, "Led by a 26% increase in consumer sales, the first quarter marks the third year of quarter-over-quarter double-digit revenue growth, an accomplishment we are very proud to note and one we expect to continue. We are planning to expand our reach for No! No!, Omnilux, Lumiere and LHE brands and other consumer products into new geographies throughout the coming year."

On the other hand, let's take a look at the FY2011 annual report of Verisante (everything is expressed in Canadian dollars).

Revenue dropped to $2,249 in 2011 from $11,409 in 2010. What happened to the business? When we look closely, we find that the gross profit margin is not affected that much. Is the company's edge in gaining profitable patents and products waning down?

I see a pile of money stocked up, as much as $2.8mn, as cash and cash equivalents. The company has invested over $3mn in short term. Is it that the company is not being able to find suitable venues to invest in?

But then again, the company data show around $2.5mn worth of intangible assets. I don't see how the company is utilizing all these up for maximum profitization.

And now in the fourth quarter of 2012, the company is rolling out the Verisante Aura products. Looking at what the other companies in the niche are doing, I would say that Verisante is on the right path.

Moreover, it is leaving no stones unturned to make Verisante Aura a success in the market. The Company has renewed its Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) with the BC Cancer Agency for another 13 months. Verisante will contribute approximately $250,000 over the course of the CRA to fund continued development of its Aura device for skin cancer detection and fund further research and development of the its Core device for the detection of lung, gastro-intestinal and cervical cancers.

To conclude, 2012 is going to be a significant one for Verisante. Let's see how this company turns the curse of global warming into a boon for itself.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

You must have had enough experience with cloud computing. Whenever you travel by public bus or you use the public lavatory, you are using 'cloud computing'.

Well, I am joking. If you have an email account with Google or Yahoo, or if you have used GoogleApps, you are not new to cloud computing.

What do you mean by cloud computing?

Cloud computing is the process of offering hosting and maintenance services on a "clouded" basis over the internet. It is normally sold on demand, it is elastic and it is managed by the provider, rather than the seller.

It can be public or private, the way it is sold by the provider or demanded by the consumer.

Due to the improved internet speed and weak economy, the concept of the cloud computing can totally change the face of internet business.

How the tech biggies are gearing up for the change

The very first company that caught my attention was Dell Inc (DELL).

Since last year, the company is on full fledge to establish its share in the cloud computing industry. In July 2011, the company announced its intent to buy Force10 Networks, a leader in high-performance datacenter networking. Since then, the company went on to buy AppAssure, to gain edge in complete application protection for virtual, physical and cloud infrastructures, in February 2012. Then it bought Clerity Solutions in the applications modernization and re-hosting solutions and services niche in April 2012. It acquired Make Technologies in April 2012, SonicWALL in May 2012, Wyse Technology in late May this year and Quest (QSFT) in July 2012.

All of these acquisitions are focused on security, modernization and transitioning to cloud computing services.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) acquired Vertica in February 2012. The acquisition of Vertica will enhance HP capabilities for information optimization, adding sophisticated, real-time business analytics for large and complex sets of data in physical, virtual and cloud environments.

We already heard how Microsoft (MSFT) was slowly focusing on cloud computing, following the like of Google and Amazon in 2008. With the recent developments, Microsoft is already striving to gain sufficient market share in the niche of cloud computing. Better late than never! It has already struck agreements with Samsung and EmpireCLS.

Moreover, the acquisition of Perceptive Pixel Inc. in July 2012 definitely insinuates a strong possibility towards the company punching the multi-touch display with cloud computing. Something we can look forward in Apple as well.

Apple (AAPL) already introduced iCloud, a set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and automatically and wirelessly push it to all devices.

And just now, it is learnt that the company is to buy AuthenTec Inc. at about $356 million. AuthenTec makes security software and chips for mobile phones that it licenses to companies such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS). It also produces chips for fingerprint recognition and near-field communication (NFC).

I can see how the company is trying to combine the surge of wireless mobile technology with cloud computing.

To conclude, I can see how the world is gradually adapting to the cloud computing technology. Hope the next time I write about Apple, I do it using one of its cloud computing services from my iPhone.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

The other day I was reading an article about Steve Jobs made a business of being "cool". Just think about this. If you don't have the latest iPad, you are outdated among your business colleagues. If you don't carry the latest iPhone, you are not cool among your friends.

As Apple (AAPL) strives to bring new features every time, people are always ready to shell out more than a thousand bucks to be at the forefront of the fashion bandwagon. And why blame Apple? Even Google's Android phones sell like hot cakes! Although this is my personal opinion, Google's Android phones are much cheaper and more useful than the overhyped, overpriced Apple's.

The latest news is that Apple is looking for bigger screens for the next generation iPhone 4S to be launched next year! Till now, Apple never attempted to change its iPhone screen sizes. It's working with Korea's LG Display Co. (LPL) and Japan's Sharp Inc. and Display Inc., all collaborated to provide the ultimate screen size for the next generation iPhone.

Why the increase in size? They say, Samsung's Galaxy S III has a 4.8inch screen, larger than the 4.3inch screen size of the company's current flagship model Galaxy S II. Even Taiwan's HTC Corp, also has models with screen size over 4inches.

Is that a way of competing with the rivals in the smartphone market? Perhaps, but what we are looking at is Apple's sales revenue.

Before we check the sales reports, here's something you must know. Apple's stock price shot up by over 40% in the last six months. That's forty percent! People are pretty much optimistic about Apple's future potential.

The company's net sales improved to $108 billion in 2011, over $65 billion in 2010 and $42 billion in 2009. That's a huge rise in sales revenue in just one year! And if we look closely, iPhone and related accessories and services brought over $47 billion in revenue last year, compared to $25.2 billion in 2010. Needless to say, iPhone and related services sales brings in the maximum revenue, among the other operational segments. Things are getting better by the day for Apple.

But, straying away from the topic, does it mean bigger sales for Apple only? No, of course not. Even a small yet fast-growing company such as Teletouch (TLLE.OB) shows rise in sales revenue. As a matter of fact, Teletouch sells iPhone related accessories, even for the latest iPhone 4S. Teletouch's revenue increased to $52 million in 2010 from $45.9 million in 2009. And the cellular segment sales, recorded at $28.2 million, accounted for 54.2% of the total revenue. If Apple benefits from bigger sales, so does smaller companies as well.

To sum it up, being cool is good. Sometimes, it can make you money. Sometimes, it can be otherwise. But still, you can always be the "alpha" one among your friends, right?