Imagination Technologies (IGNMF.PK), a leading developer of GPU IP for mobile processors, enjoyed a robust run from ~$2.50/share to about $12/share as the firm found its low power graphics IP at the heart of system-on-chip designs from the likes of Apple (AAPL), Texas Instruments (TXN), Samsung (SSNLF.PK) and Intel (INTC). Unfortunately, ARM Holdings (ARMH), the principal vendor of CPU IP for these mobile system-on-chip vendors, finally brought to bear the fruits of its acquisition of 3D graphics chip designer Falanx with its own low power "Mali" GPU.

These designs managed to rapidly gain market share in the low power SoC arena, particularly as ARM could provide a turnkey solution to vendors already utilizing ARM's CPU IP. Imagination's share price has since lost well over 50% of its peak value. However, a threat even more dangerous has just emerged, and I believe that

There has been plenty of speculation over the past year about whether or not Apple (AAPL) can continue to prosper in the wake of Steve Jobs' death or if there is anything groundbreaking in the pipeline. While most people are focused on an "iWatch" or an "iTV", they could be missing the big picture. Apple is a secretive company that is all about dazzling consumers. While a functional, interactive watch and an interactive television would be a great steps in advancing the technological envelope, they would not, by themselves, be sufficient to bring Apple back to being the world's largest (by market cap) and most exciting company. Available information leads to the conclusion that Apple has something far bigger in its pipeline.

Breaking Away from Google

Historically, Google (GOOG) has primarily been a search company and Apple has been a consumer electronics company, so they were natural business

By David Sterman

There is nothing more frustrating than finding a seemingly attractive young company, only to discover that its shares have already risen 800% in the past seven months. Then again, seeing that stock subsequently lose half its value in a matter of weeks suggests that perhaps you didn't miss out on "the next Microsoft" after all.

It has been that kind of roller-coaster ride for investors in Uni-Pixel (UNXL), which is either widely admired or widely reviled, depending on whom you ask. The company, which has yet to generate revenue from operations, will eventually make its investors a lot of money or prove to be a spectacular bust, depending on how the next three to six months play out.

The current question: With a 50% haircut, are shares worth your money?

(click to enlarge)

A Game-Changer?
This spring, Uni-Pixel saw its market value briefly move above $400

Stocks discussed on the in-depth session of Jim Cramer's Mad Money TV Program, Tuesday June 18.

Retro Tech Plays: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), Micron (MU), Cypress Semiconductor (CY). Other stock mentioned: Apple (AAPL)

Tech should be fine regardless of what the Fed decides, and tech stocks have often risen when interest rates went higher. The death of the PC, responsible for the pummeling of many old-fashioned tech stocks, may have been exaggerated. While PC sales are declining 10% per year, some of this decline might be reversed by new PCs that have touch screens and super long battery life. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), a stock which had been left in the ditch, has made a comeback, and has gone from the worst performer to among the best performers in the Dow. Its balance sheet is clean, and HPQ is innovating. Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) are cheap and have

You already know the amazing story of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), "the world's greatest growth stock." Apple was a growth stock for over a decade. As a result, investors can't understand that the growth story is over. But Apple investors (myself included) shouldn't panic. The fact that this company is maturing actually means positive things for shareholders. And the fact that Wall Street doesn't get it means we can buy a great company for an incredibly discounted price.

Future profits from Apple will be more dependent upon the company's pro-shareholder initiatives, including the growing dividend and aggressive share buyback program. Apple might not be a growth company anymore, but it's fast becoming one of the biggest, most powerful income investments. You see, the Apple skeptics are missing the boat. They keep debating whether Apple can continue to innovate. They weigh whether the huge company can continue to act like a start-up.

Zagg (ZAGG), a developer of accessories for mobile devices, including Apple's (AAPL) iOS products and Android devices (generally Samsung's (SSNLF.PK) as Samsung is the category leader in the Android device space at this time). While the firm rode high on the coattails of Apple's meteoric 2011 rise, a number of issues that I will address shortly have sent the shares to near all-time lows on extremely high short interest.

My view is that this is that this is the sort of opportunity that is incredibly appealing to contrarian investors, particularly as the current share price and valuation at 8.1x the current year's expected earnings reflects long-term pessimism for issues that can be unwound and addressed in the near-term. The thesis here is simple: the problems that the firm faces are likely to be addressed in short order, which suggests that shares are cheap at 8.1x CY2013E consensus EPS

Apple (AAPL) has definitely lost a lot of its luster since its stock price peaked last September, but that hasn't slowed down analyst coverage. Below is a chart showing the number of analysts covering Apple on a historical basis since 2000. As shown, back in 2000, just a handful of analysts were covering the stock, but now that number has ballooned to 68! Yes, 68 analysts now provide buy/sell/hold ratings on Apple!

(click to enlarge)

Data provided by Bloomberg.com .

Even more interesting is a historical chart showing

The slowing sales of Apple (AAPL) have been a nightmare not just for Apple stakeholders, but for every other company linked with the fruity technology firm. Increasing competition, lack of new products and lack of any blockbuster products has meant that not only have Apple faced slowing sales, but shrinking margins as well.

With their dynamic rise to one of the world's largest companies, the many companies that supply components to Apple products have similarly reaped the benefits at the expense of concentrating their customer base.

Firms such as Cirrus Logic (CRUS) and Dialog Semiconductor (DLGNF.PK) have seen their booming business models halted by worries about their own revenue growth and margin reliability. Cirrus Logic has already been brought down to earth with a bang; an inventory write-down as well as shrinking margins have knocked 60% off the share price since the highs. Dialog has fared better, losing

This week marked the first keynote speech from Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook since last Fall and the announcement of the first new product or service since the release of the iPad Mini on November 2, of last year, in the form of iTunes Radio. Apple seems to many a bumbling latecomer to the streaming radio market, as the Cupertino-based firm will now be forced to chase down market leaders Pandora (P), iHeartRadio and Spotify, three companies that have already gained significant traction in the market. The iTunes radio service has notable advantages, however, certain of which could be key elements in a forthcoming rout of its competitors, and despite the relative maturation of extant services the streaming radio market remains very much in a stage of infancy.

As of the fourth quarter of 2012 streaming radio still controlled a smaller market share than did AM/FM amongst listeners 13-35, though

The Technology industry is the one of the most dynamic industries in which the product trends change at a breath taking pace. A company given up for dead might become the world leader, while a monopoly might become bankrupt in a very short time span. Investing in the technology stocks is extremely difficult but it might give huge rewards to the investors who can make the right bets. There are high chances of profit when investing in a stock which is about to embark on a new product cycle. New products generate buzz in the media and make investors think that the company will make huge profits from the new products. Apple (AAPL) is about to start on a major product upgrade in the coming year. The stock has declined substantially as the other companies have been introducing new products and winning market share. Apple's main competitors such as

Top Stories
Markets nervously await the FOMC. U.S. stock futures were higher and European shares mixed at the time of writing as investors awaited the outcome of the FOMC's two day policy meeting, which is due to start today. All the focus is on whether the Fed will announce the winding down of its bond-buying program. Yesterday, U.S. shares fell on FT speculation that the taper was drawing near, only for them to recover after reporter Robin Harding cast doubt on his own predictions.

U.K.: G8 makes progress on tax reform. British Prime Minister David Cameron will lead talks on the exceptionally thorny topic of international tax reform at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland today. The discussion will focus on the key areas of transparency, tax havens and multinational tax avoidance. "We have made more progress in the last 24 hours than people have had

I recently detailed how Apple (AAPL) investors are basically in a holding period right now. Apple's dividend has been raised, a substantial buyback is in the works, and no new major products are coming for a few months. This will be a multi-step process, and it will take time. Last week, Apple completed phase 2A of the process. Today, I'll explain what that means, and look forward to the next steps in this process.

Recapping Phase 1:

This entire process is a minimum of a three-step process, depending on how you look at it. Phase 1 was the announcement of Apple's cash plans. Apple raised its quarterly dividend from $2.65 to $3.05, and added another $50 billion to its buyback. I recently discussed how investors should truly look at the buyback, because there are some incorrect thoughts out there. Remember, when it comes to earnings per share, it

BlackBerry (BBRY), the Canadian smartphone maker, has started discounting its top end flagship phones, one week after it said that it would not get into price wars with its competitors. In my last article published a few days ago, I had asserted that BlackBerry would have to lower the prices of its premium Q10 and Z10 smartphones as they did not offer a good value proposition as compared to its competitors.

BlackBerry refrains from discounting wars, but that strategy won't work

BlackBerry has said that it will not get into a discounting war with its competitors. However, you can only go and implement this strategy if you have a unique value proposition. While the BB 10 OS is quite good and BBRY phones are solid products, they don't have a killer feature like older BBRY products (push email). Even the current king of smartphones, Apple (AAPL), is being forced

Fusion-io (FIO) is a name that, despite a promising start at its IPO in 2011, has proven to be a volatile and, ultimately, poor investment, as shares currently trade below the IPO price of $18/share. The firm, well known for best-in-class technology differentiated by unique software, was stripped of its premium valuation following a series of unfortunate events, beginning with order push-outs from major clients, and then punctuated by the abrupt resignation of the CEO and another co-founder. The stock is well off of its IPO price, trades at nearly a third of its peak, and the sell-side has abandoned the name. I believe that at $13.67, the shares are at least worth another look.

The sTec Parallel

For many market veterans, the Fusion-io story may seem - at a glance - to be very similar to the sTec (STEC) story that burned many investors. In fact, the

If you haven't been paying attention to Apple's (AAPL) movements over the last six months I can sum up their public stance in one word: ecosystem. Every event or announcement Tim Cook has cited not new features or products but the strength of the Apple ecosystem as the main differentiator from competitors BlackBerry (BBRY), Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT). Everything from their new commercials to their repeated boasting of developer payout figures reflects the Cupertino based tech giant's focus on the ecosystem.

Each of Apple's competitors have their own story they are pushing. BlackBerry is pushing enterprise security and adoption, Microsoft is pushing one ecosystem across computing devices and Google is pushing their Google services (G+, Google Docs, Gmail, Hangouts, Google Play). Apple has long since made it clear they intend to keep Mac OS X and iOS separate. The recent evidence suggests competitors are continuing to add value to

Even after gaining 7.7% on Friday based on rumors that Apple (AAPL) is ramping with its products, InvenSense (INVN) still has more room to run. The stock is approaching 52-week highs around $16 and only spent a few weeks in the last year above the current price of $14.65.

The maker of motion sensing technology has been long on potential ever since going public back in November 2011. The stock has struggled though due to the inability to correctly forecast earnings and a disconnect on the future of Apple as a customer. In fact, analysts have spent the last month dropping earnings estimates even though the noise in the market suggested a constant increase in a top producer of consumer goods as a customer.

Analysts On Apple

On Friday, Piper Jaffray announced that the elevated level of design activity in Apple's new operating system would lead to