The MoPR Blog

As a mobile technology enthusiast, I like to see how it’s used in popular culture. Perhaps this obsession harkens back to my days playing Captain Kirk in the trees of my elementary school in the early 1970s, pretending to use that futuristic device known simply as the communicator.

Sometimes the use of mobile technology in pop culture can be hilariously absurd, as is the case with Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone in the 1960s Get Smart television series. Other times the depiction of futuristic technology can be much more prescient, as was the case with the communicator.

So when I went to see Star Trek this past weekend, in addition to seeing how one of my new favorite directors interpreted the favorite TV series of my youth, I was looking forward to seeing how mobility “evolved” in J.J. Abrams vision of the future. Like almost everything else in the movie, I wasn’t disappointed.

In what will undoubtedly be one of my favorite product placements of all time, Star Trek features a touch screen Nokia phone, mounted on the dashboard of an antique Corvette in the sequence where the audience first sees how James T. Kirk grows up.

I must say, there is nothing earth shattering about a touch screen phone and media player; I have that in my car for two years with my iPhone and its dock (how did Apple, one of the kings of product placement, miss this choice opportunity?). Perhaps the most futuristic aspect of this Nokia phone was how its classic ringtone evolved. But it was still great fun, as is the rest of the movie. If you haven’t yet seen Star Trek, it gets two thumbs up from me!

Five months ago we introduced the MoPR 500, an “index” of mobility industry stocks. We selected companies across a broad swath of the mobility industry, and “buying” one share of each, we assembled a list of stocks we could purchase for $500; hence the MoPR 500. We were inspired to create this index by forecasts of the stock market’s impending doom. Certainly a lot of what was forecasted as played out. But five months later, how are our mobility stocks doing?

We began at the close of market October 3, 2008 with an index value of $500.49. At Friday’s market close (March 6, 2009) the MoPR 500 was valued at $358.82, a loss of 28.31 percent.

For some context, at the close of the market on October 3, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was valued at $10,325.38. On March 6 the DJIA was valued at $6,626.94, or a loss of 35.82 percent. As we watched the ups and mostly downs of the market these past five months, we observed that our mobility index usually though modestly outperformed the DJIA.

Of our 27 mobility stocks, 26 went down in value. Standing alone was Broadcom (NASDAQ: BCRM). On October 3, a share of Broadcom was worth $16.63, and last Friday it closed at $16.97. Only a 2.04 percent gain, but in this volatile market, who wouldn’t take that? For the most part, Broadcom has traded consistently over $16 per share over the past five months. Perhaps part of the stock’s appeal is that Broadcom recently introduced multimedia chipset technology for mobile phones.

The next four best performing stocks in the top of the of MoPR 500 are:

• Sybase (NYSE: SY), purchased for $28.76 and trading last at $26.48 for a loss of 7.93 percent.
• Syniverse (NYSE: SVR), purchased for $16.11 and trading last at $14.14 for a loss of 12.23 percent.
• Verizon (NYSE: VZ), purchased for $31.24 and trading last at $27.28 for a loss of 12.68 percent.
• Neustar (NYSE: NSR), purchased for $18.83 and trading last at $15.63 for a loss of 16.99 percent.

It’s sad when three of the best five performers have double digit losses, but these losses are about half the average loss for the index and about a third of the loss of the DJIA.

Four of the five worst performing stocks comprising the bottom of the MoPR 500 cost about $3.00 per share. At such a low initial value, every cent lost makes the stock drop more percentage-wise. The sole exception was Clearwire, purchased for $9.92 per share. Clearwire is in the midst of a much-watched consumer WiMax service roll out.

The five worst performing stocks of the MoPR 500 are:

• Powerwave (NASDAQ: PWAV), purchased for $3.32 and trading last at $0.25 for a loss of 92.50 percent.
• Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT), purchased for $2.08 and trading last at $0.32 for a loss of 84.62 percent.
• UTStarcom (NASDAQ: UTSI), purchased for $2.88 and trading last at $0.70 for a loss of 75.69 percent.
• Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR), purchased for $9.92 and trading last at $2.82 for a loss of 71.57 percent.
• Alcatel Lucent (NYSE: ALU), purchased for $3.54 and trading last at $1.16 for a loss of 67.23 percent.

More information about the individual holdings can be found on our Stockalicious and Herdstreet portfolio pages, as well as our MoPR 500 Index page.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Users are sending more than 2 trillion mobile messages per day globally as of the end of 2008.
• In-Stat consumer surveys showed that consumers who use mobile messaging also use significantly more voice minutes than overall survey respondents.
• In addition to paying more for value-added services, US mobile messengers are also more likely to pay up to 25% more for their handsets than all survey respondents.

The research report, titled “Worldwide Application Series: Mobile Messaging Still Profitable,” concluded that the most profitable data service is still text messaging.

This report is right in line with the October report from Osterman Research that revealed an overwhelming percentage of mobile messaging users admit to engaging in inappropriate or even dangerous behavior to access and respond to email and text messages during off hours.

The Osterman study found that 94 percent of respondents use their phones to send email or text messages during work nights or on weekends, and nearly 96 percent never leave their phones at home, even on vacation. This mobile email / text messaging addiction has driven 79 percent of respondents to send messages from their phones while in the bathroom (ew!). Another 71 percent admitted to texting behind the wheel of a moving automobile (gasp!), and 41 percent said they’ve texted on commercial flights while the plane was in mid-air (shame on you!).

So get out and do your part. How many of those 2 trillion messages will you be responsible for sending today?