Zacks.com Announces that Paul McWilliams Highlights the Following Stocks: Texas Instruments, Apple, Sony, Nokia, and Microsoft.

CHICAGO -- Paul McWilliams, editor of the Next Inning Research newsletter, discusses the wave of convergence in cell phone handsets and its potential for further growth in 2005. Read about Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Sony (NYSE:SNE), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://at.zacks.com/?id=84

Highlights from the February 15th Featured Expert column by Paul McWilliams includes:

There's little doubt the MP3 player revolution has been hot. More than anything else, it has re-launched Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and led to an amazing 250%+ appreciation of Apple stock during the last twelve months. However, this popularity is only half of what it takes to drive converged products - it is the demand side. As we know, it takes an ability to satisfy demand at certain price points (supply) to drive consumer success.

At the 3GMS conference in the French Riviera, the Sony / Ericsson team announced they would soon release handsets that include a MP3 player under the popular Walkman brand. Not only is this strategy aimed to maintain the momentum this team established in 2004, but also leverage Sony's BMG Music division, the number two record company in the world. Remember, Sony (NYSE:SNE) has always considered music and movies as software in their business model and now they will leverage this view via an ability to incrementally sell via downloads.

However, SNE will not be without competition. Handset market leader, Nokia (NYSE:NOK), unveiled their new model 6681 this week that includes a MP3 player with 1GB of storage along with popular features such as still and video cameras. In addition to this, NOK announced an alliance with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) that will allow subscribers to share music downloads with their PC's.

McWilliams' favorite play in this convergence story is Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), the largest supplier of cell phone chips in the world and a primary supplier to market leader NOK.

The advantages TXN has gone far beyond being the leader in DSP (digital signal processor) sales. They have enjoyed huge success with their new OMAP applications processor that is specifically designed to support phones that converge features like cameras, PDA's and MP3. In addition to OMAP, TXN's world-class fabrication, coupled with their expertise in radio frequency (RF) chips, gives them huge advantages in the ongoing race to consolidate the chip count and design complexity of converged phones.

Read Paul McWilliams' complete commentary by clicking: http://at.zacks.com/?id=85

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