I’m talking about organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. OLED displays are taking off in a big way. These next-generation displays are perfect for the mobile phone and personal media device markets because they are thinner than traditional displays and produce sharper images.

OLED — and active-matrix OLED — technology has now reached its tipping point. Very soon, we will begin to see OLEDs used in a vast array of electronics, including small televisions, digital cameras, netbooks, phones — the list goes on and on.

The rise of the OLED display is similar to that of the flat-panel television. Once a novelty, flat-panel LCD and plasma televisions quickly became the industry standard as quality and production increased while prices fell. The “transition” from bulky tube televisions to sleek flat-panel displays took only a few short years.

Try walking into your neighborhood electronics store today to browse the tube television selection. Be warned: You will be disappointed. Only a few models remain, and you can easily purchase a comparable flat-panel television for about the same price. And a flat panel can actually save you money, since it uses less power than a standard TV. Yes, it seems that the tube television is going the way of the VCR. It won’t be long before they’re only available at yard sales and antique stores.

OLED Growth: The Story Is in the Numbers

Experts from world mobile display sector leader Samsung Mobile Display are banking on OLED screen use in mobile phones to “grow significantly.” And with overall smartphone use also growing dramatically, we have before us a unique opportunity in the OLED market.

The Samsung venture expects the global smartphone market to grow to 500 million units by 2012, making up almost 30% of the industry. To put this in perspective, consumers are using 170 million smartphones right now.

Better phone technology means better displays. Samsung predicts OLED screens will be used in half of these new phones over the next five years. That’s hundreds of millions of units…

Overall, the OLED display market will grow to $6.2 billion, according to DisplaySearch forecasts. Last year, the total OLED market was worth an estimated $600,000. As you can see, we are looking at exponential growth, with the mobile phone market leading the charge.

As the technology continues to improve, we will begin to see even larger OLED displays. LG Electronics and Sony (NYSE:SNE) are each planning on releasing 15-inch and bigger OLED display televisions by the end of this year, according to DisplaySearch, with OLED netbooks and larger televisions showing up by the end of 2010.

Obviously, LG and Samsung are the big players in this market. But there are a couple of small-caps that have also found success developing OLED technologies. A good place to start looking would be Universal Display Corp. (NASDAQ: PANL). While the company is not yet profitable, it does have a promising patent portfolio that includes phosphorescent OLED technology.

Best,
Greg Guenthner

Source: OLED: The Next High-Tech Profit Opportunity

Investors who realize this fact early could cash in on a brand new tech boom that could produce a new generation of high-tech millionaires not seen since the 1990s.

Comcast, Verizon and other government-protected duopolies won’t be around for your grandchildren to enjoy — at least not in their current forms. You see, companies like these are selling outdated services. And they’re more than reluctant to change their business models.

First, consider the home telephone. This beast is becoming scarcer by the day. In fact, mobile phone-only households are becoming the norm. Yet despite huge increases in wireless sales by traditional telecoms, it’s the wireline segment that keeps these blue chips in the black. More than half of Verizon and (NYSE:T) AT&T’s revenue comes directly from wireline sales.

For the old-school telecom giants, it’s all about infrastructure. They want to milk the cable and phone lines for all they’re worth. After all, it took decades — and millions upon millions of dollars—to create these vast systems that pump TV and telephone service into our homes.

But the communications landscape has changed. We don’t need separate wires to connect our homes to world. Now, it all comes back to bandwidth.

The technology is ready. Wireless dominates the landscape, and the old-fashioned telecoms and cable providers can only desperately hang on to their antiquated services. Even the government—which normally favors any out-of-date and/or irrational business model — is coming around.

We’ve said before that the Federal Communication Commission’s stranglehold on our nation’s airwaves is not only hopelessly out of date — it’s downright counterproductive to the agency’s goals.

However, the FCC is slowly stumbling toward opening up the airwaves once and for all.

Earlier this year, the president dedicated billions of dollars toward rural broadband development in the economic stimulus package. There’s also a mandate that requires the FCC to create a national plan to bring broadband to everyone in the country.

The FCC has also approved proposals to use white space devices to provide broadband access. These devices would utilize analogue television frequencies recently freed up during the digital television conversion.

Of course, telecom giants aren’t going down without a fight. The National Association of Broadcasters has already filed suit in federal court regarding the white space decision, claiming it could interfere with television signals.

It’s a desperate move to save its empire. But in the end, it won’t work. Technology will win, and media convergence will open the door to new data service packages for customers that will provide phone, television, gaming and internet service through lightening-fast, reliable wireless connections.

It will be the beginning of a new tech boom. Companies such as Limelight Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: LLNW), a content delivery network (CDN) provider provides a variety of services, including live Internet video feeds for major events such as the U.S. Open, Oprah’s book tour and the Beijing Olympics, will thrive.  In fact, Limelight’s lucrative contracts with heavy hitters like MSNBC have helped the company grow its revenue more than 500% over the past three years.

More small companies like Limelight will surely emerge in the near future, providing ample opportunities for early investors to cash in on a new age of content convergence.

Best,
Greg Guenthner

Source: How the Death of Big Telecom Will Reignite the Tech Boom

Even though the Internet as we know it is only a couple of decades old, this is still a difficult scenario to comprehend. Entire businesses – literally thousands upon thousands of jobs – exist because of the web.

Now we’re entering an age of Web convergence. Every single element of our old media – radio, television and print – is migrating to the Internet at breakneck speeds.

Within the next five years, the depth of offerings on the Internet and the global population connected to them will grow exponentially. In fact, the worldwide Internet economy is now growing at such a rate it will be next to impossible for content providers to keep up…

Bandwidth is being eaten up left and right by more data-intensive offerings, such as streaming video. Young people are also gobbling up Internet media. Young adults today are getting more and more of their news, sports and video directly on their computers. A recent study claims that those born between 1981-1992 get 34% of their news from the Internet, compared with only 11% from print newspapers.

Then there are the masses in emerging economies like China. China became the world’s top Internet user last year, passing the United States. The number of Chinese hooking up to the Internet for the first time is staggering, growing 42% last year alone, to nearly 300 million users, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. Now the government is setting its online ambitions toward the countryside, vowing to hook up every village with broadband lines by 2010.

In all of Asia, only 17% of the population has Internet access, according to Internet World Stats. Compare that with 75% penetration here in North America. This shows that there is plenty of room for tremendous growth…

Partnering With the Biggest Names in Media…

We’ve written to you before on the topic of bandwidth scarcity. And Penny Stock Fortunes readers already had the opportunity to score quick double-digit gains playing this trend with Internet data handler Soapstone Networks Inc. (OTC:SOAP).

Now we’re looking to play a different side of the bandwidth scarcity coin. This time, content delivery and media integration are our targets…specifically, video delivery outsourcing. As we’ve told you before, it’s a highly competitive field, but that’s where the real money is…

That’s why we’re moving one content delivery company off the Penny Stock Fortunes watch list and marking it a strong buy. This company is a content delivery network (CDN) provider for some of the largest media companies in the world. Its customer list includes big media mainstays such as MSNBC, Disney (NYSE:DIS), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Fox. The company also boasts the biggest fish of them all. Its No. 1 customer is Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) – a company that is now locked into an all-out war against rival Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) for web supremacy.

And lucrative contracts with these heavy hitters has helped the company grow its revenue more than 500% over the past three years.

Its most recent quarter proved how recession-resistant this content-delivery provider really is. While it still isn’t cash flow positive yet, its Q2 net loss was cut by two-thirds. The company grew its top line 7%, while the rest of the economy is still contracting.

And for a growing company in the tech sector, this company’s balance sheet is incredibly clean. The company is sitting on more than $145 million in cash and zero long-term debt.

The stock’s recent acquisition of another leading firm has even allowed the company to expand its offerings to mobile devices.

This is a massive market. According to networking giant Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), mobile video and other bandwidth-heavy features will drive worldwide mobile traffic to more than 1 exabyte per month by 2012. An exabyte is equal to 1 billion gigabytes…that’s a heck of a lot of data.

We just revealed this latest pick and more to our Penny Stock Fortunes readers – if you want to take a look, just click here for more details…

Best,
Greg Guenthner

Source: Taking Advantage of the ‘New Media’ Boom

The American auto industry’s fall from grace coincides with a shift in the public’s perception of personal transportation. Higher gas prices and a new environmentally conscious attitude have pushed gas-electric hybrids and efficient diesels to the top of car buyers’ wish lists — leaving hulking SUVs to rust on the side of the road.

Add in climate change concerns and you have yet another dilemma for automakers. New government standards mandate total fleet averages to meet or exceed 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. The new measure is part of an attempt by the federal government to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

It won’t be impossible to buy a gas-guzzler after the new fuel-efficiency standards take effect. However, your choices will probably be very limited. It’s doubtful that a struggling automaker will dole out the development costs to bring a nine-seat SUV to market only to have to drag down its required mileage average. So even if you are able to locate the SUV of your dreams seven years from now, it will probably cost much more than you would expect…

While Gas Guzzlers Are Punished, Coal Wins Big

Of course, cars and trucks aren’t the only cause of carbon emissions. Coal, the fuel of choice when it comes to power generation in the U.S., is right near the top of the list. In fact, coal carbon emissions have increased by more than 18% since 1990, while petroleum carbon emissions have increased 10.8% during the same time period.

Despite coal’s impact on the environment, new proposals to curb coal’s carbon footprint appear extremely lenient. So while new mileage laws are set to clamp down on American autos, coal will essentially get a free pass — all thanks to a proposed “cap and trade” system.

Cap and Trade: Government Concessions Guarantee Coal’s Future Success

Proposed legislation addressing carbon emissions isn’t exactly a carbon tax. Instead, the president and his allies in Congress have come up with a cap-and-trade system. Essentially, carbon emitters would have to buy permits that correspond to the amount of carbon dioxide they pump into the atmosphere. If these companies find a way to clean up their act a bit, they could sell some of their permits to more notorious polluters.

The intention of a system like this one is clear. However, there’s no way a proposal with any teeth will ever become law. The Economist reports:

“The system would motivate everyone to reduce emissions in the most cost-effective way. It would raise energy prices, which is the point, but it would also raise hundreds of billions of dollars, most of which Mr. Obama planned to give back to voters. Alas, that plan looks doomed.”

By the time the cap-and-trade proposal was watered down to potentially win enough votes, supporters were left with a bill that offered almost all of the carbon permits for free, with only 15% being auctioned. And the auctioning won’t even kick in for more than two decades.

While stricter mileage requirements will keep automakers in line, coal (and other traditional, dirtier energy sources) will essentially be allowed to thrive unchecked for years to come.

That’s why now is the perfect time to invest in a small-cap coal company. More on that in just a minute…

Coal: America’s Most Plentiful Energy Source

If you live in the United States and your house is on the electrical grid, chances are very high that at least some of the energy used to power your home is courtesy of a coal-fired power plant. In fact, almost half of the energy in the U.S. comes from coal…

It’s undeniable that coal is one of our most precious resources. So why did this seemingly recession-resistant commodity crash and burn last year?

Coal was hit hard by a broader pullback in commodity prices and the recession — which has weakened the demand for steel — whose production relies on higher-grade coal used in fire blast furnaces.

The recent boom in coal prices in 2007–2008 has left the industry nearly crippled today. Because prices were rising so fast, most coal companies kept an open book. They left contracts unsigned, to benefit from what they believed would be continually rising prices.

But when it all came crashing down, coal companies’ stock followed suit. And to make matters worse, most companies did not possess any locked-in contracts to keep business booming during the bad times. Consequently, profits suffered across the industry.

However, one penny stock I’ve been looking at is a small coal miner that possesses some foresight. While every other coal company was leaving contracts open, this miner was closing deals left and right — even during the height of the commodities boom in 2008. It’s a move that appeared foolish at the time. But now this tiny miner is poised to become the “comeback kid” of its sector this year…

If you’re a Penny Stock Fortunes subscriber, you already know the name of this prescient coal play – you got my recommendation to buy its shares early this week.

If not, visit the Penny Stock Fortunes website to learn how my CXS Money-Multiplier System has raked in profitable penny plays in 2009…

Best,
Greg Guenthner

Source: How the Death of the SUV Saved American Coal Companies

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) rocketed to triple-digit gains in just a few short weeks.

Las Vegas Sands, the owner of the popular Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, found its stock absolutely gutted in 2008, dropping from well above $100 per share down to single-digits. Investors fretted over the company’s massive debt, and concerns regarding Las Vegas’ “recession proof” economy hitting the skids. But shortly after LVS shares fell to $1.38, a comeback was in the works…

As you can see from the chart above, the gaming industry’s 2009 rebound has been as intense as its fall. Since its lows in March, shares of Las Vegas Sands have rocketed more than 400%!

LVS let its share price out of the basement by restructuring portions of its debt. In April, the company released news of a $5 billion credit pact amendment that would allow the company to repurchase up to $800 million of its outstanding loans.

But can these amazing casino comeback stories continue? Or should investors take their money off the table?

Why It’s Time to Book Your Gambling Profits…

While LVS stock may have turned a corner, the company itself continues to have issues it needs to work out…

First, its international business segment could be in for a rough ride. LVS already is exploring deals where it would sell its Macau casino for $1.3 billion — then lease back the lavish building from the new owner, opting for a performance-based rate.

This could be a crucial deal for LVS, considering how bad things are getting in the Far East’s gaming capital. Travel to Macau was down nearly 10% during the first quarter compared to Q1 2008 numbers. That’s a fairly significant drop off.

Then there’s the company’s debt situation. For highly leveraged companies– such as those in the gaming industry — a deep recession could bring a firm to the brink of bankruptcy. It remains unclear whether LVS and other prominent casino companies will be able to stay on top of debt obligations. Simply put, one bad quarter could spell disaster for LVS—and its shareholders.

MGM Mirage is another gaming stock struggling with immense debt. Earlier this month, MGM completed a $1 billion stock offering in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure caused by the $14 billion in debt riding on its balance sheet.

As far as we’re concerned, both of these stocks pose significant risks to investors right now. The success of the gaming industry is too closely connected to business travel and tourism. Both are suffering and at the mercy of the recession. If a quick recovery is not in the cards, there could be plenty of pain left for LVS and MGM.

If you bought either of these names recently, you’re probably up big. Don’t get greedy — now’s the time to cash out. If the Las Vegas convention and gambling industries continue to suffer, the worst may be ahead of LVS and MGM…

Best,
Greg Guenthner

Source: Will the Las Vegas Comeback Continue?

With that in mind, here are three tools to help you find the best small-cap and penny stocks for your portfolio:

No. 1:  Stock Screeners

A stock screen is one of the most effective ways to pick up on the best stock plays the market has to offer. Brokers and analysts on Wall Street use screens to cut through the noise and find some of the best investment opportunities available.

Stock screeners are applications that look through a list of every stock on the market, and find you the ones that meet your specific criteria. For example, when you ask for a stock with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of less than 14, the screener searches the database and only returns the stocks whose P/E ratio is less than 14.

Once you get comfortable with some financial terminology, you can combine metrics to have your stock screen whittle down the broader market to just a few stocks that you think are worth checking out…

You don’t have to be a Wall Street hotshot to run a screen. There are tons of free stock screeners out there that anyone can use. You can find screeners online at financial sites like Google Finance or Morningstar, or you can download desktop screeners like the aptly named Stock Screener Lite.

No. 2: The SEC Database

The Securities and Exchange Commission is the first resource you should tap when you’re ready to research a specific stock. Almost all public companies — large and small alike — are required to file quarterly and annual reports, financials, insider trading information, and more with the SEC.

All of this information is available to anyone with an internet connection. Just go to http://www.sec.gov and click “search for company filings” under the Filings & Forms section. From there, you will navigate to a user-friendly database. It’s completely searchable by company name and/or ticker symbol.

No. 3: What’s everyone else saying?

So you’ve run a screen. Then you have picked out what you believe to be the best stocks to research. You’ve checked with the SEC database — and printed out the companies’ most recent 10-Qs. Now, it’s time to find out what everyone else is saying.

Search the web to see what analysts and other investors think of the stock. Don’t just read message board posts written by cheerleaders who only want to boost the share price. Gather a variety of opinions and forecasts.

One great way to do this is through the social networking site Twitter. Traders and investors alike use Twitter to communicate market information to anyone who wants to follow them. On the Penny Sleuth Twitter feed, we post daily stock updates on big movers and other helpful market information you won’t find in our daily columns.

You can sign up for a free account and follow us here.

Source:  Three Tools for Picking Penny Stocks

Company insiders have intimate knowledge of how their particular business operates. They know when sales are likely to rise. They know about a new marketing strategy that could boost the company’s bottom line. They know about industry conditions that may be changing for the better. And they know the company’s balance sheet like the back of their hands.

A company insider might sell shares for any number of reasons. He or she might need cash for a major purchase or decide to donate a lump sum to charity (yes, this has happened). So an insider selling shares does not necessarily mean bad news for the stock in question.

However, an insider will buy shares of his own company for only one reason: He thinks the stock is set to make him money. There is “no better tip-off to the probable success of a stock” than insider buying, according to Peter Lynch. We couldn’t agree more. That’s why we’re always monitoring insiders’ buying trends.

Here are three names that have recently come up on our radar:

First up is ViroPharma (VPHM: NASDAQ). ViroPharma’s shares were battered in February when the company announced it did not achieve its desired endpoints with a Phase 3 trial for a treatment for cytomegalovirus.

After the announcement and subsequent drop in share price, four different insiders purchased VPHM stock for $3.97–4.79 per share.

Next up is Evergreen Energy Inc. (EEE: NYSE) As shares sank to new lows between 30–40 cents, 10 insiders bought in. A few days later, Evergreen announced an agreement with Sumitomo Corp. to advance their joint K-Fuel project in Indonesia. The announcement sent shares soaring — the stock rose more than 100% just days after the announcement.

Of course, there was no way to know about the lucrative K-Fuel deal — unless you were a company insider with access to this kind of information. But thanks to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, we can keep tabs on insiders’ buys and sells…

The good news in late January has helped make EEE one of the few bright spots on the NYSE…shares of EEE are up 135% on the year (although the stock plummeted much of the latter half of ’08).

Our final insider buying alert is Mad Catz Interactive Inc. (MCZ: AMEX). This stock is down roughly 40% so far this year, with its biggest drop occurring on Feb. 12, after posting poor third-quarter results.

What do these company insiders know about Mad Catz that we don’t? Only time will tell…

Source: Three Ways to Follow the Smart Money

This from Greg:

The market has been kind to no one lately. Look no further than yesterday’s close for all the evidence most investors need to pack it up and hide their savings under the mattress for the next few years.

Unfortunately, most investors get it wrong. We all fight to pile into a hot stock, retreating once the share price plummets. Of course, that’s the exact opposite of what a savvy investor should be doing. Remember — it’s not about calling a bottom. It’s about buying low and selling high. It’s a simple concept that’s goofed seemingly every day when we let our emotions creep into our portfolios.

Right now, the market is low. Some of the beaten down stocks deserve to be in the basement. But like any bear market, there are some deals out there. So who’s bullish?

Minyanville.com CEO Todd Harrison is. Harrison told Yahoo! Finance that he believes a “monster move” is in store for stocks by spring.  Harrison isn’t a perma-bull, either. In fact, he’s been quite bearish for the better part of the past year. Now, he’s telling the press that the S&P could hit 1,000 very soon.

Harrison’s prediction is closely linked to financials. He told Yahoo! that financial stocks could spark a rally due despite the intense negativity in the sector. While we find this interesting, we wouldn’t follow Harrison into his Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) plays just yet…

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A / BRK.B)captain Warren Buffett has not been so publicly bullish…but the legendary stock picker hasn’t exactly stayed quiet on the investing front. Buffett has spent his time sniping shares of the industry leading bottom-dwellers like General Electric (NYSE:GE), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), and Swiss Re.

You and I may not be able to purchase preferred shares through private deals or buy up corporate debt like Buffett is doing these days. But for individual investors with a small-cap focus, there are ways to play the recession and come out on top…

• First, you need to think cheap. No, we’re not talking about fundamentals (although it’s always good to take a look at price-to-sales, debt, and other important metrics before buying a stock). In this case, we mean cheap goods sold by discount retailers. When consumers are stretched thin, cheap stuff rules the roost. Don’t believe me? Just look at yesterday’s drop. As of 4:00 p.m., only one Dow component had posted a gain: Wal-Mart. For the small-capper, screen for retailers with market caps less than $1.5 billion and you should find some interesting plays related to this idea. And for this screen, avoid specialty retailers and stores that primarily sell big-ticket items.

• During tough times, sin wins… Sin stocks are the comfort food of troubled times. A consumer who recently lost his job probably isn’t going to go out and buy a new car. But by the same logic, he isn’t going to give up his beer and cigarettes, either. In fact, the best performing stocks during past recessions have been tobacco and alcoholic beverages.

• Find the necessities. We’ve already talked about the top two recession gainers from the chart above. But what about household products? Yes, families are cutting back. But we seriously doubt they’ll stop buying toilet paper and bleach just because they’re stretched thin. There are plenty of items every family can’t live without. Companies that make the goods should do just fine…

Source: Three Steps to Turn a Profit in This Recession

The engine of the great American Economy is, and always will be, the consumer. You and your neighbors and all of your buying power will determine how well the market performs. Right now, it seems as though everyone is hurting — so it’s the right time to capitalize on the pain with solid small-cap plays.

It all begins with the struggling consumer: your neighbor. His home is worth 20% less than it was just a couple of years ago and he’s upside down on his mortgage. He was laid off from a good job back in November when everyone started to fear the worst—and was forced to take a job that pays much less.

During better times, your neighbor would pay lip service to the idea of saving money — without actually following through, of course… But the situation has now become far more serious. It’s time to save some dough and pay those bills on time… or risk losing it all.

But where to cut back? Here is a list of the average household’s top expenses, in order:

1. Social Security taxes
2. Mortgage
3. Car payment(s)
4. Groceries
5. Restaurant meals

Your neighbor can’t cut back on payroll taxes. And he has to pay the mortgage to keep a roof over his family’s head. He also needs to keep his car so he can make the drive to his job every morning. But he can always cut back on food… the easiest and most effective way to balance any family’s ailing budget.

Buying cheaper groceries is a start. But cutting back on restaurant food is crucial. As far as we’re concerned, there are three kinds of restaurant food: fine dining, casual dining, and take-out.

As you’ve probably already guessed, fine dining stocks are getting crushed right now. Morton’s Restaurant Group Inc. (NYSE: MRT) — the folks who brought us the posh Morton’s Steakhouse restaurants — have seen shares plummet more than 80% since September.

The other end of the dining spectrum is where we can make our money. As revenues at casual and fine dining establishments sag, cheap take-out and fast food joints will continue to attract cash-strapped customers. After all, a sack of burgers can sometimes be a cheaper alternative to buying groceries and cooking at home.

The ultimate in cheap food is pizza. You can’t go anywhere else and buy so much food for such a small amount of money. Your down-on-his-luck neighbor can even swing by a pizza chain on his way home from work and pick up dinner for his entire family for $10 to $15.

That’s why we’re turning to pizza’s fast food roots — Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ). This stock was $13 in September. Now, at about $7 per share, Domino’s is trading at seven times earnings and less than half sales.

Domino’s competitor Papa John’s Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) — also a small-cap—has seen share rise more than 50% since November. With a more reasonable multiple approaching more reasonable levels, Papa John’s has managed to sustain revenue throughout the 2008 fiscal year.

Be sure to add these names to your short list of recession-resistant plays. Both stocks warrant additional research.

Source: Recession-Resistant Restaurant Stocks

The game, which he created in his spare time, made Demeter $250,000 in its first two months on Apple’s “App Store” — enough to entice him to quit his job as an ATM software designer and start his own game development studio.

But Demeter’s game earned mere pocket change compared with some of the other independent developers who’ve hit it big recently. Look no further than Ethan Nicholas, a one-man team who watched his own game, iShoot, climb to No. 1 on Apple’s list of most popular paid applications.

In just two weeks, iShoot netted Nicholas almost $400,000 in profits… and the application is still selling as we type. That mountain of money has prompted Nicholas too to quit his day job at Sun Microsystems to pursue game development full time.

The move was a decisive one for Nicholas. And his response to those who ridiculed his move to leave his lucrative day job was in the true spirit of a self-made businessman: This is why you will never be rich.

There’s also the story of the hit iPhone game, Tap Tap Revenge. The application is essentially a handheld version of Guitar Hero, in which the player attempts to tap the proper notes to the beat of a song. The game, which is available for free on the App Store, has been downloaded over two million times.

Tapulous, the developer of the game, recently started inserting advertisements in the game. With a strategy that has become increasingly popular during the broadband era, the company gave away their product for free, and then figured out how to generate revenue later (much like Google-NASDAQ:GOOG- did with Gmail).

The potential of the mobile applications is enormous. Small software developers stand to make a great deal of money as smart phones become increasingly common.

But just because you don’t have any game-creation skills doesn’t mean that you’re precluded from getting a piece of the mobile game market — and who knows… maybe, you too will be able to quit your day job. We believe this mobile marketing revolutionary will make a significant impact this year, and the early small-cap investors stand to make some huge profits along the way.

Source: Mobile Game Developers Present Investing Opportunity