“This year has seen major innovations in the technology field, with products like the iPad and 3-D Television revolutionizing their respective industries. Today, Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) followed the tech trend of the year when it announced its newest smartphone, the BlackBerry Torch, formerly known as the BlackBerry 9800. The long awaited product has been dubbed the “iPhone killer” and will hit the shelves on August 12th, for a price of $200. BlackBerry, which has been most associated with Verizon Wireless in the past, will be releasing this phone on the AT&T network, allowing it to share service providers with the iPhone 4. The Torch could not have picked a better time to release their competitor to Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, which has been on the receiving end of negative press recently due to antenna problems in the phone and a chronic shortage which is testing the patience of many potential buyers,” Jared Cummans Reports From ETF Database.

Cummans goes on to say, “All in all, the Torch will be very similar to the iPhone 4, as RIM attempts to compete in a market they are steadily losing their grip on. The Torch will feature GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, 8GB memory, and a 5 megapixel camera, all similar to the iPhone’s features. The iPhone features more memory, 16GB, for the same price of $200 and a battery that slightly outperforms that of the Torch. But, the Torch will include features like a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, yielding to customers who are frustrated with touch screen typing, the popular BlackBerry messaging system (BBM), multi-tab Internet capabilities, and a unique universal search bar that scans through everything in the phone’s database. Thus far, the buzz has been that the Torch’s hardware is excellent, but its software does not stack up to the iPhone or Android’s software capabilities which could hurt sales of the crucial product for the company this holiday season.”

“The Canadian company has been steadily losing its once dominant market share to the iPhone and Android market. While Nokia is the worldwide leader, Android currently stepped up to first place in the U.S. with a market share of 34% in Q2 of 2010; RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) is at 32% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) 21.7%. The Android grew an astonishing 886% year-over-year in Q2 (keep in mind that the Droid was not released until November 2009) while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw growth of 61% and RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) grew 41%. Overall, the smartphone market is clearly here to stay, steadily growing both domestically and globally, but with the rate of new products being released, it is anyone’s guess who will dominate this market in the coming years.In a further effort to stay competitive, RIM has been harboring plans for a tablet computer tentatively called the ‘Blackpad’. The product is not expected until November and may be more of a companion to the Blackberry than anything else. With the tablet market being relatively new, RIM will attempt to slice into Apple’s monopoly, giving consumers another choice in this up and coming market,” Cummans Reports.

Don Dion From Dion Money Management also added to the situation stating that, “The company most often known as RIM continues work on a revamped, restructured model of the Blackberry, a product extremely popular within the business and corporate sector of the smart phone market. The phone will work much like an iPhone, letting users navigate the Blackberry specific interface through touch-commands. The product’s operating system allows avid fans to swipe through screens and expand images with their fingers, and offers a universal search for broad data searches both within the phone and online. All in all, it will be interesting to see how the two companies differentiate from (and attempt to establish dominance over) one another, once RIM’s product hits markets. Granted, that is not to say that the iPhone hasn’t faced competition prior to RIM’s move on the market.”

“Investors heavily invested in one of these companies may want to diversify with an ETF and put money to work throughout the industry.  Dion states that the ”iShares S&P North American Technology-Multimedia Networking Index Fund (NYSE:IGN) is an ETF that should profit from this battle. Overall, the smartphone markets appear to be heating up even more, as yet another contender approaches release. As we have mentioned several times over, one of the safest ways to play the smartphone wars is to pick a fund that adequately covers a wide variety of products. That way, fund performance will be linked to the flourishing smart phone sector as a whole, rather than being overly reliant upon a single company/product that may fare poorly against its rivals. The ideal play here is the iShares S&P North American Technology-Multimedia Networking index Fund (NYSE:IGN) . The fund’s top five holdings are Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) , Motorola (NYSE:MOT) , Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) , Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Research in Motion. The fund devotes 7.30% of its holdings to RIMM, also making it a good choice for investors with faith in the upcoming Blackberry.”

If the Blackberry Torch’s launch isn’t your cup of tea and you have your sights set on Apple’s iPhone there is still an ETF focused on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ). The PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq:QQQQ) has the greatest exposure to Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) of any ETF, at 19% of assets. This heavily overweight position makes it the best choice for a technology ETF during a period of Apple’s out-performance.

We have put together some further details on the PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ) for Apple iPhone lovers and the iShares S&P North American Technology-Multimedia Networking index Fund (IGN) for the anticipated Blackberry Torch lovers below:

PowerShares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQQ)  Visit Our (QQQQ) Category: HERE

The investment is a unit investment trust designed to correspond generally to the performance, before fees and expenses, of the Nasdaq-100 index. The fund holds all the stocks in the Nasdaq-100 index, which consists of the largest non-financial securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The fund issues and redeems shares of Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock in multiples of 50,000 in exchange for the stocks in the Nasdaq-100 and cash.

Fund Holdings subject to change   Apple Inc.   19.04%   Microsoft Corp.   4.55%   QUALCOMM Inc.   4.39%   Google Inc. (Cl A)   4.20%   Oracle Corp.   2.92%   As of 8/2/2010

Cisco Systems Inc.   2.78%   Intel Corp.   2.36%   Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. ADS   2.12%   Amazon.com Inc.   2.04%   Research In Motion Ltd.   1.82%

iShares S&P North Amer Tech-Multimd Ntwk ETF (NYSE:IGN)  Visit Our (IGN) Category: HERE

The investment seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the S&P North American Technology-Multimedia Networking index. The fund generally invests at least 90% assets in securities of the underlying index and in depositary receipts representing securities of the underlying index. It may invest the remainder of its assets in securities not included in its underlying index but which BGFA believes will help the fund track its underlying index, and in futures contracts, options on futures contracts, options and swaps as well as cash and cash equivalents. The fund is nondiversified.

Related posts:

1. Three ETFs To Watch This Week: (IGN, FXF, VGK, RIMM)
2. Is The Technology Sector Setting Up For A Big Move Higher? (SMH, QQQ, AAPL, AMZN)
3. Asian Stocks Suffer Amid Discord At Brussels Summit (YAO, EWJ, EWY, EWA, AAPL)
4. Morning Call: Market Takes Apple (AAPL) Earnings Miss in Stride
5. 4th Quarter: Is It Time To Be Bullish or Bearish? (SPY, DIA, QQQ, AAPL, AMZN)

IGN, QQQQ