Oberweis On How To Play The Mobile Boom

In his latest Forbes column, newsletter guru Jim Oberweis says that the mobile market is full of investment opportunities, but that it can be a dangerous place for investors as well.

“While obvious beneficiaries such as Samsung, Apple, Google, and Facebook are by now very familiar to investors, a plethora of lesser-known small-cap players have carved out profitable niches in the background,” writes Oberweis. “Some provide supplies for smartphone makers, while others develop apps, games, storage and security software. Still other small-cap gems aren’t even technology companies but have businesses that are racking up profits from the global embrace of mobile devices.”

Oberweis says this space can also be “fraught with peril,” however. Apple and Samsung’s dominance in the handset market, for example, makes suppliers very reliant on those two firms’ fates. “The duopoly, however, is ending, as low-cost Chinese handset makers such as Lenovo and Xiaomi are taking share,” he says. “By the end of 2015 we expect a far more diversified pie.” Mobile components manufacturers’ valuations “are considerably less than you might guess given their high growth rates,” he adds.

Oberweis recommends a few picks in the mobile space. Among them: touch screen interface developer Synaptics (SYNA).