How to make money from talking toothbrushes and cloud computing
The ‘internet of things’ is developing fast. Soon, even your toothbrush will be connected to the cloud. Ed Bowsher looks at some of the best ways for you to profit.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is currently underway in Las Vegas. It's arguably the most important event in the technology calendar, so I always try to keep an eye on what's going on.
The theme I keep seeing this time round is internet connectivity. Rory Cellan Jones sums it up well on the BBC website: "Just about every new gadget at CES this year is either connected directly to the internet or talks to it via a smartphone."
This is the internet of things' where everything from your headphones to your toothbrush is online. By 2020, apparently, there could be 50 billion devices connected to the internet worldwide. That works out at six devices for every man, woman and child.
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As Cellan Jones says, "We've gone through an extraordinary revolution over the last five years, but sometimes when you're in the middle of fundamental change it is hard to spot."
In other words, we're seeing the rapid development of the internet of things' where a wide range of objects and goods are linked to the web. The main point of all this connectivity is to collect and analyse data.
That data might be used to give us feedback to help improve our own performance (even at toothbrushing), or to give companies a better idea of what we might buy from them, or to help to automate lots of day to day jobs.
But how can you profit from this as an investor?
One company that could benefit is Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). A few years back, it was undoubtedly the world's top chipmaker. However, the company didn't respond fast enough to the rise of smartphones and tablets. As a result, there's a perception that Intel will gradually but terminally decline as PC sales continue to fall.
I think that perception is probably wrong. Intel's boss, Brian Krzanich, made it very clear at CES that he wants to have a strong position in the internet of things.
For example, lntel showed off its new Edison chip, a PC on a chip, which is designed to ape the success of the Raspberry Pi chip/computer. Among other things, this enables the more technically-minded to do clever things with their various gadgets a bit like a kit computer.
Intel has also developed a smart watch, which, unlike most rivals, isn't linked to a smartphone. So you can directly link from the watch to the web even if you don't have a smartphone with you.
And best of all, because it's an unpopular tech stock, the valuation doesn't look too stretched. Intel is trading on a price/earnings ratioof 13 and has a dividend yieldof 3.5%.
Amazon trades on a ridiculous valuation but it might be worth buying
For example, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) trades on a price/earnings ratio of 21. But as I've said before, its dominant position in web advertising means that's not unreasonable. I'm happy to carry on holding my shares.
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) is another favourite of mine. You may think of it as purely a web retailer, but it's more than that. Yes, there's huge potential for growth in internet retail, but the Amazon Web Services (AWS) business is just as important.
Traditionally, many businesses have used their own servers to house all the data that the business generates and needs. Housing and maintaining these servers has been a significant cost.
With AWS, a business doesn't need to bother. It can transfer all its data to Amazon, which then stores it all on its own servers in the internet-based cloud.'
The cloud offers a raft of other money-saving opportunities for businesses and AWS is well-placed to provide them. Granted, Amazon has several competitors in this area, notably Microsoft. But the company seems to have a strong position that it can probably defend successfully.
And as the internet of things' continues to grow, more and more data will be stored on the web, which can only be a good thing for Amazon.
Now, I'm a shareholder in Amazon, but I can't deny that a p/e ratio of wait for it 1,400 (!) does make the company look very expensive indeed.
I can't offer you any easy justification for that rating. I just comfort myself in the fact that Amazon has always traded on crazy-high ratings. Chief executive Jeff Bezos takes pretty much all the spare cash there is to hand and reinvests it in the business. And he's done that very successfully so far.
Following this sort of strategy does greatly increase the risk for shareholders. But it's a risk that I'm prepared to take in a small dose, anyway.
As we head towards a world where we all have at least six internet-connected devices, there should be plenty more great opportunities for investors to make profits. We'll be covering this in more detail soon in MoneyWeek magazine (if you're not already a subscriber, subscribe to MoneyWeek magazine).
In the meantime, if you're interested in cutting-edge technology, you should take a look at my colleague David Thornton's report for his Red Hot Penny Shares newsletter it's all about some of the massive advances being made even now, and how you could profit from them.
Red Hot Penny Shares is a regulated product issued by Fleet Street Publications Ltd. Your capital is at risk when you invest in shares, never risk more than you can afford to lose. Forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future results. Penny shares can be riskier than other investments they can be relatively hard to trade and if you need to sell soon after you've bought you might get less back than you paid. Please seek independent financial advice if necessary. Customer Services: 0207 633 3600.
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Ed has been a private investor since the mid-90s and has worked as a financial journalist since 2000. He's been employed by several investment websites including Citywire, breakingviews and The Motley Fool, where he was UK editor.
Ed mainly invests in technology shares, pharmaceuticals and smaller companies. He's also a big fan of investment trusts.
Away from work, Ed is a keen theatre goer and loves all things Canadian.
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