NextWave Wireless: The Most Leveraged Play on iPhone 3G

One year ago, when the first iPhone hit the market, investors sought a highly leveraged derivative play as an alternative to buy the obvious Apple (AAPL) stock. At that time, the answer appeared to be Synchronoss (SNCR), which went from under $10 to $30 at the time of the iPhone launch, and $45 shortly thereafter. At that time, the driver was a new provisioning system, because the iPhone – just like the GSM-based Blackberries (RIMM) – was only equipped with an EDGE radio. Thanks to WiFi, this induced people to stay away from utilizing the slow cellular frequencies for web surfing, including mobile search.

This time around, the new iPhone 3G launching on July 11 will spur at least one other derivative play, and that's the bandwidth play. For the first time on a handheld, the iPhone 3G combines the standout handheld browser with an HSPA radio fast enough to yield a decent web browsing experience -- including mobile search – when you're not on WiFi.