While Apple is and will remain one of the world’s largest companies in terms of revenue for the foreseeable future it is important to understand just how large the smartphone vendor and the Telecom provider market is. It is also important to understand the global nature of the growth of the sector. We recently came across the following illustration in the WSJ that highlights the leaders and their penetration by % in these market segments. For the U.S telecom names we like IYZ which allows an investor to diversify in the U.S sector without taking single stock risk. Internationally, the ETF from iShares IXP allows exposure to the high growth seen in the sector outside the U.S. The performance of these ETF’s have shown consistent returns when viewed in 1,3,5 and 10 year basis.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-mobile-market-by-the-numbers-1456361136

https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239523/IYZ?referrer=tickerSearch