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Normally we think of revolutionary products created by start-ups or entrepreneurial minds just out of college, but the most talked about new projects of 2009 are being produced by some of the best known companies in the world.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): With its massive online presence and a truly efficient business model, Amazon has become the largest online retailer in the world. It is now taking on a new business, web services, namely cloud computing (learn more HERE), called the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). While hosting this infrastructure and presenting e-commerce with a reasonably affordable alternative with no up-front costs, Amazon has taken an early lead in this space, with some believing its cloud computing business will one day overtake retailing. "Amazon will be like a book store that sells cocaine out the back door. Books will be just a front to sell storage and cloud computing." says Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic.

Technology sector expert Paul McWilliams offers an intriguing look at the new iPhone from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to uncover what tech companies are supplying components.

In his Next Inning -- a newsletter that focuses solely on high tech stocks -- the advisors offers a look at the players inside the iPhone.

McWilliams explains, "A few interesting notes have come from the folks busily tearing down the new Apple iPhone 3G S since its launch.

"For investors with a more aggressive bent, one stock on our radar is Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN)," says trading and investing expert Bill Martin.

In BullMarket.com, he explains, "The firm's core niche is producing speech-based voice-recognition and synthesis software for use in corporate customer-care operations, mobile applications including the new iPhone and to automate health records."

"Nuance creates those automated voices you have to listen to when what you really need is a human being to tell you why your cable modem isn't delivering the Internet.

In his BullMarket.com advisory, Bill Martin looks to new products from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), such as the next version of the iPhone.

In addition, the advisors looks to the recent stronger-than-expected results announced by Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and why that may bode well for Apple's own upcoming results.

Martin observes, "RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky said Apple will launch a new version of the iPhone inJune, which the analyst has dubbed the iPhone 3G Pro.

"In a research note, Abramsky said the new version of the popular smartphone will include a number of new features and improvements over the one introduced last summer to popular appeal.

Now you can have your iPhone conversation and see it, too. Skype, provider of VoIP technology, is reportedly debuting a free iPhone application in the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) store tomorrow. Rumors have it that a similar application will be available for users of Research in Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry in May.

The application will require Wi-Fi in order to work, and will search one's iPhone contacts to find users with Skype accounts. Therefore, iPod Touch users can take advantage of this feature as well, provided they have earphones with an embedded microphone.

There are some people walking around Las Vegas and other gaming meccas with something illegal on their iPhones, and I don't mean the new Taylor Swift album pirated off the Internet. A new application, available for Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and iTouch, works to count cards when its user is playing blackjack.

Obviously, this practice is frowned upon by casino officials (even when a mathematical savant is able to count cards mentally). Using an electronic device to help has been deemed even closer to "illegal," and Vegas pit bosses are said to be on the lookout. This sort of unscrupulous behavior is the last thing the gaming industry needs these days, amid reduced tourism and shrinking profits.

Reportedly, this new scam came to light at an Indian casino in California; iPhone users were apparently a little too successful and their efforts were reported to officials in neighboring Nevada.

While Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are locked in their battle for smartphone supremacy, a new entry into the market has grabbed headlines.

Palm's (NASDAQ: PALM) brand new touch-screen smartphone -- the Pre -- was the surprise event at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Among other things, the Pre uses the Palm's Web OS, which supposedly can consolidate data from multiple Web sources.

A recent ChangeWave smartphone survey of 3,800 cell phone owners measured customer reaction to Research In Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) newest touch-screen phone, the BlackBerry Storm.

The survey was conducted just weeks after the Storm went on sale.

We also compared the Storm's favorability rating to those of the original Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, taken from a 2007 ChangeWave survey conducted a few weeks after the iPhone's release.

The original iPhone's "very satisfied" rating (77%) was more than double that of the Storm (33%).

Moreover, the original iPhone's unsatisfied rating (5%) was three times lower than that of the Storm (14%).

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was last week. In past years, just the anticipation of the world's largest electronics trade show was enough move technology stocks higher.

That was not the case this year, though, as investors grapple with a weak economy, frozen credit, plunging home values and rising unemployment. Just paying the bills and keeping one's head above water seems to be the order of the day. The market sold off hard last week, and not even the CES could pull it out of its funk. Still, there were some bright spots.

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) gave its investors a taste of the old days as its shares soared 34% after its new touch-screen phone and mobile operating system garnered admiration from analysts and attendees at the CES.

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

"We believe that the most prudent way to make money in the stock market is through long-term investing in 'best of the best' companies," says growth stock specialist Nate Pile.

In his Nate's Notes newsletter, he explains, "With that in mind, we turn to one of our core portfolio holdings as out favorite investment for 2009 -- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), whose products represent 'best in class' in just about every category in which it competes.

"We believe investors have shifted their focus entirely to the extreme near-term and are completely ignoring the long-term fundamentals that are in place for the Apple.

"To be sure, the stock has lost over 50% of its value over the past twelve months, but we believe the reasons for the decline are all short-term in nature, and we cannot help but get excited by the opportunity to once again become more aggressive about adding additional shares to our portfolio.

The long-only money managers and analysts getting their 15 seconds of fame on CNBC are pounding the table shouting "Tech is on sale! Tech is on sale."

Is it?

Are the great electronics brands -- like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) -- truly on sale?

Best Buy

Best Buy beat earnings estimates and announced plans to offer buyouts to virtually all of its nearly 4,000 headquarters employees. Say what!?!

Translation: Management is very good and business is going to be very bad.

What should investors do?

The recession is going to get much worse, and will be as bad or worse in Q4 of next year. ChangeWave Research consumer spending survey data shows 2009 -- at least the earlier part of it -- is going to be far worse than Wall Street expects. And logic says that this will hit Best Buy stock.

Furthermore, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Costco (NASDAQ: COST) and other discounters are hurting Best Buy's business as the more "advanced" products become mainstream, and require little, if any, sales support.

Also, Wal-Mart may get the iPhone. Will Mac laptops soon follow?

There are few topics as popular on BloggingStocks as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), one of the original eight we focused on. In the past 52 weeks, the stock has fallen from a high of $202.96 to a recent low of $79.14 amid the greatest market turmoil in 80 years.

Everyone has finally agreed that we are in the midst of a severe recession, and Wall Street has punished Apple, the inventive high flying growth story, because of fears that a slowdown in consumer spending will stall its market expansion.

Black Fridays promise aside, the market is in a wait and see mode. In the meantime, after five consecutive trading days in the upward direction, Apples shares closed Friday in a shortened trading day at $92.67, down for the day but notably off its earlier lows.

A sixth up day was too much to hope for as the market is down, and Apple hit a Monday low of $89.00

So what now? Is the growth story over? I think that for those who have an interest in owning this stock, now is the time to buy. Given a P/E of 17 and a reported $27 in cash and no debt, could there be a better time? I think not.