To provoke some further discussion, am I right in interpreting AXC's product position re: the upcoming '98 rollout of digital tv as now outdated? I know Individual Investor said in their earlier coverage of AXC that they had all these products ready to go in late 80's, early 90's, and then nothing happened. Are these products now obsolete and gathering dust, and AXC will only be a royalty collector? Or do they plan to be in this ball game too?
Saw on CNBC yesterday discussion from a big guy from Phillips USA division talking about digital rollout, said manufacturers products would be rolling out mid 98 earliest, but it's up to broadcasters whether or not to goto digital. Am curious re: AXC's potential in this new digital tv world. Sounds like tv broadcasters might be cautious in rolling out digital tho, after all, they do have some huge # of analog tv's out there they're going to support with side by side broadcasts of analog and digital for many years.
Also, what is DVD going to do to disk drives? I think I remember that writable DVD's are some time off in large quantities. Can anyone confirm or contradict? Is DVD just a CD-ROM killer, or also the bane of disk drives down the road?
On another note, I got some freebie promo mail re: California Technology Stock Letter. Doesn't mention AXC, but he is very heavily into valuing a company going forward by it's R&D as a % of sales, and it's track record by it's current sales composed of products less than 3 years old. AXC does very well on both accounts: 15% R&D, and almost all sales are less than 3 year old products. Encouraging to hear this roundabout round of applause for AXC's past success, and future promise due to relentless R&D. |
