Bob Metcalfe's(the inventor of Eternet in '73 for those of you who don't know who he is) From the Ether column May 12, '97 on Corel and their Java gambit and CorelVideo.
Y BOB METCALFE
Corel's Cowpland believes a good serving of network apps can ace Microsoft
You can learn a lot about a company by trying its products, by talking to its competitors, and by playing tennis with its CEO. Corel is a company we all need to learn a lot more about (http://www.corel.com). It's a $334 million Canadian company, with products such as CorelDraw, WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Paradox, and CorelVideo, about which I wrote in the spring of 1995. (See "Video telephones will arrive in businesses first -- connected to LANs," April 10, 1995, page 45.)
Corel is short for COwpland REsearch Labs, and its CEO -- Michael Cowpland -- also founded Mitel, the PBX company that he sold to British Telecommunications in 1984.
To learn about Corel, and because I'm an internationally ranked tennis player, I flew to Ottawa last week to challenge Cowpland on his own court.
The last time I played against Cowpland was at Comdex, and his doubles partner was four-time Wimbledon champion Rod Laver. I've been playing tennis for 38 years and, in fact, wrote the Java app that does "small pond" handicapping for the Federated Association of Unprofessional Lawn Tennis. Cowpland, on the other hand, has reached the senior quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
I play world-class men's, 50-plus years, 250-plus pounds, monthly tennis. Cowpland plays men's, 50-plus, 150-plus, weekly tennis. Our uncorrected scores were 6-2, 6-1, in Cowpland's favor. But after handicapping him for being lighter, playing more frequently, and having the home court advantage, I won 6-3, 6-4.
The agile Cowpland and, therefore, Corel, play purely for the fun of it. And, of course, there is nothing more fun than winning.
Forbes just carried a story about Corel in which Cowpland's "confederation of beaten armies" is called an intriguing long shot against Microsoft. (See forbes.com
Cowpland says somebody has to stand up to Microsoft And you thought that Alex could talk it up. In countries where Microsoft has devastated competition, its prices are substantially higher than they are in the United States. In France, for example, Microsoft's prices are double what they are in neighboring countries where Corel is still a viable competitor.
Corel competes against Microsoft's office software with its product excellence, shorter product development cycles, flexible licenses, retail focus, and whole-hearted commitment to Java. Cowpland says these strategies are working, and, for example, WordPerfect is alive again -- try it.
The entire Corel office suite for Java will be available this year, which Corel bets will surpass the Win32 platform in 1998. You can download beta versions now from officeforjava.corel.com.
Corel's video LAN has been coming along nicely for a year, Cowpland says. CorelVideo has 1,000 seats within Corel and 1,000 seats outside -- with a customer list that includes Citibank, KPMG, Shell, and the White House I'm going to search the COSFF site try to find what compression tech. they are using, whether MPEG1, MPEG2, Wavlets ect., .
Deploying video LANs has taught Corel some important lessons. Conferencing software, not video hardware, is what wins customers. High-value vertical applications -- not horizontal apps sold to standards-minded information systems managers -- are the low-hanging fruit. David N., John R. does this suggest that perhaps the value of Divicom is greater than the value of CUBE in the long run
Many users prefer a separate TV on their desks controlled by Corel's software. Using PC monitors for video consumes too much PC power and offers too little quality.
Users require WAN video, even if the quality is poorer than it would be on the LAN. Internet video is still far from acceptable for business communications.
CorelVideo accounts for about 1 percent of Corel's revenues, and Cowpland is spinning the business off. The new Corel Computer Corp. hopes to go public in 18 months, spurred by sales of CorelVideo -- a compression camera that Corel employees can demonstrate -- and a Java-based video network computer called the Corel VNC.
Corel announced its VNC last November, promising shipment in the first quarter of this year. (See "Corel to ship video-enabled NC early next year," infoworld.com. Corel's VNC has much in common with Oracle's Network Computer and Sun's JavaStation, plus it builds on CorelVideo. Corel is teaming up with Oracle and Sun against Intel and Microsoft.
What I saw last week, deep into the second quarter, was only a nonoperating prototype of the VNC, which will sell (without a monitor) for about $700. So, Corel, it's second serve on your VNC. Intel and Microsoft like to rush the net. I recommend a spin serve, high and deep to the backhand.
Bob Metcalfe invented Ethernet in 1973 and founded 3Com Corp. in 1979. He receives e-mail at metcalfe@infoworld.com.
Disclaimer; I wanted a JAVA play, and bought some COSFF close to its 52 wk low for that reason. The disinherited like COSFF have nothing to loose. I only hope that Les Cohn(Sp?) and his team
are busting their butts in fear of being in the same spot in a couple years if they don't!.
Plea to CUBE Re Gilder: Gilder is gifted and influential. He has never done an in-depth look on digital video yet. When I wrote to him some months ago I suggested that people like me needed his input and vision in this area. I specifically asked him to find out what Les and team were working on and if they have anything worth betting on. His intro to CUBE should be out soon. If the E4 early silicon is in your
hands and moving along better than expected please invite GG down for a special showing. |
