Cybermedia's Oil Change product is just a joke. It's basically First Aid 95 in disguise. The only gimmick they added is access to Internet for downloading new patches. This is ridiculous. How often do you have to go the Internet to download new patches for your software right now? Most of the times, your software or hardware does not work because it has conflict with another hardware or software. If you go to the Internet to the site of your vendor, it will say that they have tested their product carefully and it's bug free (meaning that the bugs are free). What you need is a knowledge database, one that is built by people who have dealt with PC problems on a daily basis, and they know all the strange ways that the users are using their software/hardware. Cybermedia obviously does not have that knowledge database. They haven't cooperated with any company the size of DEC, Microsoft, Intel, WANG, Lotus, to get that kind of database either.
By the way, SystemWizard is already shipping. You can check it out on AST and DEC PCs. When SystemWizard is released to the general public, it will make First Aid and Oil Change obsolete because not only it is powerful, it's also FREE. The cost will be swallowed by the hardware and software manufacturers. Obviously, SystemWizard is free for single user license only. SystemSoft will make money off the OEMs and enterprises. The single users will not have to pay a single dime. This is the scheme utilized by Netscape, later on copied by Microsoft, to gain market shares and to become the standard in the browser market. SystemWizard will have million of users overnight. I suspect that SystemWizard will be released to the general public at Comdex (Nov 18-22).
I think Phoenix Tech ought to fire their CEO. The CEO may be competent technically but he lacks business skills. If Phoenix Tech is better managed, it should have the SystemWizard business from Intel and SystemSoft wouldn't have existed. I think PTEC stock will hit around 20, and then will drop back again because nobody wants to stay with the stock. It looks like a rolling stock to me and the company is so boring. |
