From the Yahoo board:
"I managed to attend the msft show today. The first hour was devoted to upgrades of existing products like publisher and outlook. They also discussed other products.
The second hour was devoted to Windows 98. The first thing discussed was the look and feel of 98 vs 95, where they highlighted a few changes.
Then two msft product managers (Wavo was not involved) said something to the effect that 98 would also make your life easier by providing access to internet sites without using the internet. He then explained that the information came over cable or that even rabbit ears could be used to capture the information -and that the technology behind it was VBI. He then said let me demonstrate for you. At this time, the camera was focused on the monitor just as the WAVETOP logo came up. As it came up, he said that all this was possible because of a product called WAVETOP. The product manager then demonstrated some of the content. He showed an article from CBS Sportline, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. He also mentioned Time Warner, I think, and a few other things like stock quotes. Finally, the other engineer made a comment to the effect of ....'and just what does this cost?...and of course the other engineer said it was FREE. The first engineer then explained how the information was stored and new information overwrote the old information. I like his example of someone waking up in the morning and being able to read the Journal because of Wavetop. In all, the Wavetop discussion lasted about 3, maybe 4, minutes.
I have to say that I liked the presentation, especially the tone. There was no BS or hype; it was just kind of mater of fact - 'Oh by the way here is another great way that Windows 98 makes your life easier, and guess what, it is simple and did I mention, its FREE and available to 98 percent of the households in America'. That was their style and it was quite effective. I was a quality, excellent rendition of the basic Wavetop facts.
I also liked the look of Wavetop. Even though I was looking at a movie screen, it looked professionally designed.
I left after this portion of the presentation. If someone else went, they may have been more later on Wavetop...perhaps even some questions by the audience.
All in all, a very good show.
After seeing this and considering the original announcement of the show today, I am convinced that this is just not enough to grind through almost 65% of Wavo's float in only two days. There must be more coming next week - perhaps the msft/intel vbi standard article is the key. Oh well, we will know soon enough."
Another good point raised on the Yahoo thread was this ominous statement from wavetop.net (software link):
"WaveTop also uses a customized version of Internet Explorer 4.0 as its sole compatible browser."
IE4 - YUK! On top of the fact that IE4 is an inferior browser (IMO) is the old concern about the federal anti-trust issues.
P.S. Anybody notice that old WAVO is #8 on the dailystocks top 20 hit list today (#11 yesterday). Amazing. Is this little stock on people's radar screens, or what? |
