I listened to the conference call again today and came away more impressed with the magnitude of Tuesday's announcement. One questioner asked Steven what kind interest there was from PC-OEMs. Steven stated that there was a HIGH level of interest. He also stated that SMSC and ITE were not implementing Embassy on speculation, but are implementing Embassy because their customers want them. I believe this was one of the key statements from the session.
I am not sure who SMSC or ITE's major customers are, but a week ago, we did not have ITE. I would assume ITE has some customers that are not common to SMSC. This is telling in that Wave has picked up other PC OEM interest from ITE's customers, which may be different from SMSC. If anyone knows who the major customers are for SMSC, NMS and ITE, that would be helpful.
Embassy is a no-brainer for PC-OEM's. It adds value right out of the box by solving the PC 2000 specifications requiring a secure boot. (checks for viruses, authentication) This is required to be on PC's in 2000 and Embassy solves this problem. I am not sure what other alternatives are available, but this is another plus for Embassy in addition to all it's other features, not the least of which is revenues for the OEM's.
Another major part of the announcement was that because of the support from SMSC and ITE, it is simple to get EMBASSY in the PC's. There is no redesign of the PC required. It is as simple as ordering a board with Embassy, or without it. The answer seems obvious to me. |
