Jenna, how you still own SPYG, this thing is on fire, up another 5 pts today! SPYG's market cap is STILL UNDER $400 million...
Some are saying that SPYG could be an internet device BLUE CHIP play because of their advanced technologies, excellent management team, and quality of partnerships. A fund manager on Tues. mentioned SPYG as one of his favorites. Financially, SPYG has NO debt and $30 million in cash.
SPYG is about to launch a wireless hand-held device that'll allow investors to trade/track stocks real time using the internet backbone.
**CEO was just interviewed in the latest Red Herring 12/98 issue:
SPYGLASS REBORN
Doug Colbeth explains how the first browser company remade itself for the era of consumer devices.
By Deborah Claymon
The Red Herring magazine
December 1998
"Spyglass has reinvented itself twice," confesses Doug Colbeth, the company's CEO, with surprising humility for an Internet entrepreneur. Spyglass was founded in 1990 in Champaign, Illinois, to make image-analysis tools for scientists studying weather and medical data. But in 1993, when Spyglass customer and World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee gave the company an early look at the Web paradigm, Mr. Colbeth and his colleagues decided to transform the business to build browser technology for the Internet. By 1994 Spyglass had developed the first commercial version of Mosaic and had licensed key parts of that technology to Microsoft and more than 80 other companies. In 1995 Spyglass went public (Nasdaq: SPYG).
But when the contest between Microsoft and Netscape took over the desktop-browser market, Spyglass began its second metamorphosis -- this time into a technology developer for non-PC devices. Spyglass still makes browser technology, but its software is tailored to consumer devices like televisions, smart phones, and other wireless handheld communicators. Clearly, such agility is a necessity for companies planning to compete in the constantly shifting marketplace for Internet technology.
Why did Spyglass change from a browser builder to a consumer-device software company?
During the browser wars of 1995 and 1996, we decided to stop production of technology meant strictly for browsers and broaden our approach by addressing non-PC devices that work with the Web. We did not want to get involved in the desktop battle that Microsoft was sure to win. Sure enough, when Microsoft started giving away Internet Explorer, our previous revenue stream evaporated. Many of our customers went out of business. Fortunately, we saw a better opportunity in making the array of new non-PC devices work with the Internet.
What are the biggest differences between what Spyglass builds now and a Web browser?
In a browser, you can get lost on the Internet. You click six times and then can't find your way back, or you get stuck in a portal at the outset. In a very small device, it's important to be able to get the information you want immediately and to perform specific functions like seeing only your calendar or email.
What are the most important functions of a non-PC device?
Very select navigational capabilities. In a small device, you retrieve information from specified sites, or a linked set of sites, where you have preset content designed for the device you're using. Such selected navigation might take place in a kiosk, where you go to sites designated by the kiosk that are actually all over the Internet; but you don't have to contend with the glitches of general-purpose browsing.
What types of device manufacturers do you work with?
We do everything from building technology for browsing the Internet on television -- GTE and WebTV are among our customers -- to allowing parents to filter Internet content. We're also putting technology for leveraging the Internet into copiers for Xerox and smart phones for Nokia, and we're working with many of Motorola's communications products.
What do you think are the most exciting directions for consumer devices?
I am really excited about the future of wireless handheld communicators. I think they will turn the PC-centric world upside down. You won't have to go to your PC constantly; all your information, like calendar applications, contact managers, email, and news feeds, will be synchronized in one place and accessible from any device. It will be like having a personal Web site in the sky, a central hub that will deliver information designed to be readable and useful on whatever device is receiving it. And in the future such devices will be designed for the specific needs of the individual -- a business traveler, a student, and so on.
Are any devices available today that capture this vision of the future?
Certain single-function devices hint at it. For instance, a Japanese manufacturer is creating a tourism device that lets a visitor to, say, Tokyo navigate Web-derived content and maps for all of the city's cool spots. Aided by global-positioning software, the device tailors information to your location. You rent it like a car or a cell phone at the airport and then turn it in when you leave.
How will the new devices affect electronic commerce?
Some kinds of e-commerce will benefit greatly. Certain purchases like stock trades, which are easily made using a small screen, will be the first big wave. Right now, we're working with a mutual-fund provider that wants to give screen phones to all its high-net-worth customers. The company wants to embed capabilities specific to its mutual funds so that a user can get up-to-the-minute information directly from the fund and execute trades in seconds.
How far away are we from seeing these devices used in volume?
By 2002 I think that there will be 200 million non-PC devices not merely accessing but leveraging the Internet -- not just getting general data but doing things like finding out your chief financial officer's itinerary or rescheduling a business trip. The devices also give us a real opportunity to combat information overload. With the right content-delivery tools, devices can put high-quality information into each person's hands -- to mine the data that's really important to individuals -- and then zip it out to any type of device, anytime.
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