USRX vs ROK on 56KBS
In response to the new Business Week article concerning the USRX ROK contest for the new 56KBS standard:
What ROK may be missing is that the new Sportsters that USRX will start shipping within 2-3 weeks are all going to be FLASH ROM based (this is based on a USRX press release in the U.K. today). The new Sportsters will be upgraded to 56KB by a simple click of the mouse on the USRX Web page, the same approach will be used to do bug fixes, enhancements and the eventual transition to whatever the final 56KB standard evolves to. The Flash ROM chips do cost a few more dollars that standard EPROMS but by using this approach USRX preempts the ROK challange. In effect what USRX is doing is saying buy our Sportster today, you won't have to trade it in, exchange chips, or throw it out, all you will need to do is click you mouse on our Web page and your modem will be upgraded. In the U.K. the price is 229 pounds, based on past practices I would expect USRX to price the U.S. version in the same number of dollars, so initial pricing is likely to be around $229, the new modem is loaded with features, voice mail, full duplex speaker phone, caller id, call selection etc. ROK is supposed to announce their upgrade paths "shortly"
FWIW
DaleVelk@aol.com |
