More notes:
Alex was glowing about the results of DiviCom, he said,"Outstanding proformance."
He expected a strong 1st Q in VCD sales (it helps when you start with some sales in the bag.) Of 1997, he said set-tops would grow at the same rate as '96. (Good trick since '95 was zero. When I run my calculater to find what the growth rate was '96 over '95, it says ERROR.) He expected quite rapid adoption of DVD in '97.
For set-top competitors in '97, he pointed to LSI's participation, and SGS as strong competition
On DVD again, he said that "we are targeting pricepoint and integration. He said because of that," we will win in 97-98". He said of the other DVD players that very few will have volume shipments, and that it won't be the OEM's that make it to volume.
When talking about copy protection, he said the CUBE put the encrption on top of the encoder in a,"very straight forward fashion."
Burke who did not talk as much as three months ago, said the '97 tax rate would be about 35%. (we must not be paying taxes on all sales, some must be left overseas or the effective rate would be close to 39%.)
Alex is still pushing for recordable VCD in PC's, PC makers not commenting.
They also comfirmed the death of Tele-TV, but expected PacTel and BellAtlatic to still pursue wireless cable on their own. Also said Americast is very strong.
On digital cable, Alex said that it will 1st happen in '97, but he does not see it as large in '97.
MMDS, outside the US is big. He said China in '97 and accelerating in '98. DiviCom is the dominant player here.
Responding to an AViA question, he said that DTV and echostar will be adding features, such as 2D graphics by the second half of '97. You could tell that he was implying a possibilities of getting into DTV.
Last note. Toshiba has been aggressive in decrption/encription chips. my take was that they are complimentory tech. Not competion. |
