I think the market for Drives that work in a Television application will be dynamite, but I am afraid it may be a bit further away than I would like to think.
On Friday, I was talking with an engineer/designer working on a new Set Top Box for TCI/ATT. He said that they had allowed for footprint space and power consumption to put a drive in the device, but he thought it was unlikely that they would bother to put one in at this time because the service was not available to take advantage of it yet. He also talked about some non-Technical problems such as Movie Studio concerns, copywrite stuff etc.
I am also concerned about the 'push' we will get from the cable companies. What is in it for them? Obviously, customer satisfaction issues, and potentially more biz on pay per view items, but maybe the advertisers aren't too keen on this and ultimately with TV they are currently footing the bill.
Don't mean to be a naysayer, because I do believe this technology is coming to TV's, but I am a little concerned about the timing. Heck, it was only a couple of months ago that TCI in my area even offered digital service, and I still can not get Internet service through cable.
Still think both long and short term Quantum is an excellent investment at this point. We appear to be at the start of a positive cycle for Drives, Quantum has solid balance sheet, and trading at around 12 times progected '99 earnings. |
