Like many, I am having difficulty reaching a prognosis for Spyglass in its present turbulent situation. On the one hand, it may be viewed as well positioned in the middle of a large, downcoming stream, "compelling" as Red Herring noted recently, and profit handsomely even with a small slice of the huge embedded market. On another, it could be stepped on by a number of larger, better financed players, and fall through the cracks.
Over the past few weeks, two giants have shown their feathers. Sun Microsystems has begun hawking Jini and Sony has introduced its Aperios operating system for controlling consumer devises. Are the products Spyglass markets able to compete effectively against these giants?
Whereas a lot of ink has been spilled on Jini, I have not heard as much on Aperios, developed over a decade, and which appears to be a direct competitor to Devise Mosaic. Sony has, however, a financial stake in General Instruments; GI in turn has a stake in Spyglass and has hired Spyglass to build the operating system of its set-top boxes.
Spyglass has a lot of other problems these days, including the class action lawsuits and the CEO Doug Colbeth's health. The firm's management has shown itself to be scrappy and flexible to change; perhaps they will be able to get themselves together for a profitable run, even in turbulent times.
All my best,
Osman. |
