HAUP will only disappoint shareholders again.
first, let's see what HAUP has done right.
they established a wonderful sales/distribution
structure that has enabled them to compete on the
distribution level, and even more on the retail
level by gaining shelf space and brand recognition
in computer superstores, and office supply centers;
this despite the terrible competition of Graphic
Card makers continuously including TV functions
on their 3D Graphic cards. This distribution has
enabled them to take full advantage to past two
years as PC's became much cheaper, and consumers
more educated in the way's of addon Cards in Win'95.
Now, what else has HAUP brought to the table?
well, most of us know of the Win'98 inclusion
of WAVO's Wavetop, and despite not needing any
HAUP product to enjoy this, HAUP used this kind
of gimmick to help justify their Card sales.
Clearly, this attempt at a "new" standard failed
despite backing from many Major Content providers.
wavetop.net
Yet HAUP was able to market it as the best Win'98
TV solution, more because of it's WaveTop support
then it's TV functions. Very Clever, huh?!
Now HAUP must come up with a new gimmick to sell
TV Cards now that Wavetop has all but failed.
So 6 months ago they did a press release 11/13/98
[#325] about their intention of doing a High-DTV card
for under $500 that would work on a PC just like
the $5,000 Televisions do. This was an exciting
announcement, that even peeked Wall St's Interest.
''WSJ-05/24/99: Robert Van Securities analyst Steven Singleton said he's optimistic about the company's prospects, particularly in its work in the High-definition television market. But he said he didn't know of any upcoming Internet alliances that were suggested in the BusinessWeek article.''
So during the first Quarter of '99, HAUP shareholders were
optimistic! they would come off a strong Xmas quarter, and
look forward to an HDTV product in time for next Xmas that
would cost less than half of what Panasonic and others could
produce. Problem is, HAUP just could not pull this off.
This is because Terelogic decided to sell their cheap HDTV
chips to SIII and NVDA to be included on 3D Graphic boards
on both the low and high end of the market spectrum, leaving
HAUP out in the cold with just a HDTV Alone solution.
So they downgraded their interum goal to focusing on DTV,
which is a poor substitute for HDTV, since to the consumer
it's little more than a sharper same size image as Analog,
but with data embedded for addional functionality that all
consumer have yet to be educated about. Embedded data...
sound familier? like the WaveTop failure of the previous
Xmas? Ah, but wait! There's another gimmick to keep those
overpriced cards selling. We'll add the WAVX chip, which
will enable users to enjoy pay per use/view'able content!
Yet another concept that the average consumer will need to
be educated about, and induced into trying, giving the add
on cost is no longer under $100, but $300-$500, depending
on which HAUP press release you believe. [#337]
Hmmm, this WAVX gimmick sound familier? Aren't practically
all the millions of smart adressable CableTV Boxes out there
capable of doing this, as well as the millions of WebTV boxes
sold the past 3 years? Yet none of these products have been
able to transform consumer habits beyond the simpilest pay
per view needs they already know from dumb cable TV systems.
So even if HAUP announces some miracle allience with Yahoo
and Broadcast, or even MSNBC, or whoever the hypsters here
dream they will getting from that Cagy BW article based on a
rumor started by an "unnamed money manager", what difference
would that actually make? WaveTop had excellent names backing
them including MicroSoft and Intel themselves, yet the standard
failed simply because it was too difficult and too expensive
to educate consumers with enough compelling content and functions
to entice them to adopt a new standard. So all you longs here
believe that after Millions of CableTV boxes, and a Decade of
other encryption software systems later, the pay per usage
model is suddenly going to broken wide open by an overhyped
Bulliten Board stock company? Remember; HAUP Cards get both
key technologies, from Terelogic(DTV) and Embassy(WAVX), and get
to slap them on cards, and suddenly have a tremendous hit on their
hands that justifies the Tripling of it's Market Cap? Terelogic
is already contracted to include it's (H)DTV chips on SIII and
NVDA's Graphic cards, and you can be sure WAVX will sell it's
Embassy chips to ANYONE who will bother to promote the standard.
I'm sorry, but I've been around HAUP too long to trust
their technological initiatives, and I really feel sorry
for the new high priced longs that will learn this months
from now, when the truth of the HAUP marketing gimmick
machinisms, finally becomes appherent to them. Daytraders
Long and Short will be long gone after their adventures in
HAUP this week, but when the dust settles, many sad longs
will be left holding the bag, and the SEC complaints will
follow. I have a funny feeling that "unnamed money manager"
is sweating tonight, wondering if his BW contact will have
to give him up to the Feds who will want to know how he may
have profitted from all our folley. I'm certain even that
mystery fellow didn't expect lazy HAUP to trade so insanely. |
