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Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greg S. who wrote (13249)	6/14/1999 11:48:00 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 16960

>> Anyone else seeing any parallels here? Yes. Neither company understands if you manage to get other people to tie their success to yours, then you will flourish. But if you try to keep your "superior" technology to yourself in competition to everyone else, they will unite against you and kill you. ST

To: Greg S. who wrote (13249)	6/14/1999 12:03:00 PM
From: benwood	Respond to of 16960

Apple didn't buy Motorola, nor did anyone else. You're probably thinking of the 3-way joint investment to develop the PowerPC (with Apple, Motorola, and IBM).

To: Greg S. who wrote (13249)	6/14/1999 8:10:00 PM
From: El Guapo	Respond to of 16960

On Apple/3dfx parallels: - Strong brand awareness among consumers did not develop business market inroads. Lack of focus on either business or consumer market in a quickly expanding market relegated the company to serving a niche market. Apple: Was not able to break into the business market with Apple III nor with Lisa until IBM PC captured much of the market. By the time MacIntosh came around, Apple was relegated to a niche... desktop publishing. 3dfx: Targeted hardcore gamers in commercials, yet bought STB to court OEM deals with Dell. Focus on business market may lose technological leadership and powergamer niche to nVidia. - Failed to develop key relationships with strategic partners: Apple: Poised to re-enter the OS market against Microsoft in Motorola/IBM/Apple partnership. Nothing materialized. 3dfx: Poised to enter emerging next-generation console market with Sega. No console deal, and 3dfx was passed up by Sony and Nintendo as well for their next-generation consoles as well. - began as a leader in technology, but continued sales with lagging technology with strong marketing: Apple: Apple II took advantage of Moore's Law by continuing to sell IIe's IIc's well into the late 80's, but did not introduce a new successful product until MacIntosh in 1984... which didn't take off until circa 1986 when the laser printer came out. Sales of Apple II relied on huge 3rd party software library support. 3dfx: All current products are essentially revisions of Voodoo 1. Banshee/Voodoo3 integrated Voodoo1 plus one or two TMUs on a single die. When was Voodoo1? 1994? At least Apple came out with new products (Lisa and Apple III), even if they failed. Strong brand awareness and commercials continue to push aging Voodoo/Banshee technology successfully... but for how long? - Litigation vs. innovation: Apple: Sued Microsoft over "look and feel": Lost. 3dfx: Sued Sega (won). Lawsuit pending against nVidia and Creative. The biggest difference between Apple and 3dfx, is that Apple was the darling of investors and the press. 3dfx lacks the cultural impact of Apple. Apple is a religion, 3dfx is just another 3D graphics accelerator chip company. People had faith in Apple long after they had no tangible reason for it. IMO, 3dfx does not have enough brand loyalty for it to falter technologically for long. I am a LONG term investor, but I have been looking for a new product from 3dfx since their IPO. When will the messiah arrive???