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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (6161)	6/28/1999 9:25:00 AM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Art and Bruno, I agree that SNDK is being held a bit more firmly, by more people, and in larger amounts. This may decrease the amplitude of the trading range. I also agree that digital camera users and others who are purchasing CF cards for portable electronics devices may dabble in the market creating what others have referred to as "The Iomega Effect". The cult-like following that Iomega created will be difficult to duplicate, but we could attain it on a smaller scale. I know that SNDK has possessed me for the past 14 months. Ausdauer

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (6161)	6/28/1999 4:42:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Art, I came across this mention of Sandisk> Texas Instrument (TXN) 138 3/8 +2 7/8: An interesting development in the downloadable music area. The music industry is trying very hard to put the genie back in the bottle, but it can't be easy. With so many MP3 songs available on the internet, available free, but illegally, it is no easy task to come up with a system that will enable copyright owners to be paid as the music is downloaded. But today, Texas Instruments announced that they have come up with a complete solution for bringing downloadable music, for a fee, to the net. The deal is an agreement between Liquid Audio Inc., Fraunhofer, and SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) to each provide a component of the total solution. Texas Instruments will make DSP (digital sound processing) chips that will play only properly encoded, licensed music. Liquid Audio is adding encryption code to the downloaded music and Franhofer is adding compression technology, much like the MP3 compression software they already developed, which is the root of the industry problems. SanDisk will provide the memory cards for the devices that will play the downloadable music. The idea between today's announcement is to sign up manufacturers who will build the devices, hopefully in time for Christmas sales this year. The music industry has already agreed on a standard, called the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), which is intended to make sure that everyone who downloads music from the net winds up paying for it. Once SDMI devices exist, music publishers will put the SDMI encoded music on the net, for purchase and download. But no one builds one today. Today's announcement is an attempt to get the hardware side of the deal going. But who's going to build one? How much will it cost? How will the industry convince the world to buy players that require payment of a royalty fee when players that don't require such a fee are already available? It is a thorny problem for the music industry, and one which we are watching. If they can find a way to sell music over the net, and stop the unlicensed copying of MP3 files, the music industry can put the "royal" back into royalty. But how it will be done is a drama that should be enlightening to watch. Act 1 started today. - RVG 13:15 ET ******