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Technology Stocks : IATV-ACTV Digital Convergence Software-HyperTV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: art slott who wrote (5596)	7/21/1999 11:19:00 AM
From: Carolyn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13157

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that WGAT and IATV are not really competitors. For instance, Charter uses General Instruments' set-top box (isn't IATV there?) and Worldgate.

To: art slott who wrote (5596)	7/21/1999 11:22:00 AM
From: Eqmx	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13157

Art, I am glad to see Mike F. out of this stock. Apparently he never understood what ACTV does. ACTV is the only interactive TV offering the viewers various camera angles they can choose in real time while watching a sport event, a music event or any live event. Capito?

To: art slott who wrote (5596)	7/21/1999 11:54:00 AM
From: Mike Fredericks	Respond to of 13157

CE has nothing to do with ACTV. Windows is the OS for the PC yet other software companies sell plenty of apps. We work with CE, Java etc. Java isn't an OS. It's a programming language, and it's also a program that runs on multiple OS's. I don't think our program is written in Java, but rather it's written in C, which will also run on multiple OS's. Regardless, your point about Win CE not mattering is 100% accurate and I don't dispute that. What you fail to address in your post is the <pardon the shouting> INTERACTIVE CLIENT AND SERVER SOFTWARE that Microsoft is developing. This will compete directly with IATV. AT&T is supporting this effort thanks to Billy Gates's 5 billion investment in good old T. What's more important to AT&T - the 5 Billion that came from Microsoft or the few million that LMG has invested in IATV? There's an old saying. It's not who's first but who's best. Thats us. I agree. We were first. We've been around longest. We just haven't rolled out yet. So we failed to take advantage of being first. Now the market is getting crowded. I know that WGAT and WINK don't directly compete with IATV, but they are out there and WGAT at least is bringing in revenues from real customers (I don't know what WINK's status is at present). MSFT is coming out in a few months with their interactive client and server. Lots of people can coexist in the same space... different companies and networks will go with different interactive software. The set top boxes can run software by multiple vendors, so one box could have IATV and MSFT on it in theory, so that a person could flip to an IATV channel and watch IATV-enabled stuff then flip to a MSFT channel and watch MSFT-enabled stuff. However, I think that IATV runs the risk of getting lost in the shuffle if they don't roll out soon. The multiple camera angles would rock, but someone somewhere is holding up the deployment... I do believe in IATV's technology; I just wish that they would get it out there so that they could get some revenue. That's my beef. Unfortunately, I seem to be in the minority here that thinks that if we delay much longer we will get shut out. -Mike