Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maya who wrote (44780)	9/14/1999 10:32:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Conner sold a hard drive business. Now a new one, and some are sales for Venus boxes.................... technologypost.com The company is in talks with mainland manufacturers of set-top boxes, though he declined to name the companies. Several manufacturers, some using Microsoft's Venus operating system, have already introduced boxes to the market. Conner eyes budget PC, set-top box sales ANH-THU PHAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conner Technology, a US-based disk-drive maker with most of its operations in Asia, hopes to sell US$200 million worth of equipment to computer manufacturers in its first year of operation and to quadruple sales in its second year. To meet its goal of taking 10 per cent of the personal-computer disk-drive market in the second year, Conner's strategy includes contracting manufacturing and parts to Shenzhen-based Great Wall Technology. By not investing in infrastructure, it expected operating costs about half those of rivals like Quantum, Maxtor and Seagate, founder Finis Conner said. Started last year, the company is Mr Conner's first venture into the disk-drive industry since he sold Conner Peripherals to Seagate for $1 billion in 1996. Mr Conner, who also co-founded market leader Seagate in 1981 and had a hand in Shugart Associates, the first independent disk-drive maker for the PC market, reportedly had to stay out of the business for two years as a condition of the Conner Peripherals sale. Prices reported to be about 5 per cent below those of other manufacturers could help the venture win business from the 30 or so top computer-makers Mr Conner is going after. The company has begun shipment of 4.3-gigabyte and 8.6 gb drives, both no-frills models for use in so-called sub-$1,000 PCs. Models with a capacity of up to 16 gb will be introduced later this year. Quantum and Seagate, each with more than a fifth of the market for desktop PC disk drives, stand to lose, though Mr Conner insists there is room for three or four suppliers at the low end of the market. These companies are not letting the challenge go unanswered. Seagate's U8 series, aimed squarely at the markets for budget PCs and non-PC devices, was introduced recently with endorsements from manufacturers such as Acer, Compaq Computer and Siemens. Great Wall's $40 million hard-drive assembly plant in Shenzhen will provide contract assembly, while its Kaifa subsidiary will supply headstacks and PC boards from a plant next to the assembly plant. Most other parts suppliers and computer manufacturing customers are in Asia, in places such as Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. Conner's business strategy takes advantage of difficulties being faced by the world's biggest hard-drive manufacturers, which are being forced to cut prices as customers demand lower-priced drives for PCs that will eventually retail for between $500 and $1,000. With hundreds of millions invested in their own factories, these companies had been finding it difficult to retool their assembly lines to grab this growing low-end market, Mr Conner said. "It doesn't mean that this [business] model is wrong for all segments of the market. Certainly, it's probably needed for the high-end servers or tape drives," he said. Nonetheless, "the migration to low-priced PCs has happened faster than people realised it would", Mr Conner said. About 55 per cent of PCs shipped in the fourth quarter this year would retail for less than $1,000, disk-drive industry research firm Trendfocus said. Mr Conner expects that percentage will go up to 70 per cent next year. He also is betting that set-top boxes and other non-PC Internet devices will need local storage. The company is in talks with mainland manufacturers of set-top boxes, though he declined to name the companies. Several manufacturers, some using Microsoft's Venus operating system, have already introduced boxes to the market.