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Technology Stocks : Identix (IDNX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: brad greene who wrote (15619)	11/10/1999 2:01:00 AM
From: steve	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26039

We have ignition!!! 8]

To: brad greene who wrote (15619)	11/10/1999 2:54:00 AM
From: CareyM	Respond to of 26039

Wahoo!! Congratulations Balooga!!! You make me proud to be a Commission member.

To: brad greene who wrote (15619)	11/10/1999 6:03:00 AM
From: DCBEN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26039

Anyone care to guess how much software royalty we get per Siemens phone sale? $.05 or $2.00 or ???? Ben

To: brad greene who wrote (15619)	11/10/1999 11:16:00 AM
From: David	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26039

Fantastic find on the cell phone, Brad! I know you are too modest, but perhaps we can persuade you to accept a Wendell. Where to begin? The phone sells for $550 per unit, so this is clearly not a mass market product. That's OK, though, since new technology almost always enters at the top of the market, and this phone will be marketed to corporate buyers who need access to restricted information by wireless communications. IDX has its BioLogon 2.0 software on the phone, which I will guess represents perhaps $10 in license revenue per phone sale. When you sell a phone for $550, you are unlikely to demand a very reduced licensing figure since IDX isn't going to make up for it in volume sales. FingerTIP is silicon, not optical. Silicon suffers from the following disabilities: (1) Expense (2) Static electricity issues (3) Fragility (4) False finger detection. As to (1), price appears to be no object for purpose of this product. As to static electricity, it may be that there has been enough progress in coating silicon to allow it to be used in telephones (and PCs), at least that's what I hear. Overall, this progress is bad news for IDX, but good news in this instance. (As an aside, this eventually has implications for the credit card market, where even an advanced DFR-300 optical reader is likely to be too thick to fit on a smart card, but a silicon chip will be thin enough.) Regarding fragility, it should remain a problem, but it may be minimized as in issue in a cell phone compared to on a computer keyboard. You are just less likely to crack the chip on the cell phone based on opportunity for things falling on it. Finally, false finger must still be a problem compared to optical, but we know that the BioLogon software itself provides a measure of protection. In a limited volume product, the absolute risk of a false finger impersonation is reduced compared to a mass market product. It will be interesting to find out if the Siemens phone uses the biometric feature to clear a dial tone or not, because if it does have that feature, it will render the phone essentially unusable by a thief. Introduction of the Siemens phone greatly raises the odds of an early introduction of a MOT optical biometric phone, if only to keep up the competition for bragging rights. If we are lucky, we could see both the Siemens phone and a MOT model (like a Nextel) at COMDEX. Having the Siemens phone available also will help solve the chicken and egg problem in wireless. All we need now is an announcement by Novell or British Telecom, for instance, that they are embedding IDX matching algorithms in their servers and everything needed will be in place to be operational. I don't see how Siemens would even want to offer this feature without assurance that there would be software at the back end that could handle user authentication. Again, if we are lucky, we will see some kind of OS support released at COMDEX. In the end, the effect on the stock price is going to depend on whether institutions and analysts conclude that this first penetration of a new market will open a major revenue stream for IDX, because this product alone is more a symbol of what may come, then the realization of the market. But it is important, there is no doubt about that.