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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: t36 who wrote (54663)	12/17/1999 1:20:00 AM
From: Kent Rattey	Respond to of 152472

Qualcomm's Hook: Eudora's Free, But With Ads (12/16/99, 2:10 p.m. ET) OPINION By Marty Cortinas , TechWeb Qualcomm is working on a new version of the venerable Eudora e-mailpackage. Normally, that rates nothing but a yawn, but the upcoming versionhas an interesting little hook. First, let's consider what Qualcomm is up against in the market. Aside from the normal competition found in almost every other computing sector, there's really only one major hurdle. Unfortunately for Qualcomm, it's a big one: Microsoft. Not only is Microsoft stacked to the rafters when it comes to resources, but it also enjoys a price advantage few companies can even dream of touching. Unless the box is wrapped with dollar bills, "free" can't be undersold. Not everyone has the resources of Microsoft, so companies have to be a little more creative to compete. Like many others, Qualcomm offers a "light" version of its software. It's free, but it lacks many features of the full-blown application. Qualcomm is truly moving into the free product space with the next version of Eudora, now in beta. (It's public, and you can download it at Qualcomm's website.) The twist is that in addition to the usual Eudora Light, there will be two versions of the full application: paid mode and sponsored mode. Paid mode is the regular, full-blown e-mail program that will cost around $40. Sponsored mode is the same thing with two differences: It's free, and -- drumroll, please -- it has ads. Qualcomm explains in its FAQ that the sponsored mode is a way for the company to put its product into more users' hands, and admits it doesn't have the resources to simply give it away. The beauty of the thing is that you don't have to put up with ads if you don't want to. You can either use the other free version or pay for the big one. You've got a choice. What a concept! The ads are in a small box that floats on top of the other Eudora windows. It's small enough to stay out of the way, plus you can move it anywhere around the edge you'd like (at least it's that way in the Mac version). Be a little careful moving the box, though, because the wrong click will launch you and your Web browser toward whichever site happened to be advertising at that moment. Compared with other Internet ads and shareware nag boxes, it's fairly innocuous. The ads change every few minutes, and none of them are animated or have sound. In fact, Qualcomm seems to be going out of its way not to upset users. A colleague of mine noted that the program will occasionally give him a gentle nudge like, "Excuse me, but something appears to be covering the ad." (The ads go away when you move to another program, by the way.) He said it's hard to be angry about it when the program is being so nice. While this idea may not be new, it's an interesting implementation of it, and I hope some other Mac developers take the hint instead of looking at the free competition from the big guys and giving up.