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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Valueman who wrote (6311)	2/7/2000 1:02:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

Internet appliances forecast to surpass PCs in 2002 By Therese Poletti SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. market for Internet appliances is entering a period of rapid takeoff, and the new devices are expected to surpass consumer personal computer shipments in 2002, a leading technology market research firm said on Monday. Internet appliances are easy-to-use, lower cost devices designed soley for accessing the Internet. They do not typically have hard disk drives or some of the functions of more costly but harder to use personal computers. As an even broader group of companies seek to address the ''Post-PC'' era with these new devices, market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) said it expected the worldwide market for information appliances to exceed 89 million units, or $17.8 billion in 2004 vs. 11 million units and $2.4 billion in 1999. In general, appliances are low-cost and generally are priced under $500, depending on the type of device and ideally, they cost way under $500, IDC said. According to IDC, it includes the shipments of Internet gaming consoles (such as the Sega Enterprises Ltd.'s Dreamcast), Internet accessible TVs (like Microsoft Corp.'s (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) WebTV Networks), Internet smart handheld devices (such as 3Com Corp.'s(NasdaqNM:COMS - news) Palm VII), Web terminals, e-mail terminals and screenphones. As these and other new devices arrive in the next few years, the Framingham, Mass.-based IDC predicted that U.S. unit shipments of appliances would outnumber those of consumer PCs by 2002. U.S. consumer information appliances are forecast to reach over 25 million units in 2002, while PCs are expected to hit about 23 million units in the United States. ''There will be two ways it will evolve,'' said Kevin Hause, an analyst with IDC and one of the authors of a new IDC report on the Internet appliance market. "One group will be people who don't have PCs and who are intimidated or for whatever reason, don't want a PC. This is where many companies are targeting today, i.e., 'Let's get this for our grandparents, who don't have a PC but want to get on the Web.' The other group, Hause said, is currently techno-savvy individuals, who already have a PC in their home, but would like to have Internet access in their kitchen for recipes, or other parts of the house for many uses. He said these customers may pay a few extra dollars a month, in addition to their current monthly Internet service charge, to have an appliance in another room. Hause also said the current devices that are just coming out now are still have the hallmarks of first generation devices -- they're ugly, clunky, and expensive. ''But they will improve as people figure out what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for,'' Hause said. ''As those issues get figured out, then we will see the market really take off. The Sonys, the Thomsons, the Matsushitas, these companies haven't played their cards yet. They have tested the waters but we haven't seen where they are going yet.''

To: Valueman who wrote (6311)	2/7/2000 7:47:00 AM
From: Jeff Vayda	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13582

Vman: your observations: When does this happen? It's happening...Handset vendors MUST be working on 1XRTT models NOW. That has profound implications for Q's ASIC business. Will any sane handset maker use any other ASIC than the MSM5000? ... So, you say trend till third quarter. I say much news to come long before that. Stay tuned! Let me see... IF all these handset manufacturers were to go to the latest chip, wouldn't Qualcomm need to modify its production capacity? Would that require a near term reduction in capacity while the lines/components/supplies are adjusted? Does Irwin's 'slump' next quarter account for a planned product re-orientation? Hmmm...Go Brain Go. Jeff Vayda