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Technology Stocks : General Magic -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Madarasz who wrote (8047)	2/16/2000 12:45:00 PM
From: Bryan	Respond to of 10081

Chicago Auto Show stuff In a word......Boring. If you're interested in buying a car, fine. If you are going there to dig up info on Auto technology, don't bother. I could get more out of my nine-year-old son. At any rate, I was pleased to see some enthusiasm at the US automakers' sections this year. OnStar was a popular item, according to GM reps, but unfortunately, there was no working demo at the Chicago show. Reasons cited for this were the following: 1. Too much interference with building structure. 2. Noise level too loud for public demo. 3. Too many problems in Detroit with patrons continuously pressing the buttons. I pressed on for info (no pun intended)........ I spoke to three GM reps. And I asked several questions regarding the evolution of OnStar. First of all, I must mention that none of them ever heard of GMGC. But all of them were of the opinion that OnStar will eventually evolve into a conduit for internet communication. Asking about voice recognition and true hands-free operation, one of the ladies I spoke to mentioned that many people were inquiring about this feature, but they [GM reps] could not provide any feedback at this time. I said, "Well I can get this stuff on my cell phone for free, so why bother with OnStar?" The GM reps all boasted about the OnStar tracking functionality, and added that OnStar can "locate your car" and your cell phone cannot. That's a good point, I suppose. I said things like: "I want to trade stocks in my car." and "I want to check my e-mail from behind the steering wheel." Will OnStar be able to do this? Securely?? Besides blank stares, I did get some interesting feedback. One of the reps told me that OnStar reps frequent many of the larger GM dealers in their quest for research and that they have a lot of encouraging things to say about the future of OnStar. Unfortunately, she could not elaborate on specifics. Another GM rep mentioned that OnStar will be standard equipment in the next couple years. The female GM rep (also the most informative) told me that "we all want the internet in the car." And she also said, "That is the way the market is trending." Obviously, OnStar is addressing this, and hopefully Gen Magic will be a playing a key role in the fruition of that dream. I see a perfect fit here, but without my own bias thrown in, all I can say is that it was not easy getting info out of the Auto Show (as it relates to this sort of technology). Best to all....wish I had more to report. B