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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (12446)	7/2/2000 3:27:27 PM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Art, Eric's detailed analysis touched on several issues. First, as I have stated before, I don't see much overlap at all between SSTI and SNDK. I think if fat margins are there in the lower density applications that SanDisk would consider entering that market. I don't anticipate them spreading the company that thin at the moment. I think we all know that fat margins are open invitations to competition unless technological barriers permit entry. Second, 2Mbit, 4Mbit, 8Mbit and 16Mbit chips are a long way from 256 and 512Mbit chips and beyond. Maybe we should really be talking about ultra-low, low, moderate and high density flash chips to be more exact. I see barriers to entry being much lower in the low density flash market. The important thing is that demand is strong now and a high tide floats all ships. That is probably supporting margins for right now. An analogy would be passive electronics components such as capacitors. No rocket science involved, but little spare capacity to be had. As applications become more sophisticated I would expect the requirements placed on embedded chips will push OEM's to look for higher capacity TSOP's. How much information can you store on a 500KB or 2MB embedded chip? At some point in the future SNDK may wish to reassess its position and consider branching out to embedded applications. Right now SNDK's plate is full. Ausdauer

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (12446)	7/3/2000 10:21:31 AM
From: Allegoria	Respond to of 60323

Art, I never saw the Microdrive as even being competitive with compact flash either...but it was brought up before this thread so I thought to include it. On the question of whether SSTI and SNDK could end up competing for similar markets, I too could see that as a possiblity, inching closer and closer. But IMO, it will not be in the low-density market but "in the cards". But doesn't the market for SSTI consist more of embedded flash applications? YES, currently it is mainly embedded code, not data. But SSTI has stated that they are going to move up the density chain. This may put them in cometition with SNDK eventually. Good luck, Eric