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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric L who wrote (27230)	7/3/2000 11:11:04 AM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Eric, Your points are well taken. The biggest fear I would have is the formation of an industry consortium that would eliminate the possibility of a single gorilla. The exceptions to this would be the selection of proprietary components within the standard if, in fact, a multifunctional card is decided on. The PKI portion or other unique facets of the card might fit this bill. From earlier links you posted it seems logical that world-wide (or at least continent-wide) agreement on the key components must be clearer before rapid acceptance can be facilitated. The handheld device manufacturers are uncertain what standards to support, the banks are frustrated by multiple standards and the lack of identity with the consumer, etc... I suspect many financial institutions or e-commerce sites may sit on the sidelines until this soup is reduced down into an appetizing consummé. Smart Cards are in a period of hypergrowth worldwide, but US remains an exception. The emerging "killer" application is associated with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), portable credentials (like a portable SIM subscription) that can be used to access the Internet or a Corporate Intranet or Extranet, from your mobile phone, a desktop, laptop, or PDA. Ausdauer

To: Eric L who wrote (27230)	7/3/2000 4:06:16 PM
From: gdichaz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Eric L: Since possible smart card investments seem hard to find, are Atmel (ATML) or Infineon possible ways to participate - at least in a small way - per your last para? "Flash is not yet widely used in smart cards, or in the smart card form factor. Atmel as I noted is an exception. Seems to me Infineon (Siemens spinoff) has a relationship with SanDisk. Infineon is the largest manufacturer of microprocessor smart card chips for "IC Cards", but these chips are only about 10% of their semiconductor production. Smart card chips are "on allocation" and their is a significant shortage of them, which is an industry problem." Best. Cha2 ...