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Technology Stocks : PALM - The rebirth of Palm Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: richard w allgaier who wrote (1229)	8/14/2000 12:20:50 PM
From: Andre Williamson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6784

Commodities war? What's "commodity" about it? Different OSs Totally different developer bases and depth of applications Highly personal Still in infancy Retailers cannot keep the expensive, high margin products on the shelves Decent gross margins - even on those $150 products. Huge costs of entry for competing OSs To the degree that the low end products are thinner on profit margins, Palm benefits as the vast majority of sales, regardless of manufacturer, mean high gross margin royalty payments. Prices will come down, sure, but what percentage of the global population that can afford a basic handheld actually has one? Less than 1%, I believe. To me, Palm's looking like the AOL of handhelds, only better. Like AOL, it benefits from brand name and network effects. It also owns the OS; it can expand in new markets with greater ease; its product is highly VISIBLE; and more personal. Andre

To: richard w allgaier who wrote (1229)	8/14/2000 11:05:32 PM
From: TechieGuy-alt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6784

Rick, >>A commodities war is IMO exactly what it's liable to turn into. As I stated, it'll eventually make money on it's operating system..that is unless another, better OS surfaces at somewhere in the future. At that point, you may rest assured that a commodities war is what it will be. << I don't see how anyone can call the PDA war's a "commodity" war? A commodity is something that can be replaced by another brand transparently and the over-riding criterion for purchase is price! I don't see how, if you want a PALM, because you want to run your choice of the 6500+ odd apps available for it, you decide to buy a WinCE device or a RIMM pager (thingy) just because they are a bit cheaper. If you want a palm, you either buy a palm or a visor. Even if you buy visor, PALM gets software license revenues. I still see the PDA wars a feature set/brand name software availability issue than a commodity based price war situation. JMO TG