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Technology Stocks : Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KevRupert who wrote (598)	12/2/2000 10:35:20 AM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 817

advalorem, << I'm just trying to calculate some independent research on the PDA industry. Objectivity is what I am after in this field. >> Objectivity seems to be hard to find in any field. Objectivity is even harder to find on financial message boards. We all develop a passion and bias for a company that, after we have done intensive DD on, decide to invest in. Our passions rule us. It is the nature of the beast. I have followed wireless mobile telephony closely since 1994 ,,, closer than any other industry. Whether it be the financial analysts that follow the industry, journalists, or consultants that are sometimes published, it is rare to find one that can put aside their bias, for a single technology, or their bias for a company that promotes a technology. And so it goes with PDAs, which are closely related to wireless mobile telephony, because they are used in conjunction with mobile wireless devices, either as a "connected" (data cable) component, or "unconnected" companion to a mobile handset. In the future that is now here, they will be incorporated increasingly into mobile wireless devices (as WIDs & Communicators), or be easier to connect to mobile wireless devices (better, less expensive, simpler, cables and adaptors, software, peripherals). From a user point of view, I have not yet determined whether one device or two best suits my purposes. I'll find out when the Kycoera Smartphone hits Verizon stores next spring. From an investment point of view, I am convinced that the success of a PDA manufacturer, or company that has enabling technology for PDA's, is closely linked to their successful convergence with mobile wireless telephony. For the above stated reason, I personally am currently on the investment sideline, PDA wise. I am seriously considering a small investment, in a small "basket" of handheld players. My contemplated Handheld Game "basket" today consists of Palm, Psion, and Gemplus, but I can't say I'm totally comfortable with it. Microsoft is absent. I held MSFT for a number of years, and vacated early this year because of DOJ events. They are not a Handheld pure play, and I sure can't figure out their Wireless strategy. Regardless, they WILL play in the Handheld Game, and play big. Palm (my PDA of current choice) I see as threatened by any number of competing technologies and players for a variety of reasons. As for Psion, I'd rather play Symbian, but there is no Symbian pure play. Gemplus (which will IPO next week) is simply King in the arena of smart cards which will enable the use of PDA's WIDs/Communicators. << Jim Seymour article on a "no 3G" scenario, by Jim Seymour, on realmoney.com today. >> thestreet.com I've rambled on a bit long here (thinking out loud) because before responding I read Jim's article "Just Asking: Any Chance the '3G Revolution' Won't Happen?". I am a Jim Seymour fan (follow him regularly in PC Magazine). The article though short is VERY good. I had read his article "Psst: The Mobile Revolution Has Been Rescheduled" (also good) a few weeks back: thestreet.com I had also read frequent SI "Cool" poster, Tero Kuittinen's excellent two part article "AT&T Drops Bombshell on Motorola": thestreet.com thestreet.com All this was fresh in my mind, when I started to respond here. Jim Seymour promises: "Mull this over on the weekend; I'll be back on Monday with more details, and more on the 2G+ argument." Stay Tuned! Hang in with us (at least once in a while). Feel free also to drop in and comment also on the SI "Gorilla & King Portfolio Candidates" thread, where several of us have tried to promote Geoffrey More style discussion centered around "The Handheld Game", with only marginal success. Although we all have our biases there, it attempts to be as objective as it can get here on SI, when we are discussing companies whose sectors are entering hypergrowth. - Eric -