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

To: Thotdoc who wrote (9322)	1/20/2001 10:19:33 AM
From: John Madarasz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10081

Precisely Doc... In fact, we all should have seen this coming some time ago. From the 8/22/00 General Magic ASP (Application Service Provider) announcement with Nuan, read this excerpt closely, as it really defines who does what... "Nuance has a long and rich history with General Magic and we are delighted to extend our relationship," said Steve Ehrlich, vice president of marketing for Nuance. "Voice ASPs, like General Magic, provide a critical role in the evolution of the Voice Web by providing speech application development services as well as hosting." For more than three years, General Magic has built and hosted custom-branded voice solutions using the magicTalk platform coupled with Nuance speech recognition technologies. The two companies have a long history of partnering to develop the market for voice solutions. In this partnership, General Magic provides development of custom-branded voice user interfaces, magicTalk platform technologies, system integration of applications, messaging and content sources, and hosting of the resultant voice solution. Nuance provides speech recognition technologies coupled with professional services allowing the best possible speech recognition for the target solution. "We are very excited about the marketing opportunities the Voice Web ASP program will provide and are thrilled that Nuance has designed a program around the important category of hosted voice solutions," said Paula Skokowski, vice president of marketing for General Magic. "This exceptional opportunity showcases General Magic's offerings to potential customers looking to guard against technology obsolescence in the emerging voice applications." genmagic.com I think people really miss the fact that it is the MagicTalk platform that is the KEY,in my opinion, to making all these different voice services and softwares scalable and applicable to the many different voice markets that are evolving. This is so important to remember. Of course, in my quest to remain the eternal optimist<g>, I see this as a win/win for GMGC. They bring an old partner into the fold with GM and enhance the Onstar product, and in turn strengthen their relationship with NUAN. Here is an excerpt from NUAN's last 10 Q defining their licensing revenue arrangements... biz.yahoo.com Our license revenue consists of license fees for our voice interface software products. Historically, this license fee has been calculated using the two variables: the computation power required to run our platform and the maximum number of simultaneous end-user connections to an application running on our platform. During the quarter ending September 30, 2000, we began implementing a new pricing model for the license fees for our software platform. Under this new pricing model, the license fee is calculated using two variables, one of which is the maximum number of simultaneous end-user connections to an application running on the platform, consistent with our prior method. However, the second variable of the license fee is now based on the value attributed to the functional use of the software. A pricing reserve was established during the second quarter associated with the implementation of this new pricing model to the Company's value-added resellers. This new pricing model for value-added resellers was resolved during the third quarter. License revenue is recognized when: . evidence of an arrangement exists; . delivery has occurred; . the fee is fixed and determinable; and . collection is probable. The timing of license revenue recognition is affected by whether we perform consulting services in the arrangement, and the nature of those services. In the majority of cases, we either perform no consulting services or we perform standard implementation services that are not essential to the functionality of the software. In these cases, we recognize license revenue either upon issuance of the permanent software license key (which enables the software to be operated) or on system acceptance, if the customer has established acceptance criteria (which occurs only in a small minority of cases). In those contracts having acceptance criteria, criteria typically consist of a demonstration to the customer that, upon implementation, the software performs in accordance with specified system parameters, such as recognition accuracy or call completion rates. When we perform consulting services that are essential to the functionality of the software, we recognize both license and consulting revenue over time based on the percentage of the consulting services that have been completed. Have a great weekend. John