Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (89386)	1/31/2001 10:20:53 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Capellas interview, continued(2) by: skeptically 01/31/01 09:06 am EST Msg: 215555 of 215572 When do you expect hand-held computers to be a really significant business for Compaq? The hand-held will start to be significant in terms of revenue in the next two to three months. If you take a Pocket PC (hand-held computer) fully loaded with a wireless (connection) you are starting to push on the same price as a fully loaded desktop. This will be a serious margin contributor. The margins on the Pocket PC are very good because the cost of manufacturing is so low - you are not going through all the complexities of the traditional configure-to-order models. You are planning to launch a hand-held computer with a built-in phone. Are you going to be competing head-on with the mobile phone makers? This is the great unfought war. There is no question we are converging on the same space. How that sorts out in terms of partnerships and competition in this crazy world we live in (I don't know). We are (already) a huge provider of the infrastructure to mobile phone operators. Now the relationship gets more interesting. But I think it makes more sense to go into partnerships. In this day and age you need to be smart enough to know what you do well and want you don't. We have done some interesting partnerships with (Telefon AB L.M.) Ericsson and I think you will see us probably looking to form more joint marketing. Do the telcos buy the computer companies? Do the computer companies buy the telcos? Remember only last year we thought the Internet start-ups were going to buy us both and that didn't happen. It is all about how the middle ground is formed. Do you see Compaq in the long-term as a mobile phone company? No, I really do see us being in the Internet access business. You are going to see much more sophisticated user interfaces - we will do video, we will do video peer to peer (the exchange of video clips between consumers) and we will certainly do audio, music and voice-recognition commands. Because the content delivery will be so massive, you will have to have intelligence on the device for these next generation interfaces. I think the part that a lot of people miss, when they think about the future of computing, is just how much capacity it is going to take to drive these very sophisticated user interfaces. Do you see yourself competing with consumer electronics companies or forming partnerships? We will compete. Here is a (Compaq) MP 3 player, but our skill isn't just in building the device, If you have a one-touch connection with your PC then you manage the music on a PC that connects to the Internet. The question is: Is a consumer electronics company better able to take the device and do the interaction, the computation, the network and the data or is it easier for us to make the device with the knowledge to build through the rest of the stream? We will compete more and more with the classical consumer electronics companies.