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Technology Stocks : IDTI - an IC Play on Growth Markets -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (4585)	11/3/1997 9:33:00 PM
From: flickerful	Respond to of 11555

stephen. if you mean: has INTEL successfully promoted an image which makes brand association a given for the consumer? i think yes. fear? not even an issue to consider. for a market presence such as that of intel's, this kind of universal acceptance is certainly prerequisite, and mostly subliminal.

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (4585)	11/3/1997 9:44:00 PM
From: James Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11555

I know a lot of people that have bought computers in the last couple of years without Intel inside. I think we are finally getting past the days where everyone was Intel brand conscious. Look how many years it took the Japanese to sell cars in the United States. Now, if you can afford Japanese it's often preferred. I don't ever expext that to happen to Intel but it makes a point. There's a very big population that couldn't care less or will buy for some other off the wall reason....price, package deal, etc. with no thought of Intel inside. Need to remember that IDTI has a great chance of selling a bunch of these and it's only selling for $12.37. That's better odds than Vegas ever gives.

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (4585)	11/4/1997 9:54:00 AM
From: Steve Lewis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11555

I think the times are changing but I don't underestimate the Intel $$ and attitude as exemplified by Andy Grove ("only the paranoid will survive"). In the eighties there was a time when the major PC clones were viewed as risky but eventually they became less risky as their products and IBM's became easier to compare and contrast. In time the X86 MPU clones at the lowend will cost less AND be more powerful. (I'm not sure the clones have a shot at the highend market (IA-64) though this is years off (2001-2003?) before IA-64 reaches the desktop.) Unless Intel is pricing their new low end products in the $50-150 range, they will have competitors at the low end. A defacto monopoly that is Intel is slowly losing it's tight grip (it still has one though) and will pull out all the stops and spread fear, uncertainty and doubt against their competitors. The Justice Department recent action into Intel is a very beneficial thing in that Intel will have more than the usual explaining to do if it relies on it's intimidation factor against IDTI & IDTI's potential customers. (Look at what Gates/Microsoft is doing against Netscape, Compaq, etc. or evaluate the behavior of any other defacto monopoly for that matter) The Intel brand matters and means they can charge more money for the same MPU functionality but the performance/price gap is closing, especially with C6+ and other alternatives emerging. (The innovativeness of the C6 design is that it raises the functionality capability but doesn't depend on costly design tradeoffs to achieve them.) Also the public is getting smarter and will see that their (2nd?) PC computer is a functional system that runs Windows software for a price. The longer that IDTI stays in the game the better it will be though it needs to execute and fight upstream for another 6-18 months. Intel's best bet is to change the playing field (new architectures, etc.) and make it so painful for the other players that they don't even want to play anymore---not likely IMO.

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (4585)	11/4/1997 10:15:00 AM
From: Mason Barge	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 11555

"DO you think the intel ads that have bombarded the air waves has frightened the masses from purchasing computers w/o intel cpu's?" Yes, absolutely. These guys are going to have to do some advertising. If it were me, I'd advertise one of those studies that shows my chip performing better than Intel's. This is IDTI, Cyrix's, and AMD's biggest problem in getting CPU market-share and they'd better address it head-on.

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (4585)	11/4/1997 7:05:00 PM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11555

Intel's brand loyalty is strongest in the good 'ol US of A. That because we are all "highly materialistic pigs" who clamor for anything that will massage our egos and are easily brainwashed into thinking some magic is able to be distilled into brand name products that makes them far more capable than mere "knock offs". This mind-set is true with a large part of the US PC buying public. Buying a PC is "dangerous business" because most consumers realy don't know how to judge value or trends in the industry. Intel has, perhaps purposely, added to the FUD factor (fear uncertainty and doubt) that prejudices consumers to cling to the most familiar brand name by bringin out several new product transitions and standards. Intel has a decided "leg up" in the US market, somewhat lesser in Europe, and far less in Asia, South America and other countries where advertising has not been as intense and where economics and market pentration has not been that great. In many countries only a few percent of the population owns PCs or laptops. That's why IDTI has spent a considerable amount of their marketing efforts overseas, and particularly in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Over 65% of motherboards are manufactured in Taiwan and many OEM computer systems. IDTI has many opportunities to build up sales for the C6. The vast size of the market compared to IDT's modest aims makes it very posible to find willing markets. If investors build up expectation that IDT will soon show up in a multitude of products on major retailers shelves, then they are in for a big dissapointment. These marketplaces that we consumers are most familiar with are not the most fertile for IDT/Centaur to enter into. A large part of the world is just waking up to the benefits and needs of PC ownership. A part of what has held these markets back is the relatively high cost and under-engineered and difficulty nature of the common PC. Low cost MPUs like the C6 combined with the new Universal Serial Bus (USB), IEEE-1394 (firewire), and improved OS (WIN '98 and NT 5.0) should propel the PC, InternetTV, and laptop, etc. toward mass merchandise appeal. The sub $1,000 PC category has grown from less than 10% of the market less than 18 months ago to over 35% now. That's 35% of some 70 million PCs or roughly 24 million PCs. It has been reported that this market is largely made up of new buyers. Given that IDT is targeting between 1 and 2 million units in sales for the C6, it looks to me that they have a significant opportunity regardless of Intel's brand loyalty. I think that IDT will be able to overcome "Intel Inside" by gaining a foothold in foreign markets and by riding the wave of growth of the sub $1,000 market.