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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bobby who wrote (1426)	11/10/1997 12:45:00 PM
From: Jerome Wittamer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Mike and all, IMHO you forgot a major issue for flash card to replace CDs : PPPPRRRRRIIIIICCCCEEEE! A CD typically costs less than $1 to make. What about a 10MB flash card? above $20 that's a least 20 times more!! Forget this, IMO. As regards Intel taking over the dig cam market, of course it's never too late but 90% of all dig cams provide CF cards. It would be risky for Camera manufacturers to switch to another standard like the miniature card. But for sure Intel is trying to capture a piece of that market. This is a real concern. We should ask the company.

To: Bobby who wrote (1426)	11/10/1997 1:31:00 PM
From: Mike Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Bobby - Microsoft can take over Netscape because Netscape is small. But in this case, Intel will run into the camera giants of the world and they won't let Intel eat their breakfast (let alone lunch). There is still a lot in a camera (lens, autofocus, sharp picture...) than just get a picture stored. I am not denying that Intel may take over the low end of this market. I think Sandisk's stock problem has more to do with the CEO's statement. That puts more cloud on the future of the company that the competitors are able to do. Talking about shooting yourself in the foot...

To: Bobby who wrote (1426)	11/10/1997 10:38:00 PM
From: James Choi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

>Please somebody shoot holes in my theory. > Bobby I am a serious photographer, although my living comes from eleswhere. The reason I got interested in SanDisk is because I felt for the first time that the digital cameras are now finally usable. Up until now, digital cameras were either toys or outlandishly expensive. As a serious photographer, I wouldn't even be interested in the type of digital camera that Intel is offering. The resolution is too low and it lacks critical features such as external flash syncronization (I am assuming this). In my biased opinion, one of the major CompactFlash consumers will be professional photographers who will capture each picture at 2M/picture size. And on their assignment, instead of boxes of films, they will take boxes of CompactFlash. These toy cameras will sell CompactFlash only one per camera since its users are not serious about capturing the best possible images (reads: a lot of storage memory) and storing them for delivery. And CompactFlash has potentially the most fearsome force of digital camera on its side: Kodak. Kodak dominates the film based photography retail channel and they can convert that into digital retail channel easily. Kodak digital cameras use CompactFlash. I believe we will start seeing digital image printing machines in photo stores where you can take your CompactFlash, plug it in, and print your pictures. No need to wait for one hour. M-TV generation's impatience will be answered, even in photography. Kodak already has do-it-yourself film based printers and digital printers in large photo stores. The designs and the machanics of such machines are much simpler with CompactFlash since there is no chemicals to fill in, no scanners needed, no temperatures to maintain, no chemistry to balance, no light-sensitive photographic paper to supply and no lens to clean or focus. These simpler machines can be installed at your local grocery store, or anywhere people gather, where you can take your latest fill of ComapctFlash and just print them out. Just as people buy more video tapes, people will buy more CompactFlash because they will just hate it when they run out it and have to erase other pictures in the middle of their picnic, trip, vacation, you name it. So, with digital imaging market alone, CompactFlash's potential is enormous. Now, there is also cellular phones market for SanDisk. And digital audio recording devices that use SanDisk... In an ironic way, I believe that SanDisk is the Intel of the 80s, poised to take over the world. Digital world, that is. James Choi