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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HerbertOtto who wrote (10389)	11/16/1997 10:51:00 PM
From: chirodoc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

Positive article in SF chronicle on coms.......... 3Com 1st On Cable Modem It beats rivals to market with the new standard Jonathan Marshall, Chronicle Staff Writer 3Com Corp. of Santa Clara, which sells more consumer modems than all other companies combined, yesterday announced a significant head start in the tiny but burgeoning market for high-speed cable modems. 3Com said it is the first company to ship industry-standard cable modems --devices that use cable TV lines to let computers browse the Internet at speeds up to 100 times as fast as ordinary telephone modems. 3Com's modems start at $199. Being first won't guarantee 3Com a lock on the market. At least 14 companies will show off prototype modems at the Western Cable Show in Anaheim next month, said Mike Schwartz, spokesman for CableLabs, an industry research firm, in Boulder, Colo. But 3Com, through its Skokie, Ill., subsidiary US Robotics, does have a brand- name advantage when it comes to selling modems through computer stores and by mail order -- outlets the cable industry hopes will become consumers' chief source for the new modems. 3Com sells 52 percent of all retail branded modems in the United States, according to VisionQuest, a market research firm in Moorpark, Ventura County. Until now, cable modems have all been proprietary design. Cable operators purchased and installed them in customers' computers. They amortized the several- hundred-dollar cost in the monthly price of Internet service, typically $40 to $60 a month. But major cable companies began in late 1995 to develop industry standards for cable modems. Their aim in part was to bring down prices through standardization. Just as important, they hoped to ensure simple designs so consumers could buy and install the modems themselves -- slashing cable company costs. The major players in the cable modem business have been Motorola and Bay Networks in Santa Clara. But now that cable modem standards have arrived, 3Com hopes to move into first place. ''We sell more than a million modems a month,'' said Rick Edson, senior vice president for new business initiatives at 3Com. ''The retail channel presence is ours.'' 3Com will face competition from well known consumer electronics giants such as Samsung and Panasonic. But industry analysts believe 3Com has the upper hand when it comes to selling modems rather than TVs and boom boxes. ''The likelihood is that consumers who go to CompUSA for a cable modem are a lot more likely to find the US Robotics brand credible than Samsung,'' said Emily Green, an analyst at Forrester Research in Boston. ''They have a huge opportunity to dominate the retail landscape.'' Michael Harris of Kinetic Strategies in Phoenix agreed that 3Com has an enviable position. ''I've been incredibly impressed with them from an engineering and marketing point of view,'' he said. Harris estimates that about 50,000 people in North America today use high-speed cable modems. About 6.5 million homes now have access to the service. The market is tiny but set to explode. A report issued last month by Forward Concepts Inc. in Tempe, Ariz., estimated that more than 7 million cable modems will be installed by 2002. Microsoft Corp.'s $1 billion investment in Comcast Corp. this June was a vote of confidence in the cable modem market. Cable modems appeal to people who want Web pages to pop onto their computer screens without delay, or who need fast Internet access for services such as videoconferencing, Internet telephony or online gaming. Cable modem services are now available in only a few Bay Area communities, including Fremont and Palo Alto. MediaCity, a Mountain View Internet service provider, last week began offering cable modem service in Los Altos Hills with the local cable operator, Sun Country Cable. The service costs $49 per month, plus $179 for the cable modem. MediaCity is using 3Com modems there, as it will in San Bruno, Los Gatos, Blackhawk and other communities where it is working with small to medium-sized cable operators to offer services within the next few months. ''We spent quite a bit of time with 3Com and US Robotics and are very comfortable with our choice,'' said Ian Aaron, president of MediaCity. ..........i am ready to buy in...how low can it go?