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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas J Pittman who wrote (40713)	11/20/1997 10:31:00 AM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

There is a real question here which you have put your finger on The Wintel alliance rest upon a MSFT monopoly of operating system and application software and the demands of that software for ever more powerful and compatible hardware. On the hardware front, the RISC attack failed to displace the Intel monopoly, largely because it was not mounted with MSFT OS compatibility. DEC's approach also failed because it attacked the problem from the top of the market rather than the bottom. I would argue that software is the key to displacing the Wintel monopoly. The shift to network based computing and to JAVA has started to make the OS on the desktop less important. At the same time the artificial need for more and more power on the desktop is being challenged by the Volkswagon's (Borlands)of the industry ---Cyrix and AMD. In simple marketing terms, you don't need a Porshe to go to the supermarket. So there are marketing opportunities that previously did not exist for companies to innovate. Developing a better OS than what MSFT has produced to support a JAVA browser front end and platforms upon which to deliver this other than Intel now becomes a possibility. Its early in this game but I think Cyrix understands what is happening better than Intel whose successsful business model is being challenged by these developments. It may take Intel too long to correct course. Also monopoly breeds arrogance. I would suggest that the biggest problem Intel has is its monopoly position and attitudes. Obviously these thoughts need further development.