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

To: Dale who wrote (4991)	12/8/1997 8:19:00 PM
From: Michael Coley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7685

RE: Message from a Non-Subscriber - SparQ I received this message over the weekend from a lurker who wanted to pass on his experiences and opinions with SparQ: To: mcoley@i1.net Subject: Stock Stuff -- Syquest SparQ From: [Removed] Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 21:07:10 EST Michael, I'm unable to post on SI's Syquest/IOM threads as I haven't coughed up the $125 membership fee yet, but I've followed their threads for some time now and have appreciated your objective posts. I wanted to pass along my own experience w/ SparQ. I believe Syquest is keeping up with production reasonably well at the moment. A friend and I ordered SparQs from the same place one day apart a couple of weeks ago. He was told the ship date for his was 12/5/97 due to backorder -- I was told the ship date for mine was 12/19 (his parallel, mine internal). His drive arrived over a week early. We tried to install and "test" it as objectively as possible, looking for hangups that may deter Joe Bob Computer User from getting one. The installation was extremely simple, there were no glitches, and the drive worked flawlessly. It was much much faster than I expected a parallel anything to be. Each drive comes with a tech support greeting card with the phone # and an invitation to call them for any questions. My friend called just to check out their tech service. They were courteous, efficient, and free. I believe the 50k drive number is a good start....I've been unable to find the info, but perhaps you could find IOM's unit sales #'s from Zip Ship Qtr #1, and they could be used to compare not just the sales volume, but the rate of sales increase. Also, 50k SparQs would add a very significant % boost to SYQT's top line, which will probably be viewed as quite positive even though the margins suck. People will insist on healthy margin growth later...when (if) the company is on its feet. For a near-dead company with a $3 stock price, revenue growth with any improvement in cash position will catch attention. The 90k disk # is obviously from the included disk plus an estimate of how many people will go ahead and order a 3-pack of spares with the drive. The folks I know who have ordered/are considering ordering are almost 100% in agreement that a 3-pack purchase would be a virtual no-brainer for them, so 90k should be easily doable with 50k drivess, and perhaps even a little conservative. Judging from the mail-order firms' acutally shipping AHEAD of schedule, they seem to be keeping up with demand....so far, at least. I'm not sure why many of the folks seem to be trying to debate the fundamentals of SYQT vs. IOM...or any other strong company. With stock prices as low as SYQT (not low as in good value -that dilution is terrible-....low as in low ordinal number), many investors are looking for a change in the direction of the fundamentals from "horrible" to "less horrible"...starting with proof that they can grow revenue. Continued revenue growth combined with good earnings growth and increasing margins are what help a $10 company become a $50 company. To make a little money in the current price range, we just need something to give people faith that management can keep it out of the sewer, starting with increasing sales. Perhaps SparQ sales will be the "spark" of faith investors are looking for, especially if the demand keeps increasing and Syquest can keep up with production. Thanks again for all the good info --- happy investing (or, with SYQT, speculating)!! - Michael Coley - i1.net