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

To: James Petersen who wrote (13023)	1/8/1998 4:24:00 PM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 45548

<< Seems like a no brainer...dial up 3Com and upgrade via flash. >> I tried that with my modem. Unfortunately USRX update wasn't ready or working properly so my "upgradeable to 56K" modem needed to be brought in to a store and swapped. I don't see what was upgradeable about that. Maybe they have fixed the problem by now. The point I was making is who is going to want to buy a 56K modem off the shelf with the old code and take it home to upgrade it? A shopper would rather just buy one with the code already updated to the standard. One solution would be for COMS to sell all of it's modems with the old code before the standard comes out. Then they can restock the shelves with new modems carrying the new code. Do you think that this is likely? Do you think people will buy a 56K modem now and hassle with the upgrade when they can buy a new standard compliant modem in 2-3 months? Seems to me like COMS might have to take some leftover modems off the shelves and upgrade them and then repackage them. Otherwise they will need to cut prices to get customers to buy a modem with the old code when the new one is on the way.

To: James Petersen who wrote (13023)	1/8/1998 8:05:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 45548

Microsoft executive "sorry" for harsh rhetoric Reuters Story - January 08, 1998 19:38 %BUS %ENT %US %WASH %DPR MSFT NSCP V%REUTER P%RTR (Adds new information, details, byline) By David Lawsky WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A top Microsoft Corp. executive said Thursday that the company, facing a contempt hearing next week in federal court, is "sorry" for any statements indicating disrespect for the Justice Department or the judge. "One thing we have to do is, first of all, respect the Department of Justice and respect the judge, and we're sorry if we have made any statements that would suggest we do anything but respect them," Chief Operating Officer Robert Herbold said in an interview four days before the company appears before U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. "And that's important." The Justice Department has asked Jackson to fine the Redmond, Wash., company $1 million a day for allegedly violating a preliminary injunction issued last month. Herbold said that both Microsoft and the Justice Department may have made statements "that in retrospect they wish they hadn't made." He said Microsoft would tone down its public rhetoric and court filings, which antitrust experts said have been unusually harsh. Herbold is one of several top Microsoft executives who are traveling the country to repair what Microsoft says is a failed strategy in getting its message out. Others include Executive Vice President Steve Ballmer in California and Vice President Jeff Raikes in Texas. But Herbold made it clear that, although the company's rhetoric would change, its position would not. "In regard to a decision that we don't agree with on a factual basis or an interpretation basis, we owe it to our employees, our users and our shareholders" to pursue legal appeals, he said. Nontheless, he said, they do not want to take a "belligerent" stance. The Justice Department is accusing Microsoft of violating Jackson's order to give computer makers the option of purchasing the company's Windows 95 operating system without also being forced to purchase the software giant's Internet Explorer Web browser. The department says Microsoft is violating a 1995 consent decree that forbids it from tying the sale of one product to another. To comply, Microsoft offered computer makers an old version of Windows 95 or one it said would not work. The government says that violated the court order and did not help promote competition with Microsoft's bitter rival in the war for market share in Web browsers, Netscape Communications Corp.. Web browsers are pieces of software needed to access the World Wide Web. Herbold said Internet Explorer was fundamentally different from Mountain View, Calif.-based Netscape's Navigator browser. He said the company is not violating the consent decree because it permits Microsoft to sell integrated products. Herbold said Microsoft's product is "not really a browser like Netscape. Netscape's browser is a stand-alone application, one big set of code. Internet Explorer is a set of components or fixes that get downloaded into the operating system." He said Microsoft has chopped the browser into a series of small pieces that are integrated into the heart of the operating system. But Netscape's general counsel, Roberta Katz, said Herbold was wrong. "They've marketed (Internet Explorer) as a separate product, they didn't market it as 'Windows 97,'" she said. "You would have thought they would have marketed it as an operating system." Instead, she said, Internet Explorer was "set up against Netscape, feature for feature." And she said that is reflected by Microsoft's talking about "market share." Netscape holds the majority of market share for Web browsers, but Microsoft has been steadily whittling away its lead. Microsoft stock rose 94 cents to $130.50 on Nasdaq, where it was the fifth most active issue on volume of 9.7 million shares.