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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: X-Ray Man who wrote (5395)	3/7/1998 12:15:00 PM
From: Shibumi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

>>Just some contrarian thoughts.<< Deeply appreciate the thoughts. Of course, the fact that Intel would eventually go from 60% to 50% gross margins on the Pentiums, and have to do a different architecture for the set-top (which is why I thought they licensed the ARM -- and of course are acquiring StrongARM in the Digital Deal), is something that's been known or at least openly theorized for quite a while. But your point here is absolutely valid -- I've owned a lot of Intel for years, and continue to hold it, but the biggest risk to that company is that they fill their fabs with lower cost/lower margin parts. I am a bit confused, however, as to exactly how the pressure would be exerted on Microsoft to lower the prices to OEM's. Of course, any OEM can ask -- but "pressure" to me implies that the OEM could do something more than plead -- and I don't understand the leverage that the OEM's have on Microsoft. The major issue I see for Microsoft in the last week's round of announcements is the theory that supply and demand on PC's isn't as price-elastic as previously might have been believed. This would certainly have an impact on the very high P/E ratio Microsoft currently commands. Then again, the resellers have stated that they are not seeing a slackening of demand (reference: WSJ last week: Ingram, etc.), but of course the details are not yet known.

To: X-Ray Man who wrote (5395)	3/7/1998 9:51:00 PM
From: Tom Kearney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

All re: NT - there are new worlds to conquer. MSFT announced joint efforts w/ Amdahl and Fitjitsu (? spelling) to develop NT for IBM mainframe compatibles last month. Now, once this is available, anybody using VM or MVS will be ready to KILL to get NT running on these dinosaurs, so IBM's gonna have to license it, too (because it will provide them a way of extending the life of this market!). Then MSFT can sell Office for mainframes! What can they charge for that? Is $1M a copy + $100 per seat out of the question? I know many of you are mostly tuned into the PC world, but that are other worlds out there and the really BIG story is that's where MSFT is heading. And the software doesn't sell for $87 a copy in some of these other markets. Just MHO.

To: X-Ray Man who wrote (5395)	3/8/1998 8:13:00 AM
From: jim shiau	Respond to of 74651

>TCI-General's decision not to use Intel in next round of settop cable boxes. And that means they won't be using WinCE, either. WinCE can run under different CPUs. If you check the CPU of those palm PCs in the market, you will understand what I said.