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Technology Stocks : Wind River going up, up, up! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Allen Benn who wrote (3008)	4/7/1998 7:59:00 PM
From: Ronald Paul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

Hi Allen, Thanx for another lucid post about current developments. Thanx also for the DOJ phone number. You are right-on in identifying MSFT's insidious tactic of freezing the market in order to buy it time to make its late entry. MSFT is the enormous bully damaging innovation and hurting small companies. The DOJ should be taking notes and act before it is again relegated to sweeping up the enormous mess that MSFT typically leaves in its wake. It remains to be seen if MSFT strategy will work within the splintered embedded paradigm as well as it worked for the desktop market which was quite well defined with the Mac OS, DOS, and UNIX. Roll-yer-owns still make up more than 50% of RTOS's. This is an important fact for those who think that this will be a winner-take-all fight. What is encouraging is the early chorus I am hearing from industry insiders that we are staring at vaporware-draped King-Billy without his clothes. As WSJ witnessed with Jerry Fiddler and Ron Abelman, a significant segment of this industry is more than willing to stare the MSFT beast down. On the one hand, no matter how much hard realtime layering MSFT gobs on top of Windows-CE, as Mr. Barbagalio admits, there are applications that can't use Windows-CE. The brakes and fuel-injection systems are just two examples of varied, unique systems that make up the vast majority of embedded applications where Windows-CE simply will never make any sense, even as defined with the realtime functionality. On the other hand, MSFT should be taken seriously if they are indeed going head-to-head. To me, this would mean some type of true RTOS components that can be decoupled from the CE architectual constraints. This is how I view MSFT's strategy with INTS. It is precisely the same strategy Billy used since the infancy of desktop computing when he took CP/M and stamped MS-DOS all over it. From there, he continued to deploy this business tactic, in many cases screwing his partners in the process. This is the MSFT business model. Scare companies into partnering with your vision of the computer world on your terms only ... or else! True innovation actually becomes a threat to MSFT's model. Evolution of the RTOS market is what will buy Billy time. The RTOS industry will go through a shakeout, but not before it is truly commoditized. As long as the RTOS arena experiences 40 - 50 % growth, the MWARs, INTS, WINDS, QNX's, and roll-yer-owns of the world will continue to enjoy growth. MSFT's belated address of Windows-CE deficiencies notwithstanding, Billy did take earlier notice of his vulnerability in this market than he did when Netscape broadsided him. The dust will settle within the industry well before the scenery starts to clear up for the investment community at large. Winner-take-all? I can imagine it to be more like the GMs, Fords, and Chryslers of the auto industry. As the shakeout really takes hold, WIND may not be at the pinnacle, but it will survive as one of the big-three IMO. --Ronald

To: Allen Benn who wrote (3008)	4/7/1998 8:02:00 PM
From: Anthony Tran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

Hi Allen, Just wondering why Microsoft did not choose Wind as partner? Is there such thing as INTS's software easier to incorporate with WinCE than Tornado? Just by common sense you likes to partner with the most dominant in the industry? Thank you for your input. Anthony

To: Allen Benn who wrote (3008)	4/7/1998 9:30:00 PM
From: J. Kerner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10309

Hi Allen, Microsoft's vaporware announcement coming off the ESC is a blatant example of predatory monopolistic behavior, which is a favorite trick of Microsoft. Announce a product years in advance to freeze the market and set it up for your late entrance. How is this predatory monopolistic behavior when Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on the embedded market and, in fact has market share in only one segment? What leverage do you think they used to get the TCI set-top deal and how could that be applied to other customers? Also, when time-to-market pressures are one of the huge drivers in the move towards COTS RTOSs, why would anyone wait for a product that's at least a year away and, based on past experience, will fall short of expectations technically? What do you think Wind's next move is? The H&Q tech conference is at the end of the month, then Wind has their own Developer's conference on May. 11. I think it is time to become more visible, at least for the sake of their investors. Thanks in advance, Jason