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Technology Stocks : Applied Magnetics Corp -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Judy who wrote (11898)	5/11/1998 7:43:00 PM
From: Zeev Hed	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12298

There are a lot of things that APM could do or have done. Be faster to market with MR would be one. Now the important thing is for them to get some design wins. I do not think that the WDC alliance with IBM closes the door to APM, but it surely narrows the opening. While the on track data density is getting better and better, the track density is limited to some extent by "wobble" in the drive, if APM had the resources (or forward looking philosophy) they could develop a "wobble" less driving mechanism to improve "between tracks" density. The technology exist to build high stiffness arms which will reduce the vibrations (and thus reduce access time) upon indexing, such a development could also give them a lease on life. They have to look at their customers and see where they are "hurting" and come up with low cost solutions to improve their customers products. These are just two examples. Unfortunately, APM has not hired me to look at a long range strategic plan and new product development plan, so, I'll stop right here. But believe me, unlike in the semiconductor business, where the road map to higher performance is well mapped out, in the DD field they rarely see beyond the next drive, IMO. Zeev