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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Lawrence who wrote (15409)	5/14/1998 3:33:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Xircom sees profit, share rising 12:55 p.m. May 14, 1998 Eastern By Neal Boudette FRANKFURT, May 14 (Reuters) - Xircom Inc., a U.S. maker of network adapters for portable computers, said on Thursday its new line of products has the potential to drive its profitability and market share sharply higher. Xircom has about 20 percent of the global market, while 3Com Corp controls about 40 percent after its acquisition of US Robotics Corp. Xircom products are also sold by Intel Corp, which owns 12.5 percent of Xircom and has options to up it to 20 percent. guide-p.infoseek.com Gee, didn't 3COM's market share just drop from 50% to 40% during the course of this press release? o~~~ O

To: David Lawrence who wrote (15409)	5/14/1998 4:12:00 PM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 22053

3Com's Pilot III PDA Makes It To Asia Newsbytes - May 14, 1998 10:34 HONG KONG, CHINA, 1998 MAY 14 (NB) -- By Anthony Penn, IT Daily. The Pilot III, the latest generation of 3Com's [NASDAQ:COMS] popular personal digital assistant, was officially unleashed on the Asian market this week, several weeks after its US launch. The new product, complete with e-mail and fax software, infrared port, extra memory and screen protector, has been available via speedy grey market channels in Hong Kong's computer malls since mid-April, and is already selling for as little as HK$2,900. As the Pilot continues to outsell every other PDA on the market and even has mighty Microsoft playing catch-up with Windows CE, 3Com is pushing the device as a business "solution" rather than a personal organizer. According to Edward Colligan, vice-president of marketing in Palm Computing Inc., companies in the US, ranging from car makers to restaurant chains, are equipping employees with Pilots. In Hong Kong development has been slower, but Palm Computing's Asia Pacific business development manager, Clarence Cho, hopes this will change. The company is working with Chinese software developers to develop vertical business applications for the Pilot. "There's lots of solutions being created that we didn't even dream of," Colligan said. These include built-in pagers, barcode readers, wireless network connectors and cellular phones, to say nothing of thousands of pieces of software for all manner of applications. Part of the reason for the rapid development surrounding the Pilot is the sheer popularity of the device. According to Colligan, Pilot sales hit the one million mark in less time than it took the original IBM PC, the Apple Macintosh and even the Sony Walkman. According to research organization Dataquest, the Pilot had 66 percent of the world's entire PDA market last year. 3Com hopes to make the Palm operating system a standard for hand-held devices. This challenges Microsoft's attempts to do exactly the same thing with Windows CE. What Palm Computing has done "is a good way to create a standard -- sell millions first, let the market decide it is a standard, not announce the standard first," as Microsoft had done, Colligan said. As far as Hong Kong users are concerned, however, the Palm III may not be the ideal upgrade. Although the device has more functionality than the PalmPilot Professional, a Palm III upgrade kit is available (complete with infrared port) for a fraction of the price of a new unit. That, combined with talk of a Palm IV due on the streets this year, might dissuade existing users from upgrading. A Palm Computing official said last year that a new, "radically different" Pilot would be launched before the end of 1998 and it wouldn't be the Palm III. Colligan refused to confirm this, but did say the 3Com is always working on pushing the technology envelope. In the meantime, Mac users may find the Pilot more attractive than ever before. The Pilot's new desktop software has been greatly enhanced, and Palm Computing has bought Claris Organizer from Apple. The Mac software will not, however, be available in Hong Kong until September, officially that is. o~~~ O