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Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chip Anderson who wrote (3690)	6/3/1998 7:08:00 PM
From: Chip Anderson	Respond to of 16960

Required Listening! fool.com My comments to follow. Chip

To: Chip Anderson who wrote (3690)	6/3/1998 7:32:00 PM
From: Chip Anderson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16960

My personal reaction to Ballard's comments: (Warning: Even though I remain long TDFX, these comments are fairly negative. Sorry, but I'm a long-term investor that's very concerned about TDFX's recent course of action.) He used extremely careful language when answering the Banshee performance question. I was not left with a good feeling. Having _personally_ seen the competition's upcoming boards (S3, G200, and PVRSG), I am very frustrated at their continued refusal to discuss 3Dfx's future products and directions. At this point in time, for him to talk about how Voodoo1 is the #2 card in the market is laughable. While their branding is strong and an asset for the company - it can erode overtime quickly. TDFX's branding doesn't have nearly the strength of Coke or Nike and to suggest that it does is at best extreme overconfidence, at worst intentionally misleading. Glad to hear that they will be increasing their branding activity in the coming quarters. IMHO, they blew a great chance for doing that at E3. As far as being secretive - I'm all for it TO A POINT. With respect to Banshee, 3Dfx is clearly passed that point (it happened after CGDC). The competitions' cards are on the table. Most of them are showing their silicon publically. To say that discussing Banshee at this point will "confuse consumers" is just plain wrong. Ballard went on the say that commoditization is occuring in the industry, that Intel _is_ a competitor, and that the Voodoo brand will be TDFX's distinguishing attribute. Again, in my opinion, this is a very, very weak message to send. The Voodoo brand is only as strong as the performance of TDFX's chipsets. In a branding battle, I'll take Intel's marketers over TDFX's any day (as will most other investors). OK - I'm now going to take a break, re-listen to the interview, and see if I can pull out some more positives from it and stop being so dang negative! Chip