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Technology Stocks : Microsoft - The Evil empire -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lydia Marcus who wrote (1354)	7/16/1998 3:44:00 PM
From: Robert Winchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1600

Where do you see Microsoft in the next five years? Do you think it has seen its day as the "one and only game in town," or do you think they will emerge with a new product that blows their competition out of the water? Many think their rivals will do the company in and that Gates will be a thing of the past? Microsoft could ride Windows for another 5 years and still make money, but they will most likely go beyond that. I think WindowsCE will play a big role as Microsoft pushes it into almost anything that can fit a chip. Set-top boxes will be a gigantic market soon, and they are positioning themselves for that. I think that and other consumer electronics will be a cash cow for them. That being said, I don't think they can keep the market share they have in operating systems and desktop software (i.e. Office). I do think that their sales will continue to grow like crazy, simply because of the sheer numbers of new people buying computers and software. I think MS will get into all kinds of things, but I don't know what. I read recently that their research budget was going to increase 4 billion dollars this year. I really don't think there is anything that suggests their growth will be slowing anytime soon. That's why Gates tries to get into every market he can - he's hedging his bets. If suddenly the Office Suite market went to hell, he could put more into handhelds, or networking or whatever. I'm not a great stock analyst though, either.