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To: Sea Otter who wrote (2971)	7/29/1998 5:14:00 AM
From: flickerful	Respond to of 10081

sierra... i just read the article. in all honesty... it is notable for its remarkable lack of clarity. either i am overly critical, or someone clearly cut & paste in a hurry. it's actually pretty obvious. who cares?...one might counter. well, i mention it because you are right on the mark about preemptive strike; the weakness it shows, however, leads me to believe either one of two things: this group is banding together by necessity, or the tech world is simply resigned to shoot from the hip ( and in this particular instance, the talent is present by its absence.) it would be nice to think this piece was thrown together because at the eleventh hour, competitors are anxious about gmgc being first to market. just a theory.

To: Sea Otter who wrote (2971)	7/29/1998 9:32:00 AM
From: JC	Respond to of 10081

Chats about every possible Portico competitor, however! Sea Otter- You are far from the mark in saying it chats about every competitor.. Here is the response I wrote to the author of the article. I tried not to hype Portico too much, because no one listens to a hypester! But I must point out that I don't think other companies are banding together to escape the undauntable Portico. I think, as I have said before.. that this market is so young that all companies entering it will find their own market channels and have profitability for perhaps as much as five years before crowding out begins... JC Michael- You have missed the vast majority of this market in your article abcnews.com. There are about 8 major competitors in this market, with Wildfire being one of the least attractive ones (a 150$ startup fee???). While only three are voice compatable (Wildfire, Webley www.webley.com , and Portico www.generalmagic.com) There are some 5 others that do many of the same things yet are not voice driven (touch tone: NetworkMCI Contact www.networkmci.com, Call Sciences Personal Assistant www.callsciences.com, Linx Communications Universal Number www.linxcomm.com, Premiere Technologies Orchestrate www.premtek.com, and StarTouch's ESA www.esastartouch.com) Many of these companies posess a web-interface as well as a phone interface which Wildfire does not, and also ahve contact-dumping from your PIM and contact databases (Outlook, ACT, Goldmine) For Clarity's sake.. I hope you include all competitors in this burgoning market in the future! John Carleton

To: Sea Otter who wrote (2971)	7/29/1998 1:45:00 PM
From: CanynGirl	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 10081

Do you really consider any of them to be competitors? Wildfire: Aside from dropping their price to $10/month (which they've been promising for 6 months), I haven't heard of any improvements coming in their service. Indeed, they are best positioned to be a competitor to GMGC, but when will they offer a service that is as feature packed and advanced as GMGC? Planetary Motion: I have little information on this service. Aside from the 10 second Ad everytime you access your email, it sounds like a nice service. But, from what I can tell, it's only voice email. It's not a personal assistant. IBM/ALtech: This sounds like a great application for voice products. Allowing consumers to inquire and purchase products via the telephone using voice commands. Direct Marketing companies will especially love this. But again, it's not a personal assistant. It's a service business will offer to their customers who call in. AT&T: The PocketNet service is a nice service, but I wouldn't call it a personal assistant either. Doesn't sound like it has advanced voice response or they're just not very good at promoting it. It also sounds like you have to forward your email to PocketNet before you can access it. However, I'd say if GMGC doesn't signup AT&T for Portico, they will eventually offer a competing product. attws.com Motorola: PocketTalk is a very cool advanced Pager. A great way for someone on the go to receive voice messages. You don't have to call in to get them. All provide competition in a broad sense in that they are going after the same market and therefore fighting over the same dollars. But I don't see anyone with a service as advanced and feature rich as GMGC. What separates GMGC from anything else I've seen is their VUI and agent technology, IMHO. GMGC is truly offering a personal assistant. Or am I missing something?