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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stockman_77079 who wrote (22273)	9/25/1998 11:20:00 AM
From: joe	Respond to of 45548

>> I really like to see when EB kick some butt and increase market share in the high end stuff.<< This will definitely happen, but not overnight. The high end corebuilder is gaining acceptance rapidly. This is part of COMS product transition, which we all knew does not happen overnight, and has been harder because of the international problems and slowdown of the network sector (which I think is now picking up). But, in Eric B.'s interview, he confirmed that the modems are now in much better position than expected. Sure, we don't want COMS to be known as just a modem company, but this was expected for a while. The real obstacle I saw, was that possibly 56K modems would NEVER SELL for various reasons such as competition from other 56K modem companies, cable and xDSL. But, it's becoming more obvious that COMS now has a monopoloy on 56K modems and that's what will help support the company during it's major transition phase into much more sophisticated products. Now, it seems that ISPs are converting to 56K much more rapidly than espected. By end of the year, COMS probably won't be selling it's lower end modems. And when cable and xDSL come into they're expected potential, COMS is 100% ready to take advantage. IMO, some of COMS problems are just difficulties of switching to a higher bandwidth internet. But, they have a hedged strategy, and have the flexibility to react to all situations. At the moment they are using this time to tighten up the mechanics of the company, cut costs, and develop a very strong channel presence. The channel presence is something that's not mentioned much but is CRITICAL. The way a company sells products is CRITICAL. Look at DELL for example; extremely efficient sales system. It's not appropriate for COMS to use the direct sales approach as completely as DELL, but they are the most efficient as far as using the channel. Also, soon, COMS is moving into using the internet and using the direct sales approach. COMS is a complicated company, and it takes a while to learn all its aspects. I've still got a lot to learn myself. best regards, joe