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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BillyG who wrote (37332)	11/19/1998 1:12:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Handhelds, FPDs Heat Up Vegas.(Comdex, Nov 1998)(Industry Trend or Event) 11/16/98 Electronic News Page 14(1) COPYRIGHT 1998 Cahners Publishing Company Copyright 1998 Information Access Company. All rights reserved. Las Vegas- More noise, fewer announcements. For the past few years that's been the trend at Comdex, and this year is no different. In fact, the only noise Intel has made, thus far, about its presence at Comdex is that it won't have one, at least officially. But though the company will be boothless, it will be providing speakers and conducting demos elsewhere. The same goes for Apple and Motorola. Per usual there will be some new product announcements, perhaps, but few earth- shattering ones. DVD ROM drives, USB and LCDs probably top that list, along with their components. Still, behind the scenes news will be made. Far more interesting than new releases are noteworthy technology and business developments that will be born there. The one to watch: Handspring, a start-up formed by the original Palm Pilot creators and recent defectors from 3Com. The new company is rumored to be releasing an under $200 PalmPilot offshoot soon, though probably not at Comdex. At the same time, the debut of 3Com's much-heralded, very thin PalmPilot, Razor, was pushed back. Some speculate that it might make an appearance in Las Vegas, while others foresee the Palm Developers' Conference in early December as its opener. "You'll see less from Palm than you would expect, and you're certainly not going to see anything from the founders of Handspring," said Scott Miller, an analyst at Dataquest. "They're nowhere near ready to launch product. And 3Com's not going to have much new in way of product to show." Also of interest is 3Com itself, along with Microsoft: the two companies held discussions last month about how to make their two OSs interoperate. No doubt the DOJ will be watching both like hawks: until recently both operating systems, Windows CE and 3Com's proprietary software for its Palm Pilot, were competing neck and neck for the ever- growing handheld market. All eyes are also on Qualcomm and Microsoft. "They have formed a new company focusing on the convergence of wireless and IT company," according to a Microsoft spokesperson; i.e. the Palm Pilot. Ways to connect network operations to corporate wired networks are apparently under discussion, for ubiquitous wireless data services, as well as how to integrate Windows CE and browsers into cell phones. On that note, one interesting development is the combined PDA/Cell Phone. Qualcomm partnered with 3Com for that product which incorporates the Palm Pilot OS. Other movers and shakers in that space like Franklin could make the market heat up even more. Jupiter devices, CE products with a form factor closer to a notebook, will also be prominent. New to Comdex also, at least in prototype form will be notebooks with 15-inch screens, says Dataquest's Scott Miller. Flat Panel Displays, too, will be making inroads into the consumer space at Comdex. Massive price drops for desktops since last year's show has forced FPD makers to lower their prices, too. Cheaper components like microcontrollers for screens have helped them make that transition. Sharp and NCD are leaders in that space. IBM, too is beginning to make headway. Another area of interest is home networking. Some new reference designs like Philips newly-announced Coney Board will help drive the convergence between the TV and PC. Also of note: C-Cube. The company's products enable real-time MPEG 2 encoding at consumer prices, for quick and easy video editing on the PC. Its products enable consumers to condense a year's worth of videos onto one tape highlighting milestones like birthday parties and soccer games. And video conferencing might make a comeback at Comdex, too. One area that probably won't be noisy is the Digital TV space. Digital TV only went live this month, and numerous studies have shown that consumer buy-in will take some time, particularly at today's prices. TV vendors will probably wait until the upcoming Western Cable and Consumer Electronics shows to make a big splash.