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To: Rick Rappaport who wrote (4481)	12/19/1998 10:24:00 PM
From: dbs35	Respond to of 10081

<<JC, do you think that the NOC system is a possible showstopper for GMGC progress because most telcos- like PacBell- will not want the lack of control or is the NOC system still an advantage because of its turnkey (and no construction) appeal?>> It seems like the NOC system is far more desirable, especially at this early stage of the game. Nobody knows quite how much the market will take to VUI products right now, nor what the best model is for making one. Based on all this uncertainty, it seems to make far more sense for a telco to make a smaller investment in marketing Portico than to spend millions of dollars developing, advertising, maintaining and improving their own branded version. Unless the telco is truly confident of its capability to "do it right," in which case they would stand to do better independently. But I doubt anybody could be so confident at this stage. ds

To: Rick Rappaport who wrote (4481)	12/20/1998 12:12:00 PM
From: JC	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10081

Rick- I live in Jamaica currently, where they are currently implementing an island-wide system of voicemail. Now, I do not think that Portico or Wildfire are much like voicemail, but from an ignorant consumers standpoint, they are fairly much alike. That is, consumers will be informed of this new feature available on their phone systems, be they wireless or no, and then on how to use them. With this new addition, it is important for the telcom to get a maximum of new users, and USING users as fast and as long as possible. Since this is a new technology, and MOST consumers will be confused by as many options as Portico would give them at one time. Wildfire is SIMPLE, EASY TO USE, and the network version can be bought outright, branded, and then upgraded and used internally. Also, Wildfire claims to be able to offer web-services such as email, stocks, etc in the near future (around 1 year). I think the ability to bring a consumer into your own branded service which is fairly simple to begin with, then upgrading it with more expensive and feature rich packages in the future would be ideal for a telco. I am not sure that Portico, Webley, or MCIWOrldcoms services can be made as simple and then packaged up as Wildfires claims to be able to do so in the future. Though I agree, the biggest seller is the ability of a telco to buy the hardware outright and brand it themselves to do with as they will... two more cents for the pot. JC

To: Rick Rappaport who wrote (4481)	12/20/1998 2:35:00 PM
From: Kurt Goebel	Respond to of 10081

Rick, my two cents. I see the NOC as the most flexible and not a show stopper. First, seems Wildfire is just selling a packaged NOC or a NOC kit/recipe. General Magic can do this too in the future. Seems selling right of use for MagicTalk VUI would be one example of this. I see keeping control of the NOC during this market/product formation phase the best way to go because: -- It let's General Magic enhance Portico with new features and respond to competition quickly (Wildfire may have a very hard time moving network Wildfire carriers to new network Wildfire versions. This can lead to a heavy maintenance burden as different carriers want only their fixes and upgrades and refuse new features or delay important changes for months/years in order to test. I have experience with this on a day to day basis in my day job. We even give away upgrades and provide extensive support and some vendors still want to wait for good and not so good reasons, such as asynchronous schedules, low perceived value, risks, ...) -- It keeps control of the Portico/MagicTalk brands during this formative period (It would be very bad it one of the Wildfire carriers takes a divergent path from Wildfire) -- It allows General Magic to insure common high quality (It could be very very bad for Wildfire if one of their carriers does a poor job of implementing, providing, servicing, maintaining network Wildfire) -- It provides the carriers a way to get into a relatively new and changing market for low cost -- Carriers and businesses use ISPs and outsource parts of their business all the time so GMGC is not blazing a new trail here. I'm expecting General Magic would be very accommodating to the large carriers (e.g., board seats :^), on site personnel, extensive contractual commitments such as availability requirements, equity investments, ...)