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To: J Fieb who wrote (39545)	3/30/1999 12:17:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Philips gearing up for digital TV in Asia-Pacific region Ravi Nambiar 03/30/99 The New Straits Times The New Straits Times Press Main/Lifestyle; 2* Page 23 (Copyright 1999) PHILIPS, the Dutch consumer electronics giant, is gearing up to play a leading role in digital television in the Asia-Pacific region. The company, which has started worldwide rollout of digital television services, has begun supplying consumer receivers and broadcast hardware to key markets around the globe. In Asia, Singapore is poised to take the lead in digital television broadcasting, followed by Taiwan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Tests will start late this year and in 2000, with actual broadcasting services expected to go on-air by 2001. China is also on the brink of opting for digital television broadcasting while Japan has postponed the launch to 2003. Other Asian countries, including Malaysia, are also preparing to go digital although no definite plans have been announced yet. "We are very keen to maximise our proven abilities in the Asia-Pacific region," Philips Consumer Electronics (Asia-Pacific) regional marketing manager Rob Savelkoul told journalist at a regional media conference in Singapore last week. He said between 50 and 70 per cent of all homes in the Asia-Pacific region were expected to have digital television receivers installed about six years after introduction of the service. "With about 500 million television households in Asia at present, this means that the market will be enormous in the years to come," he said. The digital television market in Europe is expected to grow to three million terrestrial television receivers by next year. By that time, the installed base of all products for all forms of digital broadcasting and distribution - including those for satellite, cable and terrestrial reception - would reach about 18 million sets. Savelkoul said Philips, which has been involved in television development for over 60 years, now offered a wide range of digital solutions like television sets and set-top-boxes, camera lenses, recording equipment and transmission technology. He said Philips was the only company worldwide that was actively involved in existing and emerging digital television markets, especially in the Asia-Pacific region and Britain. Savelkoul said with the UK launch of digital terrestrial television, Philips was now looking to the introduction of digital broadcasting in other markets. "Philips is the world leader in digital receivers for terrestrial satellite and cable services. "So far, we have shipped about three million digital receivers, with more than 15 different models in production. "We have agreed to supply to broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and Eastern Europe," he said. Savelkour said as entertainment and information were the cornerstones of the digital broadcasting age, Philips planned to go big in digital consumer products - from CDs to PCs and mobile phones. Digital television, he said, was the core of the company's global ambition in consumer electronics with a whole range of television-related products and technologies, including interconnectivity, flat screen televisions, DVD , D-VHS and even handheld computing devices. "Households will soon be reliant on digital technologies for entertainment, productivity and communications at home, at work and on the move. "Philips' strength in these areas puts the company at the forefront of consumer electronics in the 21st century," he said. Philips is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of US$33.9 billion (RM128.8 billion) last year.

To: J Fieb who wrote (39545)	3/30/1999 12:44:00 PM
From: VidiVici	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Silly-Cone Valley PR is lacking... sfgate.com Killing the Rainmakers The dying art of high-tech public relations Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, March 29, 1999 ............... It's similar to the demand for life-jackets on a sinking ship. Not a tough sell. As a result, most high-tech companies with halfway decent products, including those with incredibly inept PR, can usually get their cash registers ringing (We wish!). ............... The job of public relations is to whet the appetite, to give a sense of what is possible, and what is coming down the pike. Good PR professionals don't "find a need and fill it." They are the rainmakers. They create the need. ............... The bigger danger in all this is what happens when individual high-tech companies suffer some kind of setback or, even worse, if and when the high-tech economy, or the economy in general, begins to falter. One way high-tech companies will be able to ride out such hard times, when they come, is with effective public relations, with speed and timing, by answering straight questions quickly with straight, confidence-building answers. Right now, it appears that at least some of Silicon Valley's leading high-tech firms might have a very hard time rising to meet that challenge (anyone we know??).

To: J Fieb who wrote (39545)	3/30/1999 6:14:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Lucent set up a new office................. exchange2000.com Lucent said it had agreed to acquire the LMDS wireless business of Hewlett-Packard Co., and that it would launch a new wireless-broadband-networks division in Milpitas, Calif. Lucent bought HP's LMDS division........................ cableworld.com Lucent To Buy H-P's LMDS Business Division By Jim Barthold In a deal that'll transform it into a key player in the emerging local multipoint distribution service market, Lucent Technologies said last week that it's planning to buy Hewlett-Packard Co.'s LMDS Wireless Business and launch a Wireless Broadband Networks (WBN) division based in Silicon Valley. The sale, whose financial terms weren't disclosed, indicates H-P's efforts to distance itself from broadband telecommunications and instead focus on its core computer-based technologies. Lucent primarily will develop products to serve small to medium-sized businesses with data delivery up to 45 mbps, according to Larry Schwerin, GM of the WBN division. "The original context of LMDS was really more like wireless cable, and in that context, it was driven more by residential services," he said. "The market has dramatically shifted into more of a need for business access for high-speed data, voice and maybe video applications." Schwerin added that Lucent isn't abandoning its LMDS technology for video delivery: "I would suspect that the video angle on this will, in fact, come into its own, but probably as a second generation to the business application." Breaking out the LMDS business unit from its Video Communications Division is part of H-P's plan to move away from traditional broadband telecommunications, according to Debra Dunn, the company's divisional VP-GM. "We've chosen not to invest heavily in building out broadband infrastructure," she said. "Our focus in the cable arena, with cable modems, was on getting that big pipe to the home. Similarly, our VOD focus earlier on and this LMDS initiative were all about getting the big pipe to the home. "That is not going to be a priority for H-P going forward. We continue to offer a lot of cable test products, so we want to help enable that technology. We have lots of computing products that will take advantage of the bandwidth delivered by that technology, but we have decided not to focus on building out the infrastructure." Dunn noted that the industry's original LMDS focus has moved from competing with cable in residential video delivery to feeding data to businesses, where it'll take advantage of the technology's wireless delivery to make quick strikes before cable operators build wireline networks. "In the U.S., most of the service providers that are looking at using this technology view residential video applications as icing on the cake a few years down the road -- not the primary focus that is justifying their investment," she said. She also pointed out that there's a different focus overseas, particularly in Asia, where customers "continue to be very focused on the video side." Through its WBN division, Lucent wants to capture a market that some analysts say is worth billions of dollars. "This unit is part of the overall wireless networks group, and this whole area of broadband wireless is really tied to the new market opportunity that's appearing here in the U.S. and globally," Schwerin said. "It's really tied to the whole telecom reform and privatization directions that are happening globally." (February 23, 1998) Lucent and Philips............................ cableworld.com Lucent, Philips Map Merger Lucent Technologies and Philips Electronics N.V. have agreed to merge their consumer electronics divisions into a new company called Philips Consumer Communications. The new company will be 60%-controlled by Philips and based in Parsippany, N.J. HP relies on Divicom for digital video................... tmo.hp.com There could be a connection.