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Technology Stocks : HWP -- Hewlett Packard -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chad Beemer who wrote (3020)	4/22/1999 7:57:00 PM
From: BelowTheCrowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4722

Chad, I'm a manager today. I've been a manager in the semiconductor business, and know plenty about how smart cards are built. I also know the economics of the business, and what the key drivers are. So I'll put in in simple terms. If you're running a smartcard business, you will spend less than 1% of your budget on the cards themselves. They are relatively simple semiconductor devices which are volume-manufactured for pennies each The other 99% goes into marketing and the IT infrastructure needed to support the actual smartcards. The fact that the card cost gets cut in half just doesn't make much of a difference to the overall market development. Not to say you can't make a healthy business building better smartcard package components. Just that the cost benefits you deliver WON'T be big enough to drive the market. mg