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Technology Stocks : Vari-L (VARL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Robert Sheldon who wrote (953)5/5/1999 5:03:00 PM
From: J Stone  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 2702
 
Welcome back. Just a clarification to you post 220,000,000 cell phones produces demand for 440,000,000 VCOs not 440,000. What I like best about the future picture is the way phone companies and consumers treat cell phones... they're throw aways or give aways. Every year or 2 you negotiate a new phone deal and get a new phone. So when people are looking at the percentage of the population using cell phones and related growth projections, it under-estimates the demand for VCOs as existing users will require more VCOs when they upgrade phones.

FWIW

Jeff



To: Robert Sheldon who wrote (953)5/5/1999 11:43:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 2702
 
Thanks Robert and Pat, I'm getting excited. So, we see a new business of VARL selling chip sets into wireless phones. You feel they have a better product, or just better for the highest end phone? They must compete against some pretty heavy competition, which must also have internal supply of these components, such as Motorola and Ericson. Don't know much about Nokia or Samsung as to what silicon they make in house.

Do these chips for phones care about CDMA, TDMA, or GSM? Or, will VARL sell into all?

I'm fascinated by the move to Internet use over wireless. In 2 or 3 years, we should see higher bandwidth available, which should provide a constant upgrade cycle for existing users and bring in huge new growth. We may also see Auto PC's come with built in Mobil Phone features with GPS capability. It's likely for that matter that GPS will be a part of all mobile devices.

For these smarter internet devices, battery consumption will be very important as will transmission quality as data rates increase and Interactive Voice Recognition IVR, processed remotely in the net, is used to handle a great portion of the input interface. I have the impression that VARL has a lead at the high end?

Also, getting back to LMDS. I agree it's starting to show promise, but again what I don't understand, like the question about the phones is whether they sell components just for the broadcasting base station, or also the receiving antennae?

It's interesting to see Intel investing in Proxim to get involved in their wireless WAN success, which could be taken out of the factory and put into SOHO mini networks. This would seem like another category for VARL type chips. It's all so specialized though.

Finally, I wonder if there isn't one or 2 really cleaver engineers who are responsible for most of VARL's success? It's a small company and glancing through past annual reports I got such a feeling. That seems like a worry if true.

In the end, I keep wondering why they aren't being acquired? They seem to have interesting products that would round out many companies' product lines. Certainly, they seem under valued. Makes me think the big players feel they can do it all organically.

Thanks,

Mark