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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maverick who wrote (22302)	5/6/1999 11:04:00 PM
From: t2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Maverick, AT&T will also license software Microsoft is developing to deliver e-mail and interactive services over cable television. thanks for this part. i had missed reading it. Re: Set top boxes. AT&T is well aware of the acceptance of MSFT products by the general public (i don't mean the computer geeks!!!!--no offense). Windows and Office are great examples of the standards they have created. On the surface there appears to be no connection between set top boxes and Windows98/NT or Office. However, the connection is the acceptance of such products by the public. AT&T recognizes that a Windows CE operated machine has a much better chance of attracting consumers because there will be less of an "intimidation factor". Windows CE should make people comfortable in trying this product. The user should be able to recognize a lot of the commands making the transition a lot more "comfortable" even though the OS may not have much to do with the actual purpose of the machine. The bottom line for AT&T is that it should be able to rent lots of these machines. My guess is that they feel a Windows CE machine has much better changes than the Oracle machine (read it somewhere that it is used by U.K. cable operators). IMHO, once the results of what the consumers want are in, the operating system will be Windows CE but Sun and others may be involved in applications along with MSFT. IMHO, the non-MSFT set top boxes will be there just like an AMD is there for Intel. It is a great way to work out good pricing. BTW--I am not too familiar with the actual purpose of these machines or how much difference there is between MSFT and others. I am just trying to make a point on how a company like AT&T may be seeing this. Of course I could be way off base.