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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (29921)	5/12/1999 4:51:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Orient Express, eom.

To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (29921)	5/12/1999 5:57:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

This Guy Has Got It Wrong (thin phone)> May 12, 1999 Dow Jones Newswires SMARTMONEY DAILY SCREEN: Nextel Fills Wireless Screen By ALEC APPELBAUM Dow Jones Newswires Smartmoney.com This story was originally published Tuesday. NEW YORK -- Give the corporate deal-cutters at Microsoft (MSFT) credit. They've had a sharp eye for technologies whose appeal spreads from the lab to all sorts of business settings, until companies of all kinds can't imagine working without them. Microsoft produced variations on established user-friendly interfaces, Internet browsers, spreadsheets and word processors and became a market leader in all of them. Now it has paid $600 million for 4% of wireless communications provider Nextel (NXTL) as it tries to establish an early lead in wireless Web surfing. What's really going on here goes beyond a single deal - and beyond the prospect that a company like MCI WorldCom (WCOM) will make a fresh bid for Nextel now that it includes a shot of Windows fluid. Monday's deal represents the largest of several bets being spread across all communications devices, in hopes that Internet access will make them more habit-forming. Nextel will start selling phones this summer featuring "Nextel Online," a portal-like interface that uses the Microsoft Network format to deliver weather reports, sports scores and other simple text messages. It may not seem like much, but a familiar user interface on a wireless device, as long as it works, could be a huge advantage to early players in the field. If the growth of the Internet itself is any indication, the customers for wireless Net access seem sure to follow. And if the wired Internet is any guide, being first to market can mean all the difference. Despite what you might suspect, demand for wireless data exceeds a cluster of geeks and specialists. As companies keep decentralizing, corporate travelers will pay premium prices for the ability to check e-mail, the weather, news or stock quotes. In turn, phone companies will keep building digital data-friendly networks that can transmit simple Internet messages as quickly and cheaply as voice. Nextel looks poised to become a better-performing stock thanks to t he Microsoft deal, with greater access to user interface technology and the incalculable advantage of being able to perfect its products while the market is still relatively small. The audience Microsoft and others pursue will probably be different from the early buyers of wireless Internet gadgets, says Dataquest analyst Matt Hoffman. But Microsoft's easy-to-use technology and marketing muscle will probably help independent sales agents persuade small businesses to pay up for wireless Internet a ccess, boosting Nextel's sales. Behind Nextel, the competition for wireless Internet sales is already getting thick. Qualcomm (QCOM) makes the PDQ phone and supplies gear for U S West (USW) and Bell Atlantic (BEL); Nokia (NOK) also outfits Bell Atlantic. France's Alcatel (ALA) announced U S West's Web-ready 'thin phone" Monday. AT&T (T) clucks about its "Terminator," an all-digital mobile phone it has begun to sell to high-end customers. 3Com (COMS), which planted the wireless access seed with its PalmPilot, will add a Web retrieval service to its Palm VII, an upgrade due this summer. With all this diverse technology it will be hard for one approach to dominate the field. And hell may have no fury like America Online (AOL), whose Netscape division is selling server and e-commerce software to Nextel. AOL had agreed tentatively to sell a Netscape browser to Nextel before Microsoft came courting: expect it to find other partners soon. "A lot of companies in wireless data will come on board for less than a $600 million investment," says Dataquest's Hoffman. Among companies that make browsers work within phones, investment choices look even cloudier. Looking for a small specialist turns up penny stocks like Infowave (V.IWM) and Geoworks (GWRX). Phone.com, which shamelessly changed its name from Unwired Planet, developed the "microbrowser" that will power Nextel's Internet access and leads a consortium of other developers. It's due to go public this spring. Nextel is acting as a pacesetter in its industry, showcasing a glamorous partnership that promises more efficient use of its data network and puts some sell-side analysts in very confident spirits. "There's no question that if they're going to co-brand with Microsoft, this gives Nextel access to a huge market of potential consumers that they've never really had access to before," says Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Cindy Motz. (First Boston is underwriting Phone.com's IPO.) That makes the new Nextel better than the old Nextel, but not necessarily better than the rest of the field. The stock nudged up 1.5% on Monday's news, then gained another 0.5% Tuesday. That should continue. But more interesting investment choices will emerge later this year, after road warriors start packing the Microsoft-equipped phones. Zona Research analyst Jim Balderston points out that a "skinny" operating system, perhaps from Sun Microsystems" (SUNW) alliance with AOL, can do just fine with e-mail and simple text. Bell Atlantic is already selling a modem that users can pop into laptops for wireless access. The growth and improvement in all these gizmos could aid the battered stock of 3Com, which will begin pushing a parade of wireless devices this summer. And Motorola (MOT), which makes all of Nextel's phones, has an association with a rival browser called Symbian. Microsoft has star power, all right. But in wireless Internet access, it seems less likely to steal the show. For more information and analysis of companies and mutual funds, visit SmartMoney.com at smartmoney.com.