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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sawtooth who wrote (30863)	5/13/1999 12:21:00 PM
From: Doug	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 45548

Tim: How about this for a COMS LOGO " Hold the world in the PALM of your hand"

To: Sawtooth who wrote (30863)	5/13/1999 12:45:00 PM
From: Andre Williamson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 45548

Coms = NICs in the eyes of the consumer? I disagree 100%. I think consumers' view USRobotics/3COM as Modems/PalmPilots. It's more like consumers have no opinion or knowledge about 3COM at all. The only thing the average consumer knows about the inside of their machine is that their processor is Intel, if they know anything at all. More likely, if you asked them what company provides the guts of their computer, most would probably answer "Microsoft." However, I'd agree the investment community thinks of COMS as nics and modems. I do fully agree with you on the need for aggressive, positive marketing. COMS should put primetime adds out there showing people using PalmPilots, with the things you can do with them scrolling up the screen: getting pages and stock quotes; keeping track of expenses and integrating seamlessly with Quicken; writing and sending e-mails from anywhere, anytime; "syncing" with Microsoft Outlook, all the other contact and organizational software programs, or even MyYahoo! (and having all this information painlessly and easily backed up safely); and the list goes on. They could start offering a "satisfaction guarantee" that gives people their money back PLUS $50 if they're not happy and return the product within three months. At the same time advertise that they'll provide a hotline to help people get started with their new Palm. Any returns they do get could be refurbished and auctioned off, but think about the new users they'd bring in! Part of the problem with handhelds is ease of use. I read somewhere that a full 20% of all WinCE handhelds are no longer used after week 1. Palm is much easier to use, but why not make it even easier? How about a partnership with OEMs that allows them to bundle Palms in with their computers, at a discount, with the PALM software pre-installed and configured for the user? (And for those adding in Quicken, PocketQuicken could be added in, and so on?) The time to bury CE and the clones is now. COMS should cement the Palm brand in consumers' minds and make the Palm an aspirational item for Joe and Jane America, not just jetsetters, computer geeks, and gadget freaks. Andre