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Technology Stocks : WAVX Anyone? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: WTSherman who wrote (6817)	5/15/1999 2:18:00 PM
From: doormouse	Respond to of 11417

WT, The elegance of the WAVX plan is that everyone has incentives: * "A penny for you" - (content provider) * "A penny for me" - (WAVX, the gatekeeper) * and "A penny for Michael Dell" (so to speak) - (the boxmaker) Of course the boxmaker would love to get residuals. And further: the Embassy chip can be "snuck into" a PC like a Trojan horse, on any peripheral, if I'm not mistaken. (That makes it "a penny for Hauppauge," 'till Michael Dell gets his act together :)) These two points make me a 1/2-way a believer. "Motivation" is a powerful thing! regards, .k1b0

To: WTSherman who wrote (6817)	5/15/1999 2:38:00 PM
From: SDR-SI	Respond to of 11417

WTS: In response to: > > >What I'm struggling with is how this can really get off the ground. Without widespread deployment of PC's or other devices with the technology imbedded it doesn't seem like many providers will have a big interest in building their delivery systems to use it. This is sort of a catch-22, or chicken and egg scenario, no? < < < You are certainly correct that "without widespread deployment of PC's or other devices with the technology imbedded ..." the concept cannot be financially successful. IMHO that looking at the companies that are lining up with WAVE, makes one believe that massive deployment is not an impossible goal. IMHO that looking at the concept that the WAVE/EMBASSY system makes possible the realization of the beneficial economics of entirely new business models (data broadcast, incremental publishing, etc.), makes one believe that massive deployment in new e-commerce models is around the corner. IMHO that looking at the fact that there are few readily available challenges to the WAVX/EMBASSY "trusted client" concept makes one begin to believe that the goals of universality and ubiquity may not be beyond reasonable chance of achievement. All of these things are at least part of my own personal evaluation that keep me thinking that the evidence at this point leads to an evolving increase in the probability of success in this "certainly not a sure thing" market. Although in an ideal world your comment "(p)lease don't bash me if the answer is obvious" shouldn't be necessary, this is not an ideal world, nor is the concept 100% obvious, nor 100% guaranteed, and there will always be those who bash those just beginning their quest to see if this is a good investment for themselves; but hopefully the understanding of your position by most, and your own confidence in your ability to decide what is best for you, will overcome any intolerance exhibited by any bashers who do show up. Steve

To: WTSherman who wrote (6817)	5/15/1999 2:53:00 PM
From: ecommerceman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11417

WT--I had the same concern that you do while I was researching the stock 10 months ago, but that was quickly alleviated when I learned that the OEMs (computer manufacturers) would, as /kbo pointed out, get a cut of every Wave transaction completed through the use of one of their machines. With computer margins continuing to fall, this is an extremely powerful incentive (imagine how much revenue Dell would have pouring in if all of the computers they'd sold had contained a Wavemeter!). In fact, I went from questioning the concept--just as you're doing now--to wondering why the OEMs hadn't jumped to deploy the chip as soon as they could. I'm still slightly troubled by that question, frankly, but more knowledgeable people than me correctly (I hope!) point out that no OEM would make an announcement ahead of deployment due to concern about tipping off their competitors, and that you don't just throw a Wavemeter chip into a computer box on a whim. This doesn't seem outlandish to believe, and I am greatly reassured by the agreements that Wave has made with very substantial companies. While we may still "fall by the wayside," I'll be extremely surprised if that's the case--the concept just makes too much sense. I bought my first shares at about $3 1/2, and have added to my position a bunch of times as more and more significant companies came on board. Final words of gratuitous advice--don't be intimidated by the runup in the price of the stock. If this one "hits" at all, the $20s will be a very distant memory... Kudos to Steve for his excellent analysis, as usual.