10. Sony in USA General Magic Technologies (Continued)

5) Major issues which are missed by the management of General Magic,

AT&T, Motorola and Sony

 

a) The timing of the development I had took over was in early 1994 where many different types of handheld devices become available in the market.

b) So it is late comer to the market.

c) Many handheld manufacturers had finding difficult task as to how it should be positioned whether it is a stand alone or complementary to note PC

or complementary to desk-top PC.

d) The speed of technology development coming from other related products.

There were MODEM, Memory, Chipset, etc but the most important one is Internet Protocol.

e) Internet Protocol was widely used in workstation community so my

experience at Sony Microsystem Company indicates the only Protocol is

TCP/IP. The early 1994 is a beginning of this Internet Protocol to be used

Widely. Yet AT&T and General Magic to jointly create another network

Language may be too much challenges.

f) Another major issue the top management did not understand computer and

telecommunications market so I have to report to my boss both in Japan and USA

who has No understanding computer and telecommunications market and technology

so both my bosses have created additional large obstacles for me.

 

6）What Sony have done.

 

1) Our first priority is to introduce the MagicLink product in USA market. We have therefore Concentrated to debug Magicap O/S by residing General Magic office by transferred engineers

From Tokyo and use a common format to review and actions to be taken.

2) To understand better about what were discussed in the Board meeting,

I made request that I should be joined as an observer so that I understand better about the　management plan and actions they are trying to take.

3) Gathering related technologies which might be used in MagicLink such as smaller and　faster MODEM, smaller and less power consumption chipset, application software which

might be useful by consumer.

4) The other options in terms of CPU chipset, Network software or protocol, etc.

5) We set a marketing strategy and establishing sales channel as well as advertisement plan.

6) Discussions with our partner, AT&T and Motorola for their progress and their views on General Magic engineering capabilities.

7) Communications with Park Ridge management for better understanding on this business.

8) Communications with HQ for better understanding on issues and business.

 

7) What Motorola and AT&T have done during the same period as Sony