OC Companies Tout Products, Ambitions to Comdex Crowd
Broadcom Corp. showed how its chips could work in the home of the future. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. touted wireless products. Shugart Technology Inc. promised it would get as big as Seagate Technology Inc. And Ingram Micro Inc. said it’s undergoing a big transformation.
These were some of the presentations and pronouncements by Orange County companies last week at Comdex Fall 2000, the annual Las Vegas show considered the most prominent technology conference in the world.
Even small OC companies made splashy presentations. Costa Mesa-based Stomp Inc. a maker of labeling software for compact discs, had what looked like the biggest banner at the Sands Convention Center. Lake Forest-based identification technology company Ethentica Inc. drew large crowds around its booth.
Irvine-based Aqcess Technologies Inc. has been having financial problems, but that didn’t stop the company from staging a booth as large as Broadcom’s where passersby could try out its newest Qbe Vivo personal computer tablet.
Tustin-based eSynch Corp., which makes products to manage Internet video, made a presentation at a Showstoppers party for journalists. The Linksys Group Inc. of Irvine, which makes computer networking products, had a huge banner overlooking its big booth.
Irvine chip maker Broadcom, OC’s largest company by market capitalization, loomed over its Comdex neighbors. The company’s logo stood out clearly in the north hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Broadcom’s booth showcased what can be possible in home networking in the next couple of years.
Showing how Broadcom chips could work in a typical home was Jeff Thermond, the former chief executive of Sunnyvale-based Epigram Inc. before it was acquired by Broadcom last year. Thermond now is vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s home networking unit.
Thermond showed visitors how Broadcom chips could allow music anywhere in the house without a stereo player. Video could be downloaded from the Internet to almost any television in the house. More phone lines can be added at lower costs. It can all be done without adding new wiring, Thermond touted.
Still, whether consumers want more computer gadgetry in their homes is questionable. Thermond argued that Broadcom’s technology offers convenience, not complexity.
“There are people in the home networking place that will tell you how great it will be that your cell phone can program your sprinklers at home. I think that’s ridiculous,” Thermond said. “We focus on applications that people are already doing. Tens of millions of people watch TV. Tens of millions of people make phone calls every day. Tens of millions of people listen to pre-recorded music and tens of millions of people surf the Internet. So we’re using home networking to make mass-market applications more attractive and more usable.”
Ingram Micro Inc., OC biggest company by annual sales, had one of the smallest booths of the show at the Sands Convention Center. The computer products distributor spent most of its time at the show hosting meetings at Las Vegas’ newest hotel, the swank Aladdin. Ingram Micro’s message: it’s changing with the times.
“We’ve acted much like a merchant wholesale distributor would,” said Guy Abramo, chief strategy and information officer for Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro. “We would buy lots of products, stick them into warehouses and sell them for what we could. The business today is very different. We’re helping vendors remove costs from the supply chain. What you have at Ingram Micro is a fundamental transformation of what was a product company into a company that’s a services company. That’s a large transformation for a Fortune 41 company to make.”
By offering more services, Ingram Micro hopes to increase its profit margins, which last year hit a company low.
Ingram Micro announced new services to help companies drive down supply costs, such as a sales and marketing agreement with TeleTech Holdings Inc. of Denver to provide logistic services. It also announced PartnershipAmerica.com, which helps government and education technology buyers use a wireless connection to source products.
“We think we’re misperceived,” Abramo said. “People still think of us as an old school distributor. We’re one of the most progressive e-businesses on the planet. A lot of people talk about it. We’re doing it.”
One of OC’s more colorful Comdex attendees was Irvine-based storage products company Shugart Technology, named after Al Shugart, who many consider one of the fathers of the disk drive. Shugart co-founded industry leader Seagate Technology, which last year posted revenue of $6.5 billion.
Wearing a Hawaiian shirt and chain-smoking cigarettes at the hall he rented at the Golden Nugget Hotel in downtown Las Vegas, Shugart reiterated a lofty goal he has for his namesake company that makes software and hardware to test storage systems.
“If they execute like I think they can, I wouldn’t be surprised if Shugart Technologies exceeds Seagate in its revenue,” Shugart said.
It’s a bold statement for Shugart Technology, which just opened its doors on July 1 in Irvine and has all of 15 employees. Shugart suggested asking Chief Executive Richard Brechtlein if that goal is possible.
“I believe it now. The chairman has spoken,” joked Brechtlein. “I have to agree with Al. When you get down to what’s going on and if we execute properly, then our product becomes a fundamental part of the infrastructure that runs the global information data base.”
The company is talking to venture capitalists and corporations about funding a relatively small second round that it expects to announce within a few months, the executives said.
But it’s not always easy to tell if Shugart is joking or not. After all, he ran his dog Ernest for Congress once. So when Shugart was asked again whether he’s pulling a reporter’s leg about his revenue goal, he didn’t laugh, but said in a serious tone for the record, “I think it’s going to be big.”
Toshiba America, the Irvine-based U.S. arm of the Japanese electronics giant, toned down its parties this year. But its booth was as big as ever and thousands of Comdex attendees passed by.
The company touted wireless networking for portable computers by way of technologies known as Bluetooth and WiFi.
“Last year, we had land connections with PC cards. This year, we can show people that now it’s possible to be wireless,” said Michael Wagner, vice president of marketing for notebook and desktop systems for Toshiba America Information Systems.
Toshiba also demonstrated technology being worked on in its labs. Wagner said two Toshiba products are the most promising: One is a wireless headset that can shoot video and transmit the images to a projector on a Dick Tracy-style wrist band. The second product is a tablet that weighs less than two pounds and can be used as a book, Web browser or a giant electronic organizer.
“We’re trying to gauge the public acceptance,” Wagner said. “We thought Comdex is a great forum to do that. These are the kinds of things that we can bring to market real quickly if we think they are popular things. They are all part of our operations at Irvine.” n
