Quotes of the Week, January 19-23
"A lot of Microsoft officials came back from Christmas after being chastised by relatives and friends. They got an eye-opener that this is a problem on a wider cultural basis, not just among Macheads and Unix geeks."- Zona Research analyst Jim Balderston on changing attitudes to Microsoft.
"With Visigenic, you're talking about deals with £50-100,000 worth of products and very long sales cycles. It was never a product that was going to be put through Software Warehouse or PC World." - Borland's Nigel Brown on the company's changing distribution channel.
"The bulk of the information will be free of charge. It's a non-issue. Our job is to reach the broadest group of customers. The currency is definitely changing; the currency now is subscriptions and ads, but it's becoming transactional and distribution revenues. Because we'll be the number one site in the UK for features and content, we will get those revenues." - MSN's Oliver Roll defends his turf.
"They just don't seem to have understood, and most of the rest falls down the plug hole there. It's one of the most confused pieces of research I've seen in some time. Whoever wrote it clearly doesn't understand the NC. There are some real howlers in there." - IBM's Pete Jakob on a Compaq report slamming the NC.
"Can I quote my brother who's a big fan of American football?" - Intel spokeswoman asked why UK Net users should vote to decide the end of an Intel TV ad during the Super Bowl.
"Netscape is the fastest growing software company in history but our market has grown beyond the browser to custom software, messaging and services where there are phenomenal growth opportunities. Client market share is the seed corn." - Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, announcing the decision to make most browsers and source code free.
"We find it highly disturbing that the actions of a few individuals have impacted the achievements and integrity of Sybase employees throughout the world." - Mitchell Kertzman, chairman and CEO after the Japanese subsidiary overstated revenues forcing a postponement of results.
"This technology is a great step forward. Instead of having three major players going in different directions, we have a concerted effort." - Source close to Microsoft, Intel and Compaq's interactive TV alliance.