ip: General Magic

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Calling Your Computer
General Magic hopes new product does the trick=20


Jonathan Marshall, Chronicle Staff Writer


Lots of companies try to reinvent themselves when markets change and old
business plans become obsolete.=20


But General Magic -- whose logo is a rabbit popping out of a top hat -- will
need all the wizardry it can muster to turn around its long streak of bad
luck. Only two years ago it went public in a blaze of hype, its stock=
 soaring
from $14 to as high as $32 on the first day of trading. Yesterday it closed=
 at
$1.38.=20


> From its founding by a group of Apple Computer veterans in May 1990 through
the end of last year, General Magic managed to lose $119 million. Its main
product was an operating system for personal communications devices=
 including
the Sony Magic and Motorola Envoy, none of which is still manufactured.=20


Last fall, in a sweeping management change, the Sunnyvale company hired a=
 new
chairman, president and CEO: Steve Markman, former executive vice president=
 at
Novell Inc. He cleaned house, paring the company's ranks by a third to under
200.=20


Markman, who has a Ph.D. in electrophysics, began his career in 1967 as a
member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories. He is returning to those
roots by refocusing General Magic on a new project centered around the
telephone.=20


Markman is betting the company's last $50 million on a service code-named
Serengeti, which it hopes to begin selling this fall.=20


General Magic plans to sell the service to companies that want to let their
mobile workers retrieve voice mail, e- mail and information off their
computers by phone.=20


It does nearly all the work of an executive assistant.=20


In fact, Markman's own assistant, Carol Mason, helped decide what functions
Serengeti should have. But the product won't put her out of work. By freeing
her from routine tasks, ``it allows her to do more important things,''=
 Markman
said.=20


Workers use the system by calling a phone number. The test version answers=
 to
the name of Alex -- though the user can change its name, sex and even its
personality.=20


The worker can tell the system to ``read all my messages,'' ``look up John
Doe's phone number,'' ``call John Doe'' or ``tell me what's scheduled for 2
o'clock,'' among other things.=20


It can filter e-mail for important messages and read them back to you, based
on criteria such as name of sender or keywords in the subject header like
``urgent.'' You can listen to an e-mail message and say ``fax it to the
hotel.''=20


The system can forward calls to any number or numbers where you'll be.=20


Authorized colleagues can call the system and enter an appointment in your
scheduler using voice commands. ``Alex'' will then call you to confirm the
appointment. And it does all that without complaint, 24 hours a day, 7 days=
 a
week.=20


``In the 30 years I've been married, this is the first product my wife has
instantly liked,'' Markman quipped.=20


The system relies on two key advances by General Magic researchers. One is=
 in
an extremely sophisticated speech recognition system, which understands
complex sentences, not just words. The other is a system of ``intelligent
agents'' that let Serengeti link up with your computer to access scheduling
and contact databases, as well as public information sources for news, stock
quotes, weather and other items.=20


Serengeti also lets you access messages and other information over a=
 computer
as well as a phone. For example, it can convert voice mail into a sound file
that can be transmitted over the Internet and played on a computer equipped
with Real Audio software.=20


Serengeti's closest competitor is Wildfire, a popular communications=
 manager.
But Serengeti is more powerful and easier to use, because it doesn't require
the user to go through a structured menu to issue commands.=20


Serengeti understands sentences more intelligently, so users don't have to
stick to specific command phrases. And unlike Wildfire, Serengeti can access
your computer database for phone numbers, addresses, appointments and other
information.=20


Analysts who have seen the system in action praise its features and=
 potential
to win customers.=20


Roberta Wiggins at the Yankee Group in Boston said Serengeti should appeal=
 to
many of the estimated 43 million workers who spend a significant portion of
their workweek on the road. That number will grow to 63 million by 2001, she
predicted.=20


``I think there's big market potential,'' said Wiggins. ``It will appeal to
the road warrior who needs information immediately, doesn't have time to=
 plug
in his computer and boot up and may not be terribly computer savvy.''=20


Salespeople who can't afford to miss an important message should=
 particularly
like Serengeti, said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies. ``A lot
of guys in the sales community are technophobic and don't like computers,''=
 he
said. ``They are much better at yakking than they are at typing.''=20


General Magic hasn't yet disclosed how it intends to market Serengeti or how
much it will charge, but an obvious strategy would be to offer it through
telephone companies as a value-added feature, the same way voice mail is
marketed.=20


If the price is right, said Bill Hills, an analyst with the Aberdeen Group=
 in
Boston, Serengeti should attract cellular phone companies that already cater
to mobile professionals. ``They've built an impressive application,'' he=
 said.




Hills said he was particularly impressed by the fact that Serengeti works=
 with
so many different devices: regular phones, cellular phones, desktop PCs and
even handheld personal digital assistants.=20


The new company has changed not only its product but its business strategy.
Before, it sought royalty income from licensing its operating systems; in=
 the
future it will earn direct revenues from products and services like=
 Serengeti.




In previous years it also suffered from a proprietary approach to inventing
everything in-house. Now it is licensing software as needed from other
companies, such as Philippe Kahn's Starfish Software.=20


``Now we have an open system and can take the best of breed in every
component,'' said Markman.=20




=A9 The Chronicle Publishing Company=20