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Re: Snackman post# 111307

Friday, 03/03/2006 11:06:50 AM

Friday, March 03, 2006 11:06:50 AM

Post# of 249374
Snackman/mbarr I may be able to shed some light on ETS "availability" at Dell:

1. Remember the original ETS Dell Edition 1.0 for $16.99? Wave filed an 8-K indicating that the Envoy (original licensed reseller) agreement had been amended to permit the name of ETS Dell Edition 1.0. This product was intended for the Dell 1.1b Latitudes, and for all intents and purposes is now considered obsolete. I doubt many copies were sold, althought I bought one for my Latitude.

2. ETS Dell Edition 1.0 was replaced by ETS Dell Edition 2.0 and this version was designed for the Dell 1.2 Optiplex and mobile workstations, while at the time is backwards compatible to the 1.1b Latitudes. While the 1.2 Optiplexes and workstations came with Wave's ESC and CSP on the STM chip, I think there have been few activations and few sales of ETS Dell Edition 2.0. Actually I think the price of Edition 2.0 was somewhat higher than Edition 1.0, which is neither here nor there.

3. ETS Dell Edition 2.0 is for all intents and purposes now obslolete. Why? Because the Wave/Dell arrangement has changed to a bundled "lite" version of ETS Dell Edition to be released on the new Dell 1.2 models. So, now the user will get a complimentary bundled version of ETS, fewer features than the original 1.0 and 2.0 Editions. This starter version is meant to be sufficient for activating the TPM and introducing the user to trusted computing and Dell's (Wave-powered) trusted computing solutions. I believe the plan now is that if the user wants to upgrade to the complete ETS 5.0 they have to pay the upgrade, available from Dell or Wave. I think Envoy is still a middleman through Dell for all Wave products.

So, I believe the original ETS Dell Editions 1.0 and 2.0 have been phased out by Dell, explaining why these products are no longer "available". I think the bundled approach will be much better for Wave. Not only does Wave get a royalty for each bundled Dell PC, but activations with the bundle should take off. Also, consider that the user will have to activate the TPM to use smart cards, fingerprint readers and FDE drives.


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