Replies to post #68245 on e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[friendlyfred]

I wouldnt take anything said from that particular poster as absolute fact. I remember him claiming that Fred Falk and the ceo of gateway (at that time) were acquaintances which was later denied by falk himself/

[murrayhill]

I remember that same conclusion, jack,
but now that you mention the source, I wonder if the information was Gospel or only church?

He was pretty much FOS to me....

By: jimc2001
17 Feb 2001, 09:29 PM EST Msg. 618179 of 1128455
(This msg. is a reply to 618165 by haiyaku.)
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Here is the reality about the Hango/Hy-Tek/Remote Solutions relationship. It is not based on hearsay or idle speculation, as murrayhill has used in his conjectures.

I have spoken directly to key individuals at Remote Solutions, Hy-Tek and Eastech about the jukebox at the CES and subsequently in several phone calls, including one as recent as two days ago.

The fact is that all three of these firms are delighted to be working with e.Digital and have expressed the opinion to me on several occasions that they feel that the e.Digital reference design jukebox will be a huge success in the market.

Hy-Tek is going to sell the jukebox directly under the Treo name, both through their website and later through retail outlets, but their primary emphasis is to serve as a wholesale distribution source for other OEMs. It is these latter OEMs that you will soon see at Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City. In response to my questions about who these OEMs will be, the answer is always that they are "well-known consumer electronics brands."

Hy-Tek is extremely pleased with the potential volume of orders from these OEMs and is not about to endanger those vital relationships by competing too directly for store shelfspace with their own version of the jukebox. Hy-Tek will eventually try to sell their own version of the jukebox (under the Treo name), but they will give their OEM customers first choice on retail channels.

The Hy-Tek jukeboxes will be available in retail stores in March. Production samples are being reviewed and pre-production units have been distributed to consumer electronics firms and various media parties for review purposes. Despite some idle talk on this message board about "delays" this is all on schedule. That schedule has not changed since mid-January when I first posted a message on this subject after speaking to Hy-Tek at that time.

Eastech will be launching their own version of the jukebox in May. Initially it will be a form somewhat similar to the Nomad (a photo of this unit, the ET700 is available on their website) but they told me that are also working with e.Digital on several other form factors, including a much smaller jukebox. They are also preparing to produce a DataPlay version of the jukebox.

Eastech has a very close relationship with Radio Shack and they agreed with me that this is a likely OEM brand for their jukebox.

Remote Solutions has some old inventory of the Compaq-designed jukebox to dispose of, but their primary interest is in working with PC manufacturers to create bundled, branded jukeboxes for those potentially huge customers.

JimC