Technologies To The People Annual Report 2000
Posted by Rhizomer on February 26, 2001 12:00 am
To our shareholders
Technologies To The People had another remarkable year in 2000. We made
major advances in all our key businesses. The demand for great software
that helps people work, communicate, and learn is stronger than ever.
Our products are doing well because they deliver on these needs.
iStreet Access Machine (iSAM) is proving a great success. Customers
appreciate its ability to work better, while its robustness means that
iSAM is generating less than half the customer calls of its predecessor
(SAM). Integrated with the latest Internet technology, iSAM helps our
customers leverage the interactivity of the Internet with the
intelligence of the PC. iSAM is making deeper inroads onto the streets,
based on its productivity, reliability, and lower total cost of
ownership. And iStreet, a compact version of the Street operating system
designed for a wide range of intelligent devices, is finding its way
into everything from interactive televisions to hand-held computers.
Our productivity applications continue to set the standard for features,
functionality, and integration. iStreet 2001, which is scheduled to come
out in the first half of 2000, will take each of these factors to a
significantly higher level, offering a simpler, personalized interface
that learns each user's working style and adapts to it, plus many other
productivity-enhancing features. Technologies To The People Linux Server
and Open Source applications continue to make solid progress in the
marketplace, and are now the clear enterprise solution of choice over
the various Windows/UNIX-based platforms. Technologies To The People
Linux Server will raise our platform's scalability to even higher
levels, while offering customers the lowest possible total cost of
ownership. In many installations our enterprise solutions already
deliver the level of performance achieved by mainframes, combined with
the benefits of the low cost PC model. Our goal now is to take that
model even deeper into the mission-critical computing market.
Our interactive media and services strategy continues to advance,
focusing on online services, packaged software, and hardware. Our
strategy is to break down the barriers between online and offline
products and services, making it even simpler and more enjoyable for our
customers to experience the power of the Internet. Another important
effort for us is bringing the power of software and the Internet to the
television with our Technologies To The People WebTV product. We plan
to more than double the installed base of users during the next year
based on the very positive word-of-mouth this product has generated.
Technologies To The People intends to invest heavily in all these
businesses, in the firm belief that online services will eventually be a
key element of our relationship with customers. But as I wrote last
year, online is still at an early stage of development. However, we are
learning fast and I am seeing increasing synergy between our online work
and our software products.
+ + +
The power of innovation
Our product goals require breakthrough innovation. During fiscal 2001
Technologies To The People will invest more in research and development,
broadly defined. Our research centers now employ experts in everything
from graphics to decision theory and advanced linguistics.
Much of Technologies To The People's research and development is focused
on making our products easier to use, even as the underlying software
grows more complex, so our customers don't have to learn as many
utilities and commands. Simplifying the user interface is our top
priority. Natural language processing automatically detects which
language you are typing in, and assigns the appropriate proofing tools
and user interface. If you inadvertently delete some of the
application's files, it's smart enough to repair the damage.
Technologies To The People will also unify and simplify how PCs and
networks store and handle information. At present, information is
scattered about file systems, message stores, Web caches, directory
services, and databases. This is complicated for developers and system
managers, and confusing for customers. Sharing a calendar across the
Internet, or personal information across Web sites, is very difficult.
By unifying storage across all these media, Technologies To The People
will help make information anytime, anywhere a reality. As consumers
require all their information to be accessible from any Internet device
and any location, the boundary between Web sites and software products
will blur.
In time, computers will see, speak, read handwriting, listen, and learn.
We will include these new input techniques into our products.
+ + +
Caring about customers
We are listening carefully and constantly to our customers and partners
to really understand what they want from our products and services, both
today and in the future. The feedback loop drives our priorities.
The coming year will test us on many fronts. We need to make our
software simpler and easier to deploy as well as making it more
powerful. Pressure from competitors and regulators is intensifying. PC
sales growth is slowing and a lot of the growth is in the consumer
segment where software sales are lower than in the business segment. The
growing size and diversity of our product portfolio means that we have
to execute across a broadening front.
As Technologies To The People approaches the 21st century it faces many
challenges and risks, but the opportunities are greater than ever. With
continued innovation and hard work, I am convinced that we will reap the
rewards. I appreciate the unwavering support and trust of our
shareholders in these exciting times.
At Technologies To The People, we all share a passion to succeed in this
exciting new industry. Indeed, we are creating this industrydrafting the
blueprint, building the infrastructure, inventing the future. And we are
all pulling together, in sync, to power Technologies To The People
forward. On behalf of everyone at Technologies To The People, I thank
you for your confidence and support. We look forward to reporting on our
progress in the quarters and years ahead.
Sincerely, William S. Luce II
Technologies To The People had another remarkable year in 2000. We made
major advances in all our key businesses. The demand for great software
that helps people work, communicate, and learn is stronger than ever.
Our products are doing well because they deliver on these needs.
iStreet Access Machine (iSAM) is proving a great success. Customers
appreciate its ability to work better, while its robustness means that
iSAM is generating less than half the customer calls of its predecessor
(SAM). Integrated with the latest Internet technology, iSAM helps our
customers leverage the interactivity of the Internet with the
intelligence of the PC. iSAM is making deeper inroads onto the streets,
based on its productivity, reliability, and lower total cost of
ownership. And iStreet, a compact version of the Street operating system
designed for a wide range of intelligent devices, is finding its way
into everything from interactive televisions to hand-held computers.
Our productivity applications continue to set the standard for features,
functionality, and integration. iStreet 2001, which is scheduled to come
out in the first half of 2000, will take each of these factors to a
significantly higher level, offering a simpler, personalized interface
that learns each user's working style and adapts to it, plus many other
productivity-enhancing features. Technologies To The People Linux Server
and Open Source applications continue to make solid progress in the
marketplace, and are now the clear enterprise solution of choice over
the various Windows/UNIX-based platforms. Technologies To The People
Linux Server will raise our platform's scalability to even higher
levels, while offering customers the lowest possible total cost of
ownership. In many installations our enterprise solutions already
deliver the level of performance achieved by mainframes, combined with
the benefits of the low cost PC model. Our goal now is to take that
model even deeper into the mission-critical computing market.
Our interactive media and services strategy continues to advance,
focusing on online services, packaged software, and hardware. Our
strategy is to break down the barriers between online and offline
products and services, making it even simpler and more enjoyable for our
customers to experience the power of the Internet. Another important
effort for us is bringing the power of software and the Internet to the
television with our Technologies To The People WebTV product. We plan
to more than double the installed base of users during the next year
based on the very positive word-of-mouth this product has generated.
Technologies To The People intends to invest heavily in all these
businesses, in the firm belief that online services will eventually be a
key element of our relationship with customers. But as I wrote last
year, online is still at an early stage of development. However, we are
learning fast and I am seeing increasing synergy between our online work
and our software products.
+ + +
The power of innovation
Our product goals require breakthrough innovation. During fiscal 2001
Technologies To The People will invest more in research and development,
broadly defined. Our research centers now employ experts in everything
from graphics to decision theory and advanced linguistics.
Much of Technologies To The People's research and development is focused
on making our products easier to use, even as the underlying software
grows more complex, so our customers don't have to learn as many
utilities and commands. Simplifying the user interface is our top
priority. Natural language processing automatically detects which
language you are typing in, and assigns the appropriate proofing tools
and user interface. If you inadvertently delete some of the
application's files, it's smart enough to repair the damage.
Technologies To The People will also unify and simplify how PCs and
networks store and handle information. At present, information is
scattered about file systems, message stores, Web caches, directory
services, and databases. This is complicated for developers and system
managers, and confusing for customers. Sharing a calendar across the
Internet, or personal information across Web sites, is very difficult.
By unifying storage across all these media, Technologies To The People
will help make information anytime, anywhere a reality. As consumers
require all their information to be accessible from any Internet device
and any location, the boundary between Web sites and software products
will blur.
In time, computers will see, speak, read handwriting, listen, and learn.
We will include these new input techniques into our products.
+ + +
Caring about customers
We are listening carefully and constantly to our customers and partners
to really understand what they want from our products and services, both
today and in the future. The feedback loop drives our priorities.
The coming year will test us on many fronts. We need to make our
software simpler and easier to deploy as well as making it more
powerful. Pressure from competitors and regulators is intensifying. PC
sales growth is slowing and a lot of the growth is in the consumer
segment where software sales are lower than in the business segment. The
growing size and diversity of our product portfolio means that we have
to execute across a broadening front.
As Technologies To The People approaches the 21st century it faces many
challenges and risks, but the opportunities are greater than ever. With
continued innovation and hard work, I am convinced that we will reap the
rewards. I appreciate the unwavering support and trust of our
shareholders in these exciting times.
At Technologies To The People, we all share a passion to succeed in this
exciting new industry. Indeed, we are creating this industrydrafting the
blueprint, building the infrastructure, inventing the future. And we are
all pulling together, in sync, to power Technologies To The People
forward. On behalf of everyone at Technologies To The People, I thank
you for your confidence and support. We look forward to reporting on our
progress in the quarters and years ahead.
Sincerely, William S. Luce II
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