Sharetipper Michael Walters on UK hopefuls at the world's largest IT show

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 19:00 EST, 19 November 1999

 

It comes as a shock. Strolling down the Strip in Las Vegas, a sheet of flame leaps up ahead of you with an almighty bang. And then again. No problem, though - just the locals bashing the Brits.

Something like six times a day, more in season, it happens in front of a monster hotel called Treasure Island. In an artificial lake, our lads sail around the rocks, cannonballs fly, bodies dangle from the rigging, then hit the water - and before your eyes, a big British galleon sinks beneath the waves.

That is just for fun, the showbiz razzmatazz of this extraordinary city. Along the street this week, less obviously, they are playing out similar strategies at Comdex, the largest technology show in the world.

There are combatants from all over the globe. But make no mis-take: everyone here is battling for a piece of the hi-tech market in communications, the fastest growing game around.

Bill Gates, the world's richest man and boss of computer giant Microsoft, gave the keynote speech. He is struggling with a US court assault on Microsoft's near monopoly in key areas. Suddenly he wants the world to love him.

His latest offering is meant to lead us towards a new generation of gadgets - machines which will talk to each other without wires. Personal Web, he calls it. One device will provide access to all we need to know when and where we need it. Nice - if it happens.

Big British contenders in this global tussle are in short supply. Robin Saxby's ARM sneaks in, though, designing the chips which make much of everything work.

David Potter, founder and chairman of Psion, is another they take seriously here. Psion's hand-held computers have been attracting a lot of attention on the exhibition floor.

Other Brits are harder to find among more than 2,000 exhibitors in hall after hall rambling across three massive venues. In theory, only those in the trade come in. It is not a pretty sight - amazing what a heaving mass of geeks will do for a free T-shirt.

The Brits carry few give-aways and gimmicks. Much of the real dealing is done away from the show stand. Ian King, boss of Calluna, one of our few quoted companies here is struggling to keep his specialised hard disk drive group on the road. He is locked in a suite high in the Mirage Hotel most of the time.

They say you have to call for an appointment to be given the code for the lift before you can even get to the floor he is on. Ofex-traded Knowledge Management Software is here. And there is Walhalla Mining, listed in Australia, HQ in London, miraculously converted to Kidz.net, an Internet stock.

The charming lady on the stand struggles for details, but reckons we could see the shares listed in London soon. The spirit of Long John Silver lives on.

Bravest of all though, is the gang of Brits seeking to sell their wares to the massive American market, many with half an eye on raising money. There is no shortage of offers. Battle-scarred veterans who have been there quickly convince you, though, that it is best to be plundered by fellow Brits - they just take an arm and a leg, not the whole body.

Darran Evans is chief executive of Web2U from Milton Keynes. He says his kit, which lets you surf the net on your TV screens, will hit the UK in January at £99 a time. He quite fancies a share listing on a proper market. Here, his shares are on a bulletin board, and he curses their

volatility and lack of liquidity. Richard Theo is managing director of Avantis from south Wales. He is doing well in the UK with a CD-Rom server. If he can break into the US, he fancies floating.

Karen Robson is one of the team here with e-Result from Basingstoke, and a neat, low-cost way for companies to manage employee Internet access.

James Lewis, marketing director of Oxford Semiconductor, has a clever Firewire which cost $1m to develop. It connects computer storage systems and is raising US eyebrows.

At 31, Philip Clarke has built Telex-Net into a business the accounts say is worth £4m all from cash flow. Telex may sound antiquated, but supplies instant messages with the status of legal documents, unlike e-mail.

Derick Wilson runs InfraNet Technologies from Mansfield. He links buildings to buildings using defused infrared light beams -- unlike laser systems, he says they can work through heavy rain.

British Steel, Ford and Leicester City football club use it. One Vegas casino boss is so excited about it he has told him not to leave town.

Winning anything here is tough. Comdex, like Vegas, looks and sounds fantastic - at first. But much of the flash and noise turns out to be echoes in an empty box.

And those gold coins they give out on the Comdex stands are chocolate - not real pirate pieces of eight. Aye, Jim Lad.