Yin, I got the same impressions you did. Here are a few additional notes about the CC:
Charlie said the aerospace margins were already improving and that total gross margins should be 53% in 12 to 18 months.
Agriculture and construction were up 118%. Rockwell and Ashtech are out of or leaving this area and Trimble is clearly number one.
Timing was up 47%, and Trimble expects to be the market leader in 12 to 18 months.
Smaller backlog, due to much quicker turnaround times. This should make it easier to balance manufacturing to demand.
Backlog is already up due to the introduction of the 4700. Customers holding off buying until it came out may have hurt sales this quarter.
The problems are overhead and manufacturing costs, as well as currancy exchange rates.
The office in China is already paying off.
They did not seem too optimistic about the car navigation or handheld markets.
I agree that they are still trying to take a long range view of growing the company, but unless they can learn to even out the earnings, the stock price will continue to suffer. (Although, in this business, it may be harder to manipulate earnings into a smooth line than some-Charlie mentioned the "lumpiness" of defense milestones.)
Trimble continues to disappoint me (my wife says "get rid of Trimble", and I keep telling her it's cheap, and has a good future), but as Charlie kept saying, they are in the best position regarding their competitors, ever.
Bill Day
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