Reasonable questions. Reasonable (and possibly correct) answers:
1. Why are you wasting our money by letting our system rot?
The price of G* stock is determined by the market, which focuses on future earnings, not book value, in this case. They are not wasting our money unless delays lead to dilution. Have they said they will need additional financing beyond the anticipated vendor financing?
- Why is testing taking so long if there are no problems? (testing apparently going on continuously since before June)
Being careful prior to launch, rather than having to cope with problems after launch, is a reasonable course. Remember, one irid error was in launching into a system that wasn't ready. The testing also includes training, I presume. You want the ground personnel to be thoroughly ready when real customers come on board, don't you?
- Why didn't we start the 'soft rollout' in July or as soon as technically possible after 32 satellites were up?
Several SP's have stated that they are/were unwilling to offer service until handsets were available in sufficient quantity to justify the effort.
- Why didn't Service Providers ensure that crucial gateways were ready in July?
They had little incentive to be ready before they had to be. Unfortunately. this seems to be one area where their interests diverged from ours and G*'s.
2. Why have we not heard a word about current demand or any pre-booked subscribers instead of hypothetical
projections over a year away?
They are not pre-booking subscribers. Again, that was one of the errors made by irid. They solicited indications of interest, received aprrarently more than a million inquiries, but were unable to handle them.
- How many minutes is each Service Provider required to buy and when?
They're not telling.
- Why is there absolutely no promotion and no information on how to get service in areas scheduled to launch
service in one month?
No answer.
3. Why are there not enough handsets right now?
Inexplicable.
- How many handsets per month are Ericsson, Telital, Qualcomm producing right now?
Not many. (Ericy none?). Certainly not enough that they'd want to advertise, apparently.
- Is the problem that the Service Providers do not want them now or that there is some failure to execute on the
part of the handset makers?
It's not the SP's, I believe, at least not the ones with gateways ready to go.
- If there is a failure to execute, why?
No answer.
- If the Service Providers do not want them now, why?
Some, because their gateways aren't ready. Classic chicken-and-egg. (Aside: Shows you how remarkable Intel's orchestration of chip architecture changes is, eh?)
-How many handsets are available right now, and from what maker?
Not enough.
4. Why don't we have a highly detailed agenda for system rollout instead of a mishmash of second hand
reports?
Highly detailed calendar would give a too-easy-to-miss series of hurdles. While there surely must be a detailed schedule internally, making it public would divulge too much to potential competitors and possibly over-optimistic investors.
5. Why can't anyone tell Maurice or any other interested party a good estimate on when they can get a phone?
Marketing says wait to make a splash when all the ducks are in line. All the ducks are not in line. So don't say anything.
or service?
ditto.
6. Why did I have to ask all these questions?
Because you are more interested than the target market, who couldn't care less--yet. This is a new market being created. G* is satisfying a need that people don't even know they have, yet. It's all marketing. Stockholders' questions come second.
I do share your frustration on a number of the issues you raise, but, on some points we are essentially irrelevant. They should not necessarily release information solely for the benefit of the investing public. Information release should only occur if it will help the company succeed. Or, at least that is some people's opinion (e.g., Warren Buffett, to take one example).
As noted, the above are not necessarily what the comapny might answer. But, some of your questions can be answered reasonably. Of course, that also doesn't mean that the company's stance on any of these items is the correct line of attack. We'll see on that.
By the way, here's another question: Why aren't we hearing anything about wholesale marketing? We've heard that the vertical markets are targetted. What marketing is being done in these areas? |
