Dale, Digiphone Delux can be had locally for about $30
The price has fallen significantly from the time about 8 months ago. At that time some (not many though) actually paid $80 for the software.
You are right about no clearly dominant company in this new industry.
There are, however, several out there that have been selling products at volumes many times anything Camelot has even dreamed of. Beyond that , Camelot has another problem. Organizations with a presence in the software industry that dwarfs Camelot such as IBM, Intel, and Microsoft are producing Internet Phone software that is far advanced from Digiphone delux and they are actually giving it away.
This puts Camelot in a bad situation. They have what is basically a three to four generation old product and are in competition with organizations that offer new feature rich software, all of whom are selling it for less money or are giving it away.
From information that I have, the major problem that Camelot R&D has faced is a lack of continuity. The turnover rate for developers at Camelot has been running out of control. I have been told that it is hard to find anyone that has been there much over 6 months. Recently it is reported that almost the whole development staff, including the manager were either fired or walked out. Now if the reports are anywhere close to being accurate, it is easy to see that Camelot has almost no R&D. A corporation simply cannot develop, test, and market complex software without some semblance of continuity in the ranks of their technical staff. This is evident by their solid record of having the inability to bring a product to market in a timely manner. In fact it has never happened to date. They just cannot compete in a fast moving market if product rollout is always 8 to 12 months late, as has been CAMLs habit.
Does Camelot have cash in it's coffers. Well they claim to have $13 million in cash and cash equivalents. Thisd is down from $16 in their last quarter report. They have been showing average losses in the millions per quarter. I truly think that they are in deep trouble.
In the past DW has been able to pull rabbits out of hats by getting institutional investors to finance his losses. Now the stock is doing so badly, and everyone has lost so much on Camelot that it would seem he is no longer able to do this. If one looks at the mrcdrom.com IPO it would appear that it is a way for DW to try to get some income without haveing to directly use the Camelot name or to actually have to sell something!
Half of the stock that is being offered in the IPO is shares that Camelot recieved for cdrom software that mrcdrom will end up with. They recieved 6 MILLION shares of mrcdrom for 756K or about 12 CENTS per share. They now will try to sell 1.5 mmillion shares for $4 per share. If they pull it off it will net them in excess of $5 Million.
Somehow I don't think that they will, but this is an indication of the type of shady business deals that it seems Camelot must resort to to stay solvent. Rather than develop a good product, market it , support it and make an honest buck...well we will just push around paper and hope investors give us more money to lose for them.
Unfortunately it just doesn't seem that this kind of operation will be in any position to assume market dominance in a field filled with people that do know how to actually deliver a superior product! |
