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Technology Stocks : Optimal Robotics Corp. (OPMR)

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To: Thean who wrote (139)1/24/2000 1:47:00 AM
From: J_W  Read Replies (1) of 325
 
Thean,

Nice article on OPMR in today's IBD. Most of what was said is already know, with the exception of the following:

Further, Optimal will roll out two new versions of U-Scan after the first quarter, Wechsler says. One is designed to make the product available to smaller stores, such as pharmacies. The other will make the product more usable for larger supermarket orders.

This is good news as it increases the number of potential customers for U-Scan. I would expect a two aisle version for smaller stores. The other version probably has more bagging space, allowing an increased item count.

Advertising might be a potential revenue source. The company is looking into running banner ads on its scanner screens. It processed 45 million transactions last year that averaged two minutes each, Wechsler says.

But Ciccarelli said he's not count on that business as a key source of growth.


I agree.

Thus far, none of Optimal's competitors has gotten heavily involved in the business. NCR Corp. announced a competing product three years ago. But so far, it's in only about a dozen stores.

That is surprising to me. I thought they had more than a dozen. There is an NCR installation at Albertsons less than a mile from me that I wrote a post about last summer. I was less than impressed with NCR's design. In spite of the shortcomings of NCR's system it is getting good customer acceptance. The last time I was there the lines at self-checkout were longer than those at regular checkout stands. NCR's system is a two aisle design without a supervisor's station.

Jim
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