Lawdy mercy--no A.C.! You must be suffering. Last Thursday I drove down to my cousin's at Walden on Lake Conroe and spent the weekend there. Thankfully, temperature did not go above 84 degrees. No A.C. is enough to test the patience of any Texan
I agree that what you repeated was what Jacobs said. I too interpreted the conference call as expressing confidence and no anticipated problems; but, whether we like it or not and agree or not, the street didn't see it that way. I am hoping someone out there will provide information later than that given at the time of the conference call. Harvey expressed some good thougts too regarding the accounting and when the earnings will be booked. Unfortunately, the street took the comment Harvey quotes to mean that QCOM might not get the phones out early enough and that in the meantime revenues and earnings might lag. It would just be nice to hear some good things coming out of San Diego or the providers or suppliers or even news that Sprint is booking big ads for October 1st.
What Harvey had to say regarding the joint QCOM-Sprint Q-phone PR is good news; it indicates to me that they believe things still on track. It also supports my view that the Q-phone will be used to promote a media blitz to open the sales efforts for the new phones. I, for one, would love to hear that Sprint or PrimeCo sales folks are being told about the new QPE phones or are starting to be trained about their features. That would be strong indication that delivery is imminent.
The other post about overtime in the QCOM shipping department is very good news. Given some of the problems that we heard were encountered on the initial handset rollout, such as engineers flying out to a warehouse in Florida to reset the software by hand in some 20,000 units and trucks half way to the east being called back to the factory, I doubt that QCOM would be packing the phones until after those phones have passed the software tests. It may be anecdotal and "thin" but it's the kind of information that I think really helps assess the situation and gives a level of confidence more than just our confidence that management knows what it is doing and will do it.
Qdog's concern about C-block is warranted. Infrastructure sales are perhaps the biggest short to mid-term worry assuming the delivery of the new phones is on schedule.. Obviously, the C-block problems create a delay in achieving revenues that had been anticipated for this quarter and the first quarter of fiscal 1998 but could be a drag on revenues for even longer. But a blowout handset rollout could make up for the C-block revenues and set the analysts on their ear. Even if the earnings don't show up in the final quarter of the year, heavy handset shipments coupled with strong customer acceptance and demand would renew confidence in the financial community and the stock would begin to move ahead. I must admit I am very concerned about Qdog's comments regarding the overall market. I know Qdog has expressed his concern over the market previously. If the market corrects, QCOM won't be able to buck it--no matter how good things look in two to three months. I am hoping that the company makes timely delivery and that handset sales are a blowout and that the competitors still can't get their competitive units to market. Frankly I think that that is what the company had in mind when it decided to use the summer to make a total conversion of its production, so that it could maximize its production and deliver the handsets to capture the fall-Christmas market. while lowering its costs for the next year at the same time.
ATT had a full page ad in August 4 Dallas Morning News touting no roaming charges for calls nationally. A friend of mine reported that she was seeking new service for her companies. ATT said it would meet anybody's price and terms. I explained that ATT service was TDMA and the differences between TDMA and CDMA, that the dual phone would allow her to travel but she would have much better service in her usual Texas haunts. So it's plain to see where the inter-provider competition is going--price and roaming flexibility.
As an aside, in Dallas the major north-south expressway (Central Expressway, I-45) is undergoing a 10-year reconstruction and expansion which entails construction of service roads that hang 8 feet over the sunken expressway lanes. I heard the other day that the providers are concerned that the overhang will block transmission and they are looking into installing wires or other equipment along the side of the overhang so that drivers on the expressway lanes can transmit and receive signals. |
