Trade press news . . .
These items from Global Positioning & Navigation News of Feb. 25 . . .
The Cross Check product will be introduced in the US and Latin America in April. As announced in the PR, the price will be $799, but less in volume. According to the report, "Trimble believes that the unit is the first step toward eliminating the mobile unit barrier to a mass market consumer and commercial fleet acceptance for positioning applications."
One of TRMB's competitors, Highwaymaster, has placed 33,122 GPS-based mobile units (using Motorola GPS receivers). HWYM had 4Q revenues of $13.2 million. Unfortunately, it suffered a net loss of $10.4 million ($.42/share).
AVL competitors include Harris Corp., Orbi, Rockwell International, and Raytheon. Raytheon (5,000 units installed) integrates technology from other sources, including TRMB. No discussion of the others.
It looks like Rockwell got a win in Japan. Clarion will use Rockwell's Zodiac chipset in GPS receivers in Clarion's ADDZEST car navigation system, due out this spring to meet Japan's ITS program.
On the telecommunications front, The Strategis Group has estimated the E911 locator market to be worth over $2 billion in the year 2002 and perhaps over $8 billion in 2005. (However, these are the same guys who believe some people will pay up to $60 a month for locator services; I don't know how much this estimate plays into their market figures.)
[Assuming for the moment that in 2005 there is an $8 billion locator market in telecommunications, there will also be a very large timing device market for telecommunications networks, and probably a growing, multi-billion dollar telematics market in US car navigation. This implies that TRMB could grow into a next-generation telecommunications company, with sidelines in other areas such as surveying.] |
