Just spoke to IR.
My concerns for the long term as an investor are based on their "double billing" structure, as JC has so clearly outlined. As my background is in strategic marketing, I see this as being a potential Achilles' heal for their long term competitiveness. Clearly Portico is leader from a "bells & whistles" perspective, but the general public does not always even perceive the difference, or its value, let alone enough to justify almost double in price. In my experience, the ultimate decision maker is price when comparing two similar products.
Its a great market advantage of being first to market. the downside is exposing your weaknesses for competitors to improve upon.When their long awaited ad campaign finally hits the media, I'm certain their revenues (and their stock) will respond favorably...until a competitor comes out with a tag line of "same efficiency, half the price" Hopefully they will focus the campaign on the features, not the price.
Buck (from IR) was very helpful, and friendly, as I'm finding all of customer support so far. Basically he said that when they were putting together the pricing model, they did look at the various alternatives, and selected this one. Their belief is the additional benefits that you have from a functionality perspective, and the increase in your productivity should outweigh the additional cost. He did say he was getting quite a few similar messages about the pricing structure.
I asked if they were reviewing their pricing and he said they are not currently considering changing their pricing structure, but they really do want this kind of feedback as it helps them determine if they need to revisit this issue. He agreed that customer perception does often outweigh the facts, and so this issue is certainly not closed. He asked me to let others know to contact him with their concerns. He seemed genuine about this, so please give him a call. 408-774-4000, or buck@generalmagic.com.
It will be interesting to watch as market forces and consumer tendencies start to interact with this company.
cheers,
dazy
PS, the new build they just installed on Sunday has a vastly improved voice recognition...Portico can even understand my husband's English accent which the first install didn't always get. |
