*Handset production rate* Djane, 40,000 per week = 2,000,000 per year. That's not too bad! Only two or three years to fill the system. Of course, I'd be happier with more like 100,000 per week with 5 million on line after a year with a full constellation talking flat out.
Sell the handsets from the end of the production line by Web auction to the highest bidder and have 10 cents per minute for the first million customers! Then market rates. That's the way to get customers signed up and talking. Handsets will sell for $4000 at that price! So Q! Ericy and Telital will produce them as fast as they can go, day and night.
None of this archaic marketing where you stock shops with handsets and charge a big premium and have a boring, partly used system which doesn't make much money. Stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap! Well, not cheap, but at the market rate. Which will be a huge profit initially for handsets and a huge profit later for minutes and a normal profit for handsets. Then supply and demand will come into balance and Globalstar will be Numero Uno in space and billions in profit will rain down on happy shareholders in the handset and Globalstar businesses.
I suppose there is a fine balancing act between starting production too soon, before the optimum handset technology is available, and too late so sales opportunities are lost. There will be lots of ugly contracts too, between service providers in individual countries, the handset producers and Globalstar LP which will mean a lack of innovation, excess costs, and various problems.
OH! I've just read this: "Schwartz said in order for Globalstar to meet the demands of its projected 7.5 million subscribers in the first generation of service, scheduled to start Oct. 1, Globalstar is focusing on getting handsets to customers and providing a low-cost service."
I'm wading my way back over heaps and heaps of posts in Q! and Globalstar so just catching up. How cool is Bernie?!! See, he knows - 'stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap'. Get them out there, get the system working. Then balance the prices up! Yaayyyy Bernie!! Also, congratulations and thanks to the Globalstar [including Loral] and Soyuz people who have achieved [so far] a successful launch.
Maurice |
