*Handsets, Eudoracoin and Peripheral Processing* As you say, there's no problem with handsets. Working flat out, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The margins aren't actually thin at all. The ThinPhone is thin and that's about all. There's no law of the jungle which says margins should be 25% or 15% or 30% or 5%. All that matters is return on capital employed and where the effort is leading.
Return on capital employed is making me very happy. Where is the effort leading?
Handsets and other Peripheral Processing devices are where all the action is. Ericy can blather on about how great GSM is and all the switching and all that, which is true, but it will be just part of the stuff in the background like the fibres crossing oceans and the Geostationary satellites in the sky - dumb networks. That's after W-CDMA, WWeb or cdma2000 have taken over as expected by everyone except Tero [even Ericy knows it].
Sure, the ASICs are the key to the Peripheral Processing devices, as well as the software that goes into those ASICs, but those need to be integrated into gadgets which people hold in their hot little hands and perform the functions they want.
Let's suppose Q! has got secret Condor, WirelessKnowledge, Wireless Business Solutions/OmniTRACS, Globalstar and Eudoracoin [TM] plans for transactions through a Q! bank using either Q! currency or US$.
They are going to need to be able to give customers a device which is ready to roll. If they control the handset design, they don't need to tell handset manufacturers about their plans and persuade them to fit the ASICs and necessary keys to the Peripheral Processing gadgets.
They will be able to just announce one day that Mighty Q! has got a hot new product which people will really like.
It will work anywhere on earth, including all oceans [via Constellation2 or 3 of Globalstar]. It will ALWAYS be able to get a call through, no matter how busy the network gets, thanks to "CURRENT PRICE IS..." service where the top bidder gets their call through and lower value calls are deferred when people blanch at the temporary price at peak loads. It will be cheaper per minute than anything else overall [by a factor of 2 or 3]. It will have full WWeb access. It will send totally secure encrypted cybermoney [Eudoracoin] in denominations of US$0.01 or Q1 to any account which will be managed in the Mighty Q!Bank.
Meanwhile, there is no shortage of handset makers around the world for cdmaOne, so there is no advantage in selling the division, but there is a huge disadvantage. As George Gilder says, when he isn't wrong, the intelligent periphery is where the real action is going to happen. Q! is sitting right on that periphery with the technology, skills and everything else which is needed to make things really happen.
The fun has only just started. The cellphones are only of passsing interest. Where they are leading is the really exciting part. That's my theory anyway. I've got my fingers crossed that Mighty Q! is working on it.
Mqurice
@044
200/2/2000
Dow 16,000 Feb 2002 [Which I notice is starting to become conventional wisdom - remember where you first saw it! Send cheques or checks but no Czechs.]
PS: Ericy continues to make odd claims. The latest being that they are a 'knowledge company'. What a lack of imagination. The internet is knowledge - much better than our own brains. It's creativity, thinking and integrating those with what people want which is vital. That is the real action and Q! is where those activities take place.
Ericy is a company of Accountability, Responsibility and Knowledge. Yawn!! Yes, those are essential attributes of a successful company, but woefully inadequate to spectacular success. Q! has those and the really good things too. |
