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To: RMiethe who wrote (6264)	6/9/1999 9:35:00 PM
From: Snow Shoe	Respond to of 10852

Well Done!

To: RMiethe who wrote (6264)	6/9/1999 11:47:00 PM
From: Mr. Adrenaline	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

...a character like Austin Powers Oh. I didn't realize you liked that idea. While I agree that marketing is the key, and that this thread gets caught up in details like planes, I am reminded that reasonable minds can differ. Austin Powers? Yuk! I think I'd rather have OJ! Here's to hoping we don't get either! Kind Regards, Mr A

To: RMiethe who wrote (6264)	6/10/1999 12:49:00 AM
From: JMD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

RMiethe, jeez I was just crying in my beer and all of a sudden some serious stuff comes flying back in response! Think I'll bitch more often. I take your point that the analysts rule at least in the short run (and maybe in the intermediate run too). Still I am confused on at least one point: are you saying that the analysts are RIGHTFULLY turning a cold shoulder on LOR/G* based on failure to meet targets? Or are you saying that they have WRONGFULLY done so "it is a joke that the analyst has gotten the company in that bind"? As for marketing, I am totally conflicted. The Qualcomm thread spent two years criticizing Irwin Jacobs for failure to play the PR game, ripping analysts' heads off for asking stupid questions, being too harsh in extracting royalties from telecom carriers, etc. To all of which the good doctor said "bugger off, my technology works and I'm gonna whip the world and one day all those idiots will come to me on bended knee". I am sure you know the rest of the story. OTOH, the current Virgin Atlantic ad campaign with Austin Powers is very clever IMO and I certainly agree that marketing is an incredibly powerful tool. Personally I have more fun trying to divine the mysteries of the technology, but in the next 12 months we got beaucoup phones to sell. On that point, among others, we are in complete and total agreement. Kind regards, Mike Doyle

To: RMiethe who wrote (6264)	6/10/1999 6:12:00 AM
From: Thomas	Respond to of 10852

Groooovy baybee! I am totally hip to that idea. Agree marketing is job one point five (one point oh being getting the birds up there, obviously, keep up the good work, Dr. A), and perhaps we are all a bit too smug in our confidence that G* has picked the right business model where the service providers (leaders in their various markets more or less) do the selling and have every economic incentive to do so, both as investors and beneficiaries of healthy margins. So, I agree with you that we could all smell the coffee again this morning and start doing some table pounding on this marketing question and perhaps even on MW's famous p***g question. On the pricing question, I have often wondered how much real control G would have over the end price charged by its SPs (I am not aware of any contractual control). I guess, as shareholders, the SPs should have the right incentive to maximize the # of minutes sold, but I do worry that SPs might get greedy and say "hey, this phone is so cool and everyone wants one, we can get away with charging $4.50 a minute!, so let's milk this baby." Then G* would get short changed on the deal. I sincerely hope that we are all correctly placing our trust in G* management that they truly have learned from the disastrous I* mistakes in execution, but the concerns voiced in this forum on the handset availability issue give me some pause, I must admit. Cheers, Thomas