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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Globalstar Telecommunications Limited GSAT -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Drew Williams who wrote (6082)7/25/1999 11:13:00 PM
From: marginmike  Respond to of 29987
 
I think the bottom line will be the price and how small the phone will be. If those are in line then the market will welcome in GSTRF. Its like the automobile in infancy they were expencive, impractical, and down right dangerous. At the time one could say "look at the huge market for transportation" and it turned out to be so. However it not do so until cars became cheap, and practical. This same fate will happen to GSTRF when the product becomes consumer friendly then it will sell. In my mind the phone size, weight is extremly importent. I dont care if PT Barnum is selling the damn things, they're not going to sell if they're not considerably smaller then IRID. IRID's failure was as much to do with that as with anything regarding marketing. I am a prime candadate for a sattelite phone, i looked at IRID"s and laughed. I will look at gSTRF and hope the same fate wont occur. I think the big antenna is a big problem



To: Drew Williams who wrote (6082)7/26/1999 12:09:00 AM
From: Oliver Schonrock  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 29987
 
Drew

Nice work on the electrical widgets! Not too dissimilar to my industry.

Don't get me wrong "distribution" is THE way to go for G*! Iridium plan was hopeless, I don't even want to discuss that. What I am concerned about is that G* has understood what that means!

Yes they have an advantage by having SPs own shares in G* => they should be interested in theory as you say. How big is that investment? Is it significant to them? Maybe someone else can answer that.

The point you made re distribution agreemnents/performance conditions etc is exactly what I am talking about when I say "learning to do business the distribution way". You have to know how to structure that stuff and then accept that it will still give you dissapointing (at least a little) results. The other angle of Marketing leadership I have already mentioned. The only way for it to be cohesive is for it to come from G*. How far does G* responsibility/influence/control extend? Can they set the price <Go Maurice>? This is all negotiable in the distribution world and I hope G* was savy enough to negotiate smartly!

My concern is that they probably haven't got the optimum deal given their lack of experience at this.

BTW, there was some talk about change at the top for G*, and them recruiting a marketing type guy now that someone else had been retired. Does my memory serve me badly or was this the case? If so, whatever happened to that? Who did they find? This stuff is all his/her job and if (s)he's got the right experience then maybe my concerns are unfounded.

Regards

Oliver



To: Drew Williams who wrote (6082)7/26/1999 7:42:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn  Respond to of 29987
 
Drew, what a pleasure to read that experience you had. I love to pick holes in things and didn't find any. I'm not sure you underpriced it. 20% of the electricians doesn't sound excessive to me.

What I liked was the renaming of the FM Carrier Signal Tracer as a Breaker Finder. This is the crux of the issue. "Calling Planet Earth" was created from the point of view of the inventors of the system. While the amazing functionality of T-cells or neurons, DNA or electrolyte pressures are all impressive sounding, mostly the possessors of this amazing functionality just want those things to help them find a decent feed or a really groovy babe.

Too bad. The point is the inventor of these really amazing things is providing something of value to the user of the system. Nobody wants a FM Carrier Signal Tracer, or T-cell Lymphocyte or CDMA Photonic Wave Function Propagator. They just want a Breaker Finder, Sickness Fixer and Worldwide YakMobile. What Globalstar will give them is merely a Wideranging YakMobile, not even WorldWide.

Let's hope Globalstar avoids the FM Carrier Signal Tracer, Calling Planet Earth and other such marketing mistakes such as Iridium making people think they could use the phone anywhere, but it didn't work in Jamaica or wherever it was because it wasn't licensed.

On service provider performance, I believe there are performance requirements for service providers to maintain exclusivity. Globalstar seems to have done a fairly good job of aligning interests to ensure performance. A service provider can't just put it on the shelf and forget about it. They need to ensure it works and is in demand. There are volume incentives and minimum sales targets.

Maurice

PS: Working out my stock price estimates.