To: John Stichnoth who wrote (7647 ) 9/29/1999 11:43:00 AM From: Jim Parkinson Read Replies (1) | Respond to
John, I agree with your assessment. I guess it is fair to say that many are confused and frustrated with the speed of the rollout, apparent lack of handsets, and lack of flashy ads and pr. But it is true that G* is now becoming the manufacturer and the SP's are becoming the retailers who will incorporate this new product amongst their existing product lines. They will do this very carefully which I now understand better and feel is the right approach. They want to be sure that the product will in fact perform up to expectations. That is what Dan from AirTouch told me as well as Jeanette from Loral. That is the right approach especially in light of Iridium. It is not unlike opening a restaurant, something I am somewhat familiar with. It is very easy to put 2 or 3 mil into a facility and open it with searchlights and fanfare with guest coming in the front door as the carpet layer is heading out the back. Tons of guest show up but unless the crew is well trained in all facets of the restaurant's operation (kinda hard to do when the carpet layer is still present), they will initially execute poorly in both food and service and the honeymoon will be short lived. I have made this mistake early in my career and see it repeated over and and over again today. Fortunetely I did learn from my mistake as I think our SP's have learned from Iridium and subsequent openings were slow, deliberate and expensive, but I am still in business. In fact those restuarants opened properly are thriving after 10 years. Perhaps this a parallel, perhaps not.
