Here is an interesting story..take 2 minutes and read!!
The future's in their hands, reprinted from LI Business News
By Bruce Reisman
First it was mainframes, then it was PCs, and laptops followed. The logical
transition for the incredible shrinking computer? In the palm, of course.
One New Jersey-based startup with R&D in Ronkonkoma is ready for these
teeny devices by designing and marketing software and the nuts and bolts for the
IT trend.
World Cyberlinks, a four-year-old startup, has developed technology that may well
supplant the laptop and make field workers increasingly mobile and more closely
linked to their main offices, says its president, John Russell.
Through its five patents, World Cyberlinks -- though still in the red since its
formation in 1995 -- provides communications software and "docking station
solutions" for mobile data collection and computing devices, such as the
hand-held 3Com PalmPilot and Windows CE computer devices.
Basically, the company's products make it possible for employees in the field,
such as delivery workers, to communicate with home offices by plugging into
docking stations, developed and designed by World Cyberlinks.
Part of the company's technology accommodates hand-held "pen computers"
which are inserted into receptacles in docking stations, from which data is
transmitted electronically to networks or main offices.
Typically, field personnel write data or comments on the tiny window screens of
the small (3 by 5 inch) hand-held stylus "pen computers." They then insert the
small devices into a slot in the docking stations, which are plugged into standard
telephone jacks. The data is transmitted over the telephone network to a
computer at a network center or a main office.
The docking stations are tray-like hardware devices designed to accommodate
four or more portable computing devices, known as personal digital assistants.
PDAs include pen-computers, laptops and hand-held "palmtops." World
Cyberlinks develops docking devices that hold hand-held devices in arrays of 4,
8, 16 or 32.
The docking stations are manufactured in Asia and sell for about $600, well
below laptops, which sell for about $3,000. The company's basic four-unit
ConXemDock docking station or "cradle" measures about 10 inches wide by 12
inches in height and facilitates a communications connection from remote field
locations (via the docked computer data collecting device) and another computer
or network server.
LILCO, Wake Forest Medical School, Oracle Corp. and Consolidated Edison
are currently using docking station technology, and World Cyberlinks hopes to
tap into that market.
With corporate headquarters located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, World
Cyberlinks employs six full-time employees, three of whom are located at the
Ronkonkoma R&D location. In addition to Russell, the CEO, the company's
technical officer and director of software development are based in a Spartan
suite of offices in Ronkonkoma near Long Island MacArthur Airport.
Russell said that while the New Jersey site was chosen because of its access to
Manhattan, Long Island was selected for R&D because of the local talent pool
and because of the company's proximity to Long Island MacArthur Airport for
business travel.
The company's stock is traded on the OTC Electronic Bulletin Board under the
symbol WCYB and its per share value has ranged from just under $1 to about
$3.75 over the past 52 weeks. The company has only about 3.6 million shares
outstanding, of which only about 1.3 million shares are in a publicly held.
Russell, who has 21 years' experience in consumer electronic marketing, plus
experience with about a half dozen startups, said the company is looking to raise
$3 million by mid-year, possibly through a private stock sale." The company
projects possible annual sales of nearly $30 million within three years and pretax
net profits of around 30 percent.
Is the company expecting an acquisition? "There's nothing on the table, but we're
always looking for an exit strategy to increase our stock value," Russell said.
"Large companies like 3Com have realized that our products are not toys."
Russell said that his company is collaborating with 3Com, which is providing the
local company with sales leads. World Cyberlinks is also working closely with
IBM, he said.
Tim Bajarin, president of ***-basedCreative Strategies, a consulting firm
specializing in high technology, said that new technologies such as those
developed by World Cyberlinks are especially significant as mobile computing
expands because "sales professionals need the ability to create and access
data from any place at any time."
And according to published industry reports, the U.S. hand-held computer market
is expected to climb to about 2 million orders in 1999 from 838,000 in 1996.
Industry revenues derived from hand-held computer sales are also likely to soar.
For instance, International Data Corporation expects annual sales of hand-held
computers to grow from about 3 million units in 1997 to more than 13 million by
2000. Dataquest, the high-tech market research firm, estimates that about 60
million portable computers are already in use. And according to Business Week,
3Com has already sold 3 million Palm Pilots. |
