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Biotech / Medical : Dean Kamen and Ginger ??? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerry in Omaha who wrote (208)	12/3/2001 12:37:16 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 377

I think there will be some interesting niche markets and I certainly would not preclude any of the engineering that might be considered "revolutionary" (if indeed there is ) being incorporated into other areas. In the city where I live, I can see little to no use of "Segue" as a personal transport device. Our downtown is seriously declining with most business having moved into the outlying suburbs.... commerce in the suburbs is "spread out" so far...so I really don't see potential for widespread adoption as a "people mover"... I see it as a fun "toy" on the consumer level. <vbg>

To: Jerry in Omaha who wrote (208)	12/3/2001 12:44:11 PM
From: MSI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 377

I'll take two ... I can see Kamen's partners' uses as indicative of early adopters: industrial for large spaces (Amazon's warehouses, and a million others), military, law enforcement. There's a few million units in 2002/2003 Consumer units will sell in the fractional millions, imo, even at the new $3k price point, but multiple millions if they can cut that substantially. That's for urban use. What's interesting to me is usage in rural areas on ranches, etc. Basically, if the price is right, and energy density is sufficient w. battery and engine tech improving yearly, it's a desirable improvement anywhere that needs human locomotion in a one or two-mile orbit. Kamen's example was interesting - a commuter w/in 3 miles of work. It'd be interesting to look up what % of those would be, and how much faster/better/cheaper life would be not to have a car or take a bus, etc. The biggest value-add is in the software that embeds realtime stabilization, and the mech which hopefully can be mass-produced in a declining cost curve, down maybe to kiddie units for a few hundred bucks.