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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cooters who wrote (17105)	12/5/2001 10:23:40 AM
From: Jeff Vayda	Respond to of 196584

Asset Tracking Moving to Consumer Market "However, Wherify's unit is a CDMA device with a baseband processor from LSI Logic. According to VP of Marketing Ellen Roth, the company hasn't finalized a carrier and isn't naming names. However Roth did say "it will be using a nationwide PCS network at 1900 MHz," which does tend to narrow the list of possible partners." [Can you say ‘Sprint PCS’? JV] By John Sullivan The combination of precise and relatively inexpensive GPS-based location technology and wireless data has created an asset tracking industry that secures valuable property. Until recently, the customers for this service have mostly been major companies, for example trucking operations that used the technology for fleet control. About as far down the food chain as asset tracking could reach was the high-end automotive market. Here companies like RACO Industries' PowerLOC subsidiary provided GPS-based locators for recovery of stolen cars. PowerLOC offers two different vehicle solutions: a "locate on demand" system, and a periodic tracking device. (The earlier LoJack system doesn't use GPS to determine its location, but instead sends a homing signal over a proprietary network.) However, between technological improvements and the current jitters over security issues, vendors are seeing an opportunity to drive the technology down to the consumer market with personal location devices. The lower prices and smaller, lighter units that come as any technology evolves have helped, but the primary driver of this new market is worry over an insecure world. Between the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Columbine incident, and the vague but frightening impact of anthrax-laced letters wandering through the postal system, parents in particular are more frightened than ever before. Of course worry has always been a part of parenting and there have always been threats abroad in the world. But today people seem especially interested in technological solutions. For example, parents across the country are in revolt over local or state policies forbidding students from taking cellphones or pagers to school. When these policies were put in place, just a few years ago, they were intended to address worries about drug dealing on school grounds. Then, a pager was considered a drug gang fashion accessory. Now it's a security lifeline, and pressure from parents is encouraging school administrators to revisit these policies in several states. Much the same thinking is leading to a new range of devices combining GPS with wireless data connectivity. PowerLOC is adding a personal locator to its vehicle-based product line. The forthcoming PLD101 has a "wearable" form factor similar to that of a pager, with a belt clip on the back. Another company is taking the concept much further. Wherify Wireless Inc. is another vendor of wireless location solutions with a $400 wearable device coming in spring of 2002. However Wherify's device takes the concept to what must be some kind of natural limit. Wherify's device is designed for children -- it comes in two bright color schemes, functions as a wristwatch and can receive and store ten numeric pages. ("Your child's first communication device!" says Wherify's web site.) And, since a location device is only useful as long as it remains with whatever it's supposed to locate, the Wherify unit literally locks onto the child's wrist with a cut-resistant strap and a special key fob for parents that manually unlocks the device. The service, with tiers priced at $24.95 and $49.95 per month, allows parents to call up a fix on their children via a Web-based interface complete with a zoomable satellite picture of the location. (It's not live image, but you almost expect to zoom right in and catch the kids smoking behind the school gym.) The device is most reminiscent of the electronic ankle bracelets used on home detention prisoners -- except those don't come in Galactic Blue or Cosmic Purple -- and it's hard to imagine parents of even two or three years ago bolting one of these onto their kids. However in the present environment, this kind of technology is becoming increasingly acceptable. Wherify plans to expand the concept into other areas. In Hawaii, the company is setting up trials of a tracking system for Alzheimer's patients in cooperation with the state chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Wherify is also looking at applications in smaller niches. For example, it's cooperating with USCPC, LLC, which introduced the tear gas dye pack designed to be slipped into a bank robber's bag, on a cash packet that would report its location. As this technology moves down the food chain toward the mass market, one major change will be an increasing reliance on public wireless networks to provide coverage. Previous asset tracking systems have tended toward proprietary solutions or data-specific networks. However, Wherify's unit is a CDMA device with a baseband processor from LSI Logic. According to VP of Marketing Ellen Roth, the company hasn't finalized a carrier and isn't naming names. However Roth did say "it will be using a nationwide PCS network at 1900 MHz," which does tend to narrow the list of possible partners. Also notable is the evolution of PowerLOC's vehicle locators. The "locate on demand" VLD101 uses Aerisnet's network, but the VLD103, which periodically reports its location without being deliberately polled, connects via Cingular. Whether the current mood of the market toward personal location devices will remain stable is unclear. However, if this market does prove viable, it promises to benefit wireless carriers by finally driving asset tracking traffic onto their networks instead of data-specific competitors.