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Technology Stocks : Trimble Navigation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: arun gera who wrote (1911)	12/4/1997 1:52:00 AM
From: Step1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3506

Arun, I will raise a few issues for the sake of debate only, I aim in no way to start a war or anything like that . In my previous message, I have also stated that I do not own any Novatel. >Novatel is weaker player than Trimble, Ashtech, and Leica. Novatel has a small market share in Surveying. << They now have a distribution agreement with Nikon for their surveying products. How big is Nikon in that field? >>A big chunk of their revenue is coming form WAAS contract as they were on the right team, which is to their credit. << I think it goes to prove the quality of their products. When I talked to them they were very secretive on what was going on with the WAAS sale and it was really painful to get any info out of them. Basically a North American system would necessitate about 150 WAAS stations, perhaps with some back up capabilities, not quite the thousands of units I would like to see needed ... Europe will eventually go GPS nav also but you can expect a lot of protectionism, in the form of buy EC first I think. Sextant Avionique and SGS Thomson are eventual players in that field. They >>> do not have the marketing power of the Surveying companies such as Topcon, Sokkia, Leica, and Geotronics. As pointed out by Skip, Novatel will have to invest heavily if they have to catch up with Trimble 4800 product. <<< Perhaps a dumb question here. What if they don't go after the 4800 line? >>They are trying to team up with Candaian Marconi for avionics. Heard some bad comments about Canadian Marconi's avionics products from a person who has installed avionics products on commercial aircrafts.<< I think that the relationship with Canadian Marconi is already a fact. I can't verified the opinion of your friend as to the quality of Canadian Marconi's products however. >> Novatel sponsors some events such as the Annual Robotics event. Has used the publicity generated from the event to suggest that Novatel has superior products.<<< I was under the impression that any GPS equipment from any maker could be used for the competition... Interesting fact I am going to check on that ... >>> The patent settlement between Novatel and Trimble suggests that Novatel is/was not a complete pushover.<<< Could you provide a link to this affair... I want to find out more... Definitely interesting... >>> Don't see any merger between Trimble and Novatel. Trimble does not seem to be lacking in any particular product in comparison to other GPS players. Ashtech is a little ahead on GPS/Glonass products.<<< NoVatel claims to be working on GLONASS as well. When I cross checked with PN (Pelorus Navigation) I was told that the state of the Russian system was not reliable enough for aviation purposes ( well I am sure the Russians use it for just that and other purposes but perhaps not to Western safety standards). Apparently the Russians are behind in their plan to complete the constellation and there are also concerns as to the reliability of their signals (timing). For now, not a commercial possibility I was told. >>It Trimble needs to acquire any companies they should be the ones that have products that compliment their GPS product lines. terra has allowed Trimble to establish a broader base in aviation applications, although that strategy has not taken off yet.<< Makes sense. >>> One of the successes is the complete Trimline avionics in a new aircraft from a company called Cirrus Design. Cirrus already has over 100 planes backlog and a has production capacity of about 400 a year.<<< What kind of planes? I don't know if you are aware but the USAF (?, some branch of the US army anyway) is currently testing the GPS constellation to see if it would be suitable for satellite positioning (sorry it kind of sounds redundant but) in fact using the constellation to help track other satellites and correct their orbits etc etc, like a GPS from/for above as opposed to pinpointing a location on earth, you could pinpoint a location in space. I have the article somewhere and can find it for you if you are interested. It appeared either in Flight International or Aviation Week less than a month ago. To clarify my position once more, I have not bought in, except for PN, which is in a real small niche with Honeywell and doesn't compete in most fields with TRMB, and never fall in love with a stock, not yet anyway. I just wish to see clearer so I make a better informed decision when I do buy in. TRMB or NGPSF, which one will it be? thx sg