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

To: Step1 who wrote (1914)	12/4/1997 10:37:00 AM
From: arun gera	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3506

Novatel (Continued) >>They now have a distribution agreement with Nikon for their surveying products. How big is Nikon in that field?>> Nikon is a big player in surveying. In fact, Trimble had a deal with Nikon in Japan for distribution. Did not really help. It is difficult to beat the home team. two quarters ago, Novatel had a large inventory through the Nikon channel, which eased up in the last quarter. Let us see what happens in the coming quarter after Trimble 4800 hit the market. >>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 ..<< Don't bet on companies based on contracts they hold. What happens after the contract? Better to find out how their products are doing in the commercial world. >>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) << Check MIT Lincoln Labs web-site for the latest on the reliability of Glonasss. I don't think pure Glonass receivers will make it big. GPS-Glonass combo can provide redundancy that is valued in certain applications (aviation, timing). >>What kind of planes?>> Cirrus Design makes a small plane for recreational flyers. Costs around $150,000. The company claims that there is a big market for such planes which are priced like an expensive car. >>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,>> PN is in a small niche. Depends completely on Honeywell. For now, Honeywell is advertizing heavily on SLR-2000. So, that is good for PN. The market is big, but sales are not coming all that fast. I have been hearing of the Newark and Minneapolis installations for almost three years. Don't be too sure that Trimble will not have products in that market. See the recent Trimble patent on pseudolites. Other competition includes Raytheon and a small but knowledgable company called Integrenautics, which is an example of a company that Trimble could acquire.