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

To: David who wrote (2269)	3/4/1998 4:55:00 PM
From: Jamse	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3506

To all: I'm concerned about the price pressure that Trmb is experiencing now. With all the alliances and new products, Trimble stock seems to be languishing. For example - not shipping the CUGR product caused the stock to go lower and then when they did ship it caused the stock to go lower, supposedly because of margins. There seems to be a downward bias on the stock no matter what the news. To me, shipping the CUGR out early should just mean more product to ship in the next quarter and the price should reflect it! Same goes for their surveying equipment that buyers held off on till the new model was introduced. I don't know how much the car market is going to add to GPS growth but I suspect it will be a big factor in the future. I may be wrong but I think part of the reason for the stock being in the doldrums is that investors don't see a clear path for Trimble in the mass market. It seems to me that Orbi is going to be a major player in the car market and may be causing some problem for Trimble's stock price. My reasons for this are simple. Orbi has the ability to have 2 way communication with their satellite network and now builds their own satellites. Magellan has a lot of experience in mass producing GPS products at low prices, add to that the investment in Ashtech and it seems like a formidable mix. I'm not sure being the best on the block is going to cut it in the car nav market. I can think of many products that were good and got beat out by lesser quality or technically inferior products. Look at the $800 computer as an example. Marketing, timing and many other factor enter into the equation. I think the market is taking into consideration the presence of ORBI and treating TRMB's stock accordingly. The big money is to be made in the markets with high volume such as car navigation, container-truck-railcar location etc. Here is something else to consider. The Trimble-Microsoft-Intel etc alliances were made before ORBI bought Ashtech and the Satellite manufacturer (can't remember the name right now). Maybe Trimble was the best all around at the time, is it now? For the record I am an investor in Trimble and have been for several years. I don't know that much about the GPS market from a technical standpoint but I do know enough to be invested in it at this time. I also was invested in Orbi and sold too early. This is only my opinion and I welcome any Comments, Criticisms, or Condemnations. Best of luck to all, jamse