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

To: arun gera who wrote (2411)	4/7/1998 12:36:00 PM
From: David	Respond to of 3506

Second GPS signal . . . Industry reaction . . . . April 6 Satellite news carried the reaction of Trimble, Magellan and Rockwell to the decision by the US to provide a second GPS signal. Magellan's spokesman didn't seem interested in the possibilities, saying that "The second signal will improve the accuracy a little, but not enough to justify the increased cost and loss of battery life," and that existing system accuracy is "good enough" for most users and believes that new users could be discouraged by higher prices for these receivers. Charles Trimble, on the other hand, was enthusiastic about it. "This is absolutely good news; we are very encouraged. This is a sign of the vitality of GPS." Trimble wasn't concerned about increased cost since he believes that technical advances between now and 2004 will bring prices down from where they would be today for both electronics and batteries. He also liked the decision as making the GPS system overall more robust, with less down time. And he emphasized that this decision was part of a US plan (I'll be he is in on the plan) to stake a claim to bandwidth in the face of the European mobile satellite challenge. "The best defense is a good offense," he said. Rockwell Collins took a wait and see attitude, saying it may be affordable and could help the AVL market. (Recall that the new accuracy can help tell what lane a driver is in.) I found it interesting that Orbi with its AVL presence and infrastructure did not jump on this, but Trimble did. Trimble, of course, would love to sell the design reference or receivers for any Orbi AVL system.