Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Microcap & Penny Stocks : Globalstar Telecommunications Limited GSAT -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CommSatMan who wrote (4713)	5/19/1999 10:46:00 AM
From: RMiethe	Respond to of 29987

The Globalstar satellite phone works wherever there is a line of sight to a LEO, so it does work in buildings CommSatMan-- buildings have windows I believe (windows being the means for line of sight access to a Globalstar LEO when a person on the Globalstar phone is in a building). Maybe you should remove "CommSat" from your handle, if "CommSat" is meant to indicate a working familiarity with satellite systems... The SoundView downgrade of Globalstar yesterday has about as much value as my downgrade would. Isn't this the brokerage firm that said Iridium would reach $70/share by the end of 1999?

To: CommSatMan who wrote (4713)	5/19/1999 8:22:00 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 29987

Handsets Quite right CommSatMan, the marketing needs to aim at displacing something *inferior*. On the distribution channel, Dell has shown how to sell such stuff nowadays. The 1970s and 1980s and even 1990s MBA marketers with their 'distribution channels' are out of date. Here is how to do it: Make a Web page [takes a few days and costs next to nothing - I can give a quote]. People around the world 'click' onto the Web page, fill in the order form and enter their bid. They can see all the other bids. When their bid gets to be the high bid, the next handset off the production line gets a sticky label on the carton with their name and address on it, the phone being 'set' to their specifications. FedEx shows up for the next batch of handsets and delivers it to the person all round the world. The person opens the box, turns it on and phones home! [Delivery can be made to their temporary hotel in the Azores]. Pretty simple eh? For countries which are still in the stone age, Service Providers can buy handsets from the same Web site [paying for their own freight if they prefer so they can get 10,000 handsets delivered at one time, saving on freight]. The Service Provider then puts those handsets in their shops or however they are going to sell them, add some margin to the handset price if they feel like it. In NZ, a Service Provider would have some handsets in stock, or they could offer a Web service so people could go into the shop, enter their own bids [for a $10 fee or something] so they wouldn't even have to have a computer. Or get the shop to enter the bid on their behalf and pay the shop a fee for handling the bid. Pretty easy really. That way, there will be no queues for handsets. Production will precisely match demand. Bernie won't need to have piercing eyes and 'push' handset producers to make more. Piercing eyes and pushing are absurd ways to run a modern business. Pricing and the Web are the way to succeed. Ask Michael Dell. Don't forget quality either, but that has already been set by the system design. Maurice

To: CommSatMan who wrote (4713)	5/19/1999 11:50:00 PM
From: Andmoreagain	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Nice post, CommSatMan, and I happen to agree with your points. Globalstar's dependence on regional SP's, and the lack of handsets are problems also. 120,000 handsets at the END of 2000 is what I read today in a major Wall Street report; hmmm.... And another report discusses the lack of experience Globalstar's SP's have in marketing this kind of product, as well as their potential resistance to subsidizing the end user's cost. I realize Globalstar is imposing "punitive" rate structures on SP's that don't sell enough minutes, and while this might work some of the time, it may well foster antagonism toward the company in the long run. I get a sense that Globalstar is perceived as the "last hope" for a high profit margin satellite scheme that engages the masses. If it fails, a big gravy train comes to a halt. That may be behind all the "rah, rah" enthusiasm, and may produce a bigger hangover than Iridium's if the unthinkable occurs. Maybe "unthinkable" is the wrong word...there are some who ARE thinking it already. Let's hope they're wrong. I'm not predicting disaster, but I also don't buy the guaranteed success scenarios that so many are offering...