Here we go again. Thermo has been in charge for 3 years. In that time they have gone from 100,000 subscribers to somewhat over 200,000 which is not a very good effort at all, and certainly they have defaulted on the opportunity to demonstrate a high level of demand at low prices per minute [meaning 10c a minute for the regular bloke, not some "vertical market" $60 a barrel deep Arctic oil explorer wanting a million minutes a year on a "Liberty Plan".]
Now the constellation is conking out and it's time to get the replacement in the sky.
That will have to be justified on low usage since they have failed to demonstrate high usage. They have a few customers using a few minutes, not hordes using hundreds of minutes.
There is a prospectus registered, and price per share is now being discussed in public.
New and slightly improved handsets are nearly ready to sell. A new constellation is being designed. Hundreds of million of people around the world want rural/oceanic cellphone coverage if not cyberphone coverage - at the right price.
It was amazing that such a good system, which was easy to sell at the right price, was wasted during years of marketing incompetence. Thermo has conducted some half-pie recovery, but not very enthusiastically, with reluctant minute price cuts. Prospective customers have shown what they thought of the price cuts - "yawn".
Mqurice |
