Comments on: Inmarsat throws its weight around…

By: Not the end of history: some ruminations on maritime communications | Maritime Insight

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:54:11 +0000

[...] crossed paths before, notably discussing his End of History�blog and when he posted again about Inmarsat‘s moves in maritime, the time seemed right to have a proper chat with the man for his views [...]

By: Owners speak – and you might not like everything they have to say | Maritime Insight

Wed, 01 May 2013 18:44:54 +0000

[...] seems surprising when airtime suppliers are pricing so aggressively to win business from each other, but it might make sense if suppliers could provide a service that [...]

By: timfarrar

timfarrar — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:19:59 +0000

What “SPOT” functionality does the “SPOT phone” include? I’ve not seen any evidence of built in tracking functionality, emergency alerting, etc.

If its just a regular phone then your question should be rephrased as “how many people buying a $99 tracking device want a $499 phone as well/instead?”. The main point of SPOT, inReach etc is that there is a market for tracking at a lower price point than a phone, amongst people who don’t need voice.

That’s not to say there aren’t some phone users in the leisure market who would prefer to buy from REI rather than a specialist or online reseller. But demand in the leisure market is highly price sensitive so the question is how many people are prepared to pay $499 for satellite communications. And does Globalstar increase or decrease its addressable market for the phone if specialist resellers decide they don’t want to (or can’t) compete with REI?

By: ORBITRAX

ORBITRAX — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:24:28 +0000

As mentioned above. You can give a dealer a big incentive, but when the phone simply won’t make a phone call or connection due to the Extreme Northern Latitudes where the subscriber is located. You have to be a really good salesman to convince them to continue paying their monthly bill. It is like saying a Globalstar dealer, if incentivized enough, can sell Globalstar phones to Antarctic explorers.

Globalstar eventually built the Wasilla Gateway due to the amount of traffic in Alaska.

It will be interesting to see how well Globalstar can move the SPOT Phone to it’s SPOT user base. Data Tethering to the phone for email and basic browsing and an affordable data rate may be compelling.

By: timfarrar

timfarrar — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:46:48 +0000

But Inmarsat are competing by paying dealers a much bigger incentive. I’m told Globalstar’s dealer incentive is a Best Buy gift card. Inmarsat are offering 5 times more, in cash. So it depends if you think dealers sell based on the best service (and handset) for the customer or the best incentive for themselves. If the latter then it’s easy for them to point to Globalstar’s recent history/finances as an excuse for why Inmarsat is a “better” option.

By: ORBITRAX

ORBITRAX — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:14:45 +0000

EBAY-SatphoneStore.Com offers GSP-1700 for $499 with Unlimited Airtime, Unlimited Data for $39.99 month w/ Free Activation/Free Shipping. Historically, many of Globalstar North American customers were in Alaska and Canada. Markets that the ISATPHONE Pro will not compete well in on Service. Last check,Globalstar still had about 45MM in Qualcomm Phone and Modem inventory. Every phone sold is money in the pocket.