Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

1.  

   

   niobium, Nov 9th, 2001 @ 1:42am

   
   

   Huh?

   Iridium's market is not the same as the cellphone market - the fact that cellphoen coverage is getting better in the USA is entirely irrelevant (The civilised world has perfectly good coverage already, thank you). Iridium is for places like the Amazon jungle or the Himalyas whioch are never going to have cellphone coverage.

    

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

2.  

   

   Mike (profile), Nov 9th, 2001 @ 1:50am

   
   

   Re: Huh?

   (1) People who need phones in the Amazon jungle and the Himalayas is a very small market.
   
   (2) The article points out that cell phones are workin on ways to cover those types of areas as well.
   
   My point is that no matter what, the market is only going to decrease rather than increase.

    

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

3.  

   

   Ricardo, Jun 8th, 2006 @ 8:55am

   
   

   Mike, the amazon market is indeed a small market compared to the larger markets out there, but you are not looking at the whole picture. There are plenty of places not already populated with no cell coverage, in addition to our vast giant oceans. Take a look at this URL for more information on world population density http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density . Don't make the assumption that just because these places are so remote that someone needing a phone would not be there. That is a very naive assumption. I think Iridium is great for that other market needing phones where coverage is not available.

    

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

4.  

   

   Mike (profile), Jun 8th, 2006 @ 11:25am

   
   

   Re:

   Ricardo,
   
   I think you misread the point of my post. I'm not saying that those markets don't exist, just that they're small and shrinking. For the people who want it, that's great. The point was that Iridium was supposed to be this big, mass market product, and it's obviously a very niche one.
   
   I know that there are places where there's no cell service. The point is that the market size for catering to those people is small.

    

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

5.  

   

   Derek Kerton (profile), Jun 8th, 2006 @ 3:02pm

   
   

   In Support Of Mike

   Mike is right on this one. You commentors are both correct that dis-connected places DO exist, and will for a long, long time. But Iridium, and other failed Satellite Internet companies were not planning on making a living selling services to these most remote places.
   
   In fact, their business plans, hashed out in the late 80s, included revenues from cities and urban areas in places like Africa and the Amazon. But by the time the satellite services launched, these urban areas had been covered by terrestrial cellular. Thus, a huge chunk of the expected revenue and market opportunity vanished, leaving the long tail of people who want to connect in the middle of nowhere.
   
   I was in the Amazon, on the river itself... talking on my freaking cellphone! Sure, I was near Manaus at the time, but so were most of the other people in the region who could afford, and wanted, to make a phone call. Surely there were a few folks upriver who might by an Iridium phone, but put them all together from around the world, and you don't have enough customers to fund the business. And that fact is proven.

    

   [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

Add Your Comment