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EarthVision Newsletter Archive
Sent: March 22, 2000
Subject: EarthVision Cellular Consumer NewsAnother issue of the EarthVision Cellular Consumer Newsletter. This newsletter is for the soon to be educated cellular phone user community. If you know of anyone else that may have an interest in our newsletter, make sure to forward them a copy. Now we move forward at Mach II speed!
[Special Note: This newsletter will now be delivered Bi Monthly on Wednesday.] *************************************************************
THE PHONE CALL THAT COULDN'T WAIT
WAP PHONE SHORTAGE AND MARKETING HYPE COULD LEAD TO TROUBLE
EARTHVISION CELLULAR WELCOMES AMBASSADOR TO MIAMI
E-TAILERS OF ELECTRONICS SHY AWAY FROM CONSUMER MARKET
NEW WIRELESS PRODUCTS & SERVICES ROLLING OUT
BOOSTING CELL PHONE BATTERY POWER WITH SOFTWARE
SPRINT PCS NAILED ON DISCLOSURE OF CUSTOMER INFO USING WAP
SHOP THE INTERNET IN YOUR CAR - A SCI-FI REALITY?
CURRENT SPECIAL OFFER TO SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
CREDIT LINES NOW OPEN FOR SMALL BUSINESSES & INDIVIDUALS
************************************************************
EarthVision Cellular Consumer News Issue #6 Volume 2
THE PHONE CALL THAT COULDN'T WAIT
We were recently contacted by Faye. She was looking for a prepaid cellular package that would allow her to have an exclusive and open line of communication. The reason? Faye has been diagnosed with bone cancer. She needed the phone to make sure that she was contacted day or night should a possible bone marrow donor be found. For obvious reasons, we have edited some of the email she has sent but here is the gist of what she had to say.
Dear Mr. Evans,
I would like to take this time to Thank you and The Earthvision Cellular Company. I never expected to get this much help, but, I really do appreciate everything you have done. Times are really hard now, but, you must know how much you have made it a little easier for me to get that all so important phone call.... ...My biggest wish of all is for Prayers to get that call soon.... One more favor is to please include in your newsletter that this support I have received is from the Heart of a Great Company. Your Staff should know what a Great Unselfish Company they work for at Earthvision Cellular. Once again your help is greatly appreciated from the bottom of my heart..... Sincerely yours, FayeFaye may be placed on the national donor list very soon. This is the all important call that she will be waiting for in her search for a donor. If any of you would like to contact her, you can reach her at faye@fastwave.net and I am sure she would be pleased to hear from you. All of us have probably had someone we knew and loved in our lives that had to battle with cancer. Part of the healing process is knowing that you have been given all the support you could have possibly had. We felt it was necessary to show our support of Faye in her fight with cancer too. And Faye gives us too much credit for our support and assistance. We merely did what anyone (or business) would do in a situation like this one. All of us here at EarthVision Cellular wish Faye the best of luck in her search and recovery!
WAP PHONE SHORTAGE AND MARKETING HYPE COULD LEAD TO TROUBLE
We have listened to the commercials of "where's the beef?" Now people are asking "where are the WAP phones?" The manufacturers are pushing the WAP phones as the next revolution in the cellular phone industry. However, it appears that many people are unable to get a WAP phone from their local retailers in foreign countries. The reason is partly due to component shortages and partly due to demand.
Industry analysts think that the manufacturers creating all the hype will have it back fire and blow up in the stock market. Especially in Europe where the WAP phone is really being pushed and isn't available for months after the announcement.
Many of the carriers in the United Kingdom have not been promoting the WAP phones and services due to the lack of available handsets and current demand for them is overwhelming. Good news for our English counterparts is that the British Telecommunications plc. has announced that they will be purchasing a half million WAP phones over the next few months to help meet demand.
In the US, there are only a couple of million "pre-WAP" handsets in use. An actual WAP phone is designed with the WAP 1.1 version software already in the phone which are not available at this time. We have heard from an insider that the WAP 1.1 is already obsolete and programmers are working on a newer version of the software. Expect that you will have to do constant upgrading to keep up with the newer version WAP phones once they come out on the market in mass production.
The companies looking to develop WAP programs are also as frustrated as consumers. They are unable to move forward with testing of software due to the fact that they cannot get a hold of a WAP phone for these purposes.
We would recommend that our subscribers wait for the debut of the WAP phone to take a better hold on the market. Your choices for "online shopping" are very limited and you will basically have access to information on the WAP phone that appears on your alphanumeric pagers. News, sports, and stock quotes is about the major benefit of WAP right now.
EARTHVISION CELLULAR WELCOMES AMBASSADOR TO MIAMI
We would like to welcome our newest member to the EarthVision Cellular team. Kattar Kringelein hails from Venezuela and now lives in Florida. He completed his studies at the Central University of Venezuela in Modern Languages and International Affairs.
Kattar will be taking the position of Sales Ambassador to Miami. His background experience is in the cellular phone market both in the US and in South America. Fluent in three languages, he speaks Spanish, English, and French.
His track record shows him to be a top performer in his previous employment positions. His comment to us was that nothing was impossible to do. Difficult yes, but not impossible. We are very pleased to have once again attracted such high quality talent to our team.
As always, our customers can expect the highest code of ethics and customer advocacy from our sales ambassadors. All of the ambassadors with EarthVision Cellular are ready, willing, and determined to prove that we are the company that should have your business.
E-TAILERS OF ELECTRONICS SHY AWAY FROM CONSUMER MARKET
We all hear about amazon.com being the biggest internet retailer and ebay being the biggest auction site, and the profit they are making. But are they really making a profit? The SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) has advised amazon and ebay as well as a few others that they may have to change their accounting methods. In reality, should amazon and ebay use traditional accounting methods, they would actually show a massive loss. Amazon would show a negative 3% profit margin if they included their shipping expenses on the accounting books and ebay wouldn't be claiming so much revenue if they did not count the value of each bid placed as revenue rather than their commission on the bid.
So how does all of this affect the general consumer? More than you want to know. For example, manufacturers really do not like e-tailers selling their product. Price erosion is the key reason. E-tailers are too quick to lower pricing which devalues a product and the value added services. A reasonable profit margin must be available in order to provide the quality of service and product that a customer expects. The current trend of e-tailers [as per the industry analysts] is to enter price wars with one another because customer loyalty is almost non existent. Customer service is also almost non existent since the profit margin isn't there to hire customer service people and the quality of the product also diminishes. And most internet only companies can only survive as part time companies before they go out of business altogether. The next thing impacting the profit margin is that it cost nearly 6 times as much for an internet company to attract a customer as for a brick and mortar store.
Truth be told, it actually costs more to run an internet business than expected and isn't the low cost retailing channel it was hyped up to be. And now the final impact on customers. E-tailers are leaving the individual consumers to their own devices and to the new net-entrepreneurs that have not yet tried doing business on the internet. More and more e-tailers are turning to businesses only e-commerce websites. And only the ones who can afford to dish out the money to stock product to sell to businesses that won't be paying invoices for 30 days or more will be able to do so. Businesses typically buy more than 5 items per purchase.
Companies looking for drop shippers of products to the consumer market are finding them becoming even less available. More and more companies are telling consumer websites that they will not drop ship orders anymore. Lending a more hostile supplier environment for consumer websites to have to battle and gain market share. Price erosion and market saturation have forced suppliers to seek out more profitable avenues. In this case, it is the business market that is now starting to get all of the attention.
In summary, customers will find the future internet shopping experience to be more "buyer beware" than ever before. You will purchase a product not knowing how long the website will be available especially if you have a product under warranty. What other companies have yet to learn is that you must earn a customer's business. We appreciate all of you that have allowed us that opportunity.
NEW WIRELESS PRODUCTS & SERVICES ROLLING OUT
Sometime in June or July, Sprint PCS will have the exclusive availability of the integrated PDA/Cellular Phone for 6 months. The starting price of them will be $399 each. Weighing in at 6.5 ounces, the PDA phone dialing keypad opens to reveal a 12 line LCD touch screen that is partially concealed with the flip is closed. It will also feature a micro-browser and virtual keyboard.
Samsung will be rolling out it's "Phoenix" PDA cellular phone sometime by the end of this year. It too will come with a micro-browser and touchscreen dialing keypad. The first version will be a tri-band CDMA model.
Ericsson was not be left out. They will be rolling out the "Communicator". Featuring a color LCD screen, handwriting recognition, integrated GPS, touchscreen dialing, and bluetooth wireless connectivity to devices such as headsets and micro-browser. This phone will be offered as a GSM world phone. We can expect to see it around the end of this year or early next year.
The pricing for these other products has yet to be established or disclosed. But it looks like some really fun things are in store for the cellular phone users of today's US market.
A side note is that Maxon is looking to re-enter the US handset market for cellular phones. Keep an eye on AT&T Wireless which looks about set to do an IPO of their stock. You can follow the SEC listings to see if and when they file for their IPO to offer stock on the public market.
For the Airtouch and Nextel subscribers, MSN has announced that next month they plan on launching a new two way information on demand network. It will have a premium spot on the pre-WAP enabled phones. However, users will have to manually type in the URL and then bookmark it on the micro-browser.
Lithium Polymer Batteries: Looks like the manufacturers have finally found the way past the resistance of these batteries. A company in Canada has unveiled a 1.93 ounce lithium polymer battery that will deliver 8 to 10 hours of talktime or 6 to 21 days of standby time. The batteries are initially being created for the Nokia 5100/6100 series phones. There is a disclaimer to the above talktime and standby time that the battery charge is dependent upon the network and ambient temperature. It should become available to the general market sometime at the end of this year with a retail value of $99.95 each. This specific battery will be about the same size as Nokia's ultra slim battery.
The advantage to Li-Poly batteries is that the shape of the batteries can be molded much easier so that they could literally become a part of the phone instead of being an independent unit.
One thing we would like to point out to those who may be aware of past situations. When we first stated that Li-Ion batteries were affected by shelf life, static electricity, and that they could be overcharged and undercharged, we had critical comments heaped upon us by our peers stating we were wrong and did not knowing what we are talking about. We have finally been vindicated in our efforts now that those very same critics are now subscribing to the statements of which we have made in the past. We can tell you that it is tough work being a leader in the industry.
Therefore, as some of our longer term subscribers have found. We sometimes put out the information long before it is readily available to the general public and in some cases even to our peers. The reason for this is because our sources are very reliable and we intend only to put out the most accurate information that we can provide based on our own research.
BOOSTING CELL PHONE BATTERY POWER WITH SOFTWARE
We were surprised to learn that most cellular phone users do not trust their batteries. Business people make it a point to carry around extra batteries, desktop chargers, and other items necessary to keep the battery on the phone juiced up. With the new features coming to be available on cellular phones, the outlook on battery charge cycles are dismal. Meaning that a consumer would have to recharge the battery more often.
More functions available on the cellular phone cause more power to be drained off the battery. What doesn't help the situation any is that batteries are not designed to be as efficient as manufacturers would like to help them hold a longer charge. Believe it or not, part of the problem with how fast a battery's capacity fade has to do with how it is used, charged, and recharged.
We add to this the fact that phones are now going to be even more multi-functional as mentioned above in the integrated PDA cellular phones and we are talking some serious power hungry devices using these batteries.
This is where Enrev has come into play. They are designing the B.O.S. software aka Battery Operating Software. Because the battery technology has not kept up to pace with the features presented on cellular phones, this is pretty much a necessity. It will allow for better battery charging management to maximize the potential of the batteries peak performance. With the software being built directly into the cellular phones, it will become a standard with wireless devices in general.
Basically, this software will control the charging process within the battery. With Li-Ion being affected by various chemical process problems, the software will control the rate of transfer to allow for the chemical process to work at it's peak performance. This will also allow for the "hidden capacity" of the battery to be charged and used by the consumer as well. Manufacturers claim a lower rating of mAH size than the battery's actual capacity to take into account for inefficient power consumption by the wireless device.
This software is not limited to Li-Ion batteries and will prove to be reliable on platforms for all types of batteries. Making Nickel Metal Hydride batteries more cost effective and almost as good as the Li-Ion batteries in comparison to capacity. The expectation is that the software will not only extend the capacity of the battery but the lifetime of the battery as well. Obviously, this is great news for cellular phone users.
SPRINT PCS NAILED ON DISCLOSURE OF CUSTOMER INFO USING WAP
Sprint PCS WAP customers started reporting that their mobile identification numbers were being transmitted to the web sites they visited while using the WAP phone. Sprint PCS stated that the information was used for no other purpose other than as a two way gate to provide information to the WAP user. But it was acknowledged that the information was sometimes imbedded into a website.
The potential in this would be that the cellular phone user could be contacted via their cellular phone for marketing purpose. But they felt that it was unlikely since the name of the person wasn't given with the phone number. They also said that they conducted a focus group prior to the launch and received no feedback about it and none from current subscribers. However, subscribers were reporting it to internet news channels. No mention was made of a possible reverse phone number look up being used on the cellular phone numbers when it became available.
Airtouch Cellular doesn't disclose phone numbers to websites, Bell Atlantic creates separate IP addresses, and AT&T Wireless uses random numbers to identify customers that access internet web pages via a WAP phone.
Sprint has stated that within the next 30 to 60 days, they will follow with AT&T Wireless in assigning randomly used numbers to identify customers visiting web pages. What impact this will have as far as negative publicity on Sprint PCS has yet to be seen.
The one item of concern in this area would be that hackers have access to WAP pages as well as standard pages. And the more visible a WAP site is to the public, the greater chance that a hacker will notice it and decide to create a little mischief and chaos. Nothing on that note that would say just how secure that information would be from hackers.
SHOP THE INTERNET IN YOUR CAR - A SCI-FI REALITY?
Sci-Fi or not, a company in Dallas is looking to make it a reality. We aren't sure just how it will work out with the current clamor of drivers being distracted while driving. But this company is looking to capture the market on the in vehicle e-commerce market.
The initial service will allow for a user to listen to music on the radio and if they decide they like it, they can purchase it right then and there on the internet installed in the vehicle. The service will be offered via satellite at $9.95 a month.
Already agreements have been reached with Chrysler, BMW, Ford, Jaguar, Mazda, and Volvo to put receivers into many of the vehicles here in the US. Which could lead into other areas of mobile communications being used in vehicles.
With the names of the auto manufacturers already out, we can expect to see them in the luxury vehicles before they will be readily available to the general market vehicle. A similar situation with the GPS service offered by NorStar.
The motivation behind this service is because the Auto maker's have big dreams and with watching internet companies such as amazon.com move into WAP services to sell their products. Many companies are now looking at the younger generation market as the most viable and profitable. We all know how much teenagers like to drive.
CURRENT SPECIAL OFFER TO SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
The current special will only run until midnight of March 27th, 2000. So act now if you want to take advantage of these offers.
Clear Plastic Cases with Swivel Clips Available for the 5100 or 6100 Series phones Price $15.95 each.
Nokia 8810 NiMh Batteries - Chrome Price $32.95 each
Silver Sliding FacePlate & Chrome Battery Package for Nokia 5100 Series Phone Price $59.95 each
Nokia 918 Leather Case & Car Charger Package Price $14.95 each.
Uniden PCD100/2000 Leather Case & Car Charger Package Price $14.95
Motorola Tac Series Rapid Car Chargers Price $9.95 each Buy two or more at $8.95 each
Samsung 3500 Leather Case & Rapid Car Charger Price $16.95 each
Note: Shipping and Handling will apply to all orders under $40
CREDIT LINES NOW OPEN FOR SMALL BUSINESSES & INDIVIDUALS
We know how difficult it can be for a small business to create a credit line for future reference checks. We have always said that we advocate for the consumer and small businesses. We offer credit lines to some very large corporations here in the US and Canada.
Now we will be expanding on that to offer credit lines to small businesses as well. We hope to assist the small business owner with establishing credit with our corporation to assist them in securing credit lines with other companies of which they may do business.
We have a simple one page application to be completed that can be faxed back to us for processing. Our turnaround time will about 48 to 72 hours. If you or someone you know owns a small business and are seeking a business line of credit, have them contact us for a credit application. It should take them no more than 5 minutes to complete and they will be on their way to establishing a line of credit.
We don't stop there. We will also be offering a consumer program that allows for the customer to be billed with installment payments. This program is strictly for consumers and will not apply to business accounts. For those of you who do not have a credit card or do not want to use one, you can now mail in your payments.
Requesting a business application: Enter into the subject line of an email "Business Application"
Requesting a consumer application: Enter into the subject line of an email "Consumer Application"
We will respond with sending the application within 24 hours of your request. You are welcome to forward this information to anyone that you think may have an interest in taking advantage of our services.
PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND ASSOCIATES ABOUT OUR NEWSLETTER. WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE IN MAKING OUR NEWSLETTER A SUCCESS.
If you want your name to vanish from our list because our newsletter is just too boring or someone else signed you up, let us know. We will reluctantly take you off of our newsletter list. And we still reserve the right to make faces at you when you aren't looking.
Go to www.earthvisioncellular.com/newsletter to take your name off or to add your name to our newsletter.
EarthVision Communications Inc.
"Taking Cellular to Mach II Speed"
www.earthvisioncellular.com