OmniSky Reorganizes to Save Money
OmniSky, the wireless ISP, has revealed that it expects to have between $4.6 and $4.7 million in revenues this quarter. Unfortunately, they expect to lose between $19 and $21 million in that same period. Still this is better than expected. They are cutting their global workforce by nearly 100 employees, mostly by reducing its European workforce and closing several European offices. Before this and other cost-cutting steps were taken, they were expecting to lose between $41 and $43 million
Despite major cutbacks in Europe, they still intend to deliver their applications and services throughout the continent. They are nearing the end of beta trails in both the United Kingdom and Germany.
The company has restructured its business, forming a consumer unit focused on the company's target market of mobile professionals and its ASP service known as OmniSky Oxygen.
"We will continue to closely monitor our operating and capital expenditures as we move to support our ASP business," said Lawrence Winkler, CFO. "The actions we've taken significantly reduce our cash burn while we continue ongoing discussions with vendors and partners to raise the capital necessary to take us to profitability."
In late May, News Corp. gave the company a boost by increasing its stake from 10% to nearly 20%.
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Omnisky UK will not deliver a consumer servie
"We are nearing the completion of our beta trials in Europe and have determined not to continue with a consumer-focused offering under the OmniSky brand. We regret any inconvenience this may cause for you, our valued customer. We intend to use the valuable insights you have provided during the beta trial in the services platform we anticipate offering to wireless carriers, online service providers, hardware manufacturers and others that may deliver wireless services to European consumers.
The OmniSky European service will be discontinued on August 3rd, 2001.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your participation in our beta programme, and to wish you every success in the future."
A great shame. Unfortunately in the UK all the data travels over the GSM network, with high call costs - I guess they found it hard to come up with a price structure similar to their US operations that people were willing to pay.
Lost sale
I told them there must be some way to order with a PO since most companies require this. They said no.
I told them I was testing and if I liked the product that I would be purchasing 600 for my company. They said no.
I didn't buy the unit and they lost a big order.
With that type of business practices, I'm not surprised they are doing poorly.
RE: Lost sale
...As a salesperson, I wish I had a nickle for every dollar that was promised.
A bird in the hand...
RE: Lost sale
RE: Lost sale
RE: 1st
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Palm Infocenter
Omnisky Troubles
I've been an Omnisky customer since February. The service is fast and reliable. The only thing I really hate- and is about making me cancel- is the modem limit and the iPaq mess. I'm attempting to sell my Minstrel V on eBay to get an S for my Prism. I originally wanted one for my iPaq, but $40/month is more than enough for the spotty CDPD coverage than 60/mo. This isn't Ricochet; it's not worth $60/mo for a single device. A friend of mine is paying that for his iPaq. So they say that "iPaq users log on more". I've logged on more than my friend ever did with my iPaq. Some days I literally drained my Vx's battery from using that Minstrel continuously. think it's a poor excuse, and simply a way to make users pay for the "discount" they're getting on the PC Card Sleeve and modem. If they want to cut costs use the CF Sleeve and Enfora PocketSpider like they're doing with the Cassiopeia.
On another note, I like the OmniSky service, and it's better than GoAmerica. I think that I still am going to cancel Omnisky within the next week because I'm sick of paying for service that I'm not using right now, and I can't believe they want to charge iPaq users more. I have a Cassiopeia I could use for $40/mo, or the Prism that I'm typing this on. I'll stick with the Prism until the iPaq rates drop, because I can get a VisorPhone for $50 and 400 minutes of service for $40. Much cheaper, and double as useful.
The Problem With Wireless Providers
RE: The Problem With Wireless Providers
The question is why people need a wireless data service which costs extra $$ when they have cellular phone which they use much more. A smarter way to do business is to bundle the voice and data service in the same service plan which have been provided by some cellular service provider (especially GPRS and 3G).
RE: The Problem With Wireless Providers
RE: The Problem With Wireless Providers
Now the very basic question is why people need PDA? Then the question after that is why people need to surf the internet on their PDA? Then the following question is that why people want to pay that much money for surf the internet WIRELESSLY?
Look at i-mode service in Japan, I think bundling the vocie and data service in the same device makes more sense (and much easier for ordinary people). Try to image a house wife step into the store and the sales person tells her that she can get a cellular phone (which most of the people know what it is and know how to use it), and also she can send & receive emails (which is also becoming popular), then she can also get the real time stock, weather, movie..... information using the same device, and those services are in the same package. It seems to be more understandable to a ordinary person, rather than tell them to get a modem, then sign on a service, and do some setup and then pray.
RE: The Problem With Wireless Providers
It will be interesting to see how the next generation of cell phone/PDA/web browsers (example Motorola Acompli), due out 4thQ2001, performs in the market place. If the cell phone provider sales locations aggresively push these products, it may spell big problems for Palm, etc.
RE: The Problem With Wireless Providers
RE: The Problem With Wireless Providers
Of course, some people want to surf the full size internet on their handheld device, but I doubt that is what everybody needs. Some simple text message is pretty much OK for daily important information.
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Omnisky is a great company