Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 3

Here is a cut and paste direct from GD

I have heard through the grape vine that GeoDiscovery has laid off all but a handful of employees and that they are hoping someone will buy what is left of the company. Scary stuff, I would be getting my $300 back before it's to late!
jmtc

The response from GD

As with other companies in our industry GeoDiscovery has had a reduction in force in an effort to bring resources in line with available revenue and financing. Business will continue as usual within the reduced workforce. We're still the same great company with the same great product

If you don't believe me here is the link http://geoforum.geodiscovery.com/sh...hp?threadid=390

It just goes to show you that here in America a million dollars in advertising can sell at least 400 units !!

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

Kelly,

Do you now or did you ever work for a company that makes Visor related products or accessories?

Just asking.. be honest.. we can tell eventually.. registering in Apr 2001 and only having 2 posts (both similar in nature) seems kinda suspicious to me.

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland
Posts: 205

quote:

---

Originally posted by kellyfrankfurt
Here is a cut and paste direct from GD

I have heard through the grape vine that GeoDiscovery has laid off all but a handful of employees and that they are hoping someone will buy what is left of the company. Scary stuff, I would be getting my $300 back before it's to late!
jmtc

The response from GD

As with other companies in our industry GeoDiscovery has had a reduction in force in an effort to bring resources in line with available revenue and financing. Business will continue as usual within the reduced workforce. We're still the same great company with the same great product

If you don't believe me here is the link http://geoforum.geodiscovery.com/sh...hp?threadid=390

It just goes to show you that here in America a million dollars in advertising can sell at least 400 units !!

---

__________________
Sven

If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished.

Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 3

Well if I did I would tell them how to run a company!

I was a Geode user who was very disapointed and will use this message board to share my experience as everbody else does. What are you doing? It's creepy having you checking when I was registered and how many postings I've had. Don't you have a better way to spend your time. Are you the Visor Central police?

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
Posts: 790

Re: Well if I did I would tell them how to run a company!

quote:

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Originally posted by kellyfrankfurt
I was a Geode user who was very disapointed and will use this message board to share my experience as everbody else does. What are you doing? It's creepy having you checking when I was registered and how many postings I've had. Don't you have a better way to spend your time. Are you the Visor Central police?

---

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Jeff

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

The registered info and number of posts appear beside each post when I view it. Not the same for everyone else?

Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

Re: Well if I did I would tell them how to run a company!

quote:

---

Originally posted by kellyfrankfurt
[...] It's creepy having you checking when I was registered and how many postings I've had. [...]

---

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

To be honest I didn't even look at your user profile.. (too lazy).. Like briker206 said, I used the information that is already on the screen.. 2+2=4 (well, usually anyway), and no I am not the VC police, just a good netizien. I have become disturbed and annoyed with the recent number of "fake" VC members..

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 604

I'm familiar with the phenomena that Eric and others have mentioned. However, I somehow doubt Kelly is a plant, mostly because I can't identify a competitor with a motive to trash GD.

Magellan is the only company making a competing product, but this doesn't strike me as their style - they are awfully low-key about the Companion, maybe too much so, actually.

I know a lot of people love their Geode. I've got one myself, and haven't returned it - yet. But there are a lot of legitimate criticisms that can be leveled at the company. They went to market with a product that really wasn't - and in some ways still isn't - ready for prime time, and didn't have promised features.

That said, I personally hope Kelly is dead wrong and they go on to thrive in the marketplace.

Just my two cents.

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Posts: 85

Hey, as long as she doesn't go by the name HotGeodeBabe or SassyGeodeBabe, it's alright with me.

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RadarGreg

Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 6

Interesting post

Hello everyone,
I'm new to these posts, didn't know they even existed till a few days ago. In any regard, I'm more in favor of the "off topic" subjects... but I've noticed a trend through all the different categories, many of the posts seem to get off track. This one in particular, it started out with info about Geode possibly running into hard times, and it's now about possible secret competitors coming online(?).

I'd like to know what's going on with Geode. Are they ok? I clicked on that link, and it seemed legit... hm, they're not located in the Bay Area, are they?

Anyway, I'd appreciate info on what's going on and why with Geode.

Have a great weekend!
suphi

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

Re: Interesting post

quote:

---

Originally posted by suphi
Hello everyone,
I'm new to these posts, didn't know they even existed till a few days ago. In any regard, I'm more in favor of the "off topic" subjects... but I've noticed a trend through all the different categories, many of the posts seem to get off track. This one in particular, it started out with info about Geode possibly running into hard times, and it's now about possible secret competitors coming online(?).

I'd like to know what's going on with Geode. Are they ok? I clicked on that link, and it seemed legit... hm, they're not located in the Bay Area, are they?

Anyway, I'd appreciate info on what's going on and why with Geode.

Have a great weekend!
suphi

---

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 6

Tell me about it

Yeah, everyone's going through some crunch time. I hear Yahoo reduced 12%, and that one of the Big 5 consulting plans on reducing 20%. CRAZY!
Thanks for the info EricG.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Burlington, VT, USA
Posts: 127

Geeze, guys, didn't you notice the tech market collapse a few months ago? MOST technology companies are reducing their workforces with the market the way it is. Palm laid off a couple of hundred people -- I doubt there's any chance of them going under in the next half-decade or so. Many smaller companies have also laid folks off.

Six months ago, any company with a tech product could go out and get bazillions in venture capital. So all the companies took advantage of this. If the money's there, why not be as ambitious and professional with the product as possible?

Of course, this meant many companies built up much faster and bigger than a "new" company could in a market where they actually had to support themselves by selling products, instead of by getting "another round of financing."

Then, a couple of months ago, the tech market crashed. Now, the same venture capitalists who were dumb enough to sink money into anything tech-related are now dumb enough to refuse to finance ANYTHING in the tech market. So startup companies with only one or two products are suddenly forced to downsize. A year ago, they had plans to use investment cash to grow rapidly and make a profit in a couple of years. Now, with investment capital gone, these same companies suddenly have to make a profit SOON. Some of them will merge, or be picked up by larger companies that see the potential of their products. Others will downsize and make profits as smaller companies. And a few will indeed disappear.

But if you're going to doomsay a company because of some layoffs, you might as well sell off all your electronic equipment now. Oh, and invest in a horse and buggy, too, given the layoffs in Detroit.

I'd wager that EVERY company that's making Springboards and Palm peripherals has scaled back its plans from what they were last year. Not so much because of a slowing economy, but because of an investment market that's not guided at all by logic.

Anyway, I've been in touch with the GeoDiscovery folks just this week about some coverage we're doing, and they're definitely still there and still working. Now if they can just get that MMC slot working. :-)

__________________
Denny Atkin / [email protected]
Editor-in-Chief, Handheld Computing Magazine / www.hhcmag.com

Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 3

Great insight

Dennya,
That's great insight. I've heard tidbits on the news, but it hasn't held my attention. You've summed it up in a few paragraphs! Any input on whether or not we should invest in tech stock? You seem like a person who'd be intuitive about that as well.

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 18

Hay -- I heard that!

Hay -- I heard that!

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Metro Station, Hollywood and Highland
Posts: 1018

Methinks that new members (e.g. under 10 posts) hyping or trashing a company are guilty of being PR plants until proven innocent. Just a theory.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Burlington, VT, USA
Posts: 127

Shantayy,

Alas, I'd be the last person to try to suggest where someone should invest money... Too much of mine is invested in my MasterCard bill. :-)

Seriously, though, the stock market is wacky. A company announces bad earning reports, its stock drops in half because people "lose faith." Then the stock goes back to where it was a few weeks later. Makes no sense.

Then you have companies like Yahoo which at one point were valued at billions of dollars. That's insane. Did people REALLY think they were worth that much, or were they just trying to "ride the wave" as the entire tech sector became overvalued?

If I had spare cash, I'd probably look at the companies that have really good products, and seem to be making sane decisions as far as growth and marketing. There are tons of tech stocks that have dropped to pennies in value, and will never return. But when Palm and Handspring, for instance, drop in half on one earning report, you gotta think that's just wacky. They have good products and they own their markets. If Microsoft triples Pocket PC sales, Palm OS will still own the market. So did it make sense for the stock to drop like that? Probably good investments.

Disclaimer: I not only don't really know anything more than the typical layman about investment, but I'm attempting to apply logic to the stock market, which traditionally has never operated on anything resembling logic.