Reseller Inventory

[palmczak]

is there a reseller that updates a webstore with current inventory levels?

I will be looking for more WARTENNA kits but last time I ordered the reseller did not have them in stock, they took 5 weeks to arrive. Actually the complete order never arrived. (tooless keystones were missing) I know how difficult it is to keep this up to date. But when I order and pay believing the product is on the shelf, it screws my business.

Thanks,

Joe

[tkerns]

Are all the WAR1's shipped to resellers? Where is BuyWispGear? They are not answering their phone, I'm waiting on an order, I have e-mailed for new status, last status was nearly a week ago and was a general reply about getting War's shipped.

[go.fast]

I wouldn't mind if buy wisp gear called me so I could order some war1's and war2's myself. I can't find their number easily on their site.

you guys can pm me and leave your number there.

George

[Mark]

Are all the WAR1's shipped to resellers? Where is BuyWispGear? They are not answering their phone, I'm waiting on an order, I have e-mailed for new status, last status was nearly a week ago and was a general reply about getting War's shipped.


I have the same problem.

They've had my money for well past a month, and although my order status says "shipped" a week ago, I still don't have anything, and nobody will answer phones, email, etc.

[mickeym]

Two e-mail requests for tracking over the past week - no replies.

[tkerns]

Lonnie,

Time for you to step in here.... what is the status of BuyWispGear? Do they have inventory? Seems we have at least 3 of us unable to get product, or get answers.

Tim

[Mark]

Inet2000 (who seems to be part of buywispgear.com) hasn't posted on the forums for a week.

There's a note on their website that they're having to deal with a leaky roof due to snow melting.

Last week the note said they were gone thurs and fri.

If nobody had gotten their stuff, then I'd think we'd have heard about it. I'm guessing that those with shipping delays are simply not able to get any contact lately.

[bobbyc]

I got my 5 war1's this morning from them. Shipped from their canada office.

I know it's not their fault, but one of the circuits fell off the solder on one of them when I took the war1 out of its static bag. C167 on the back side near the corner with the eth.
Bob C

[Beebe]

I received my first order of WAR1 boards yesterday from buywispgear.com - 5 of them. I have 10 more on order that have yet to be shipped. I think he's just having a hard time keeping up with the volume.

Thanks,
Roger

[luke541]

Lonnie,

Time for you to step in here.... what is the status of BuyWispGear? Do they have inventory? Seems we have at least 3 of us unable to get product, or get answers.

Tim


Make that 4 people who can't get a respone. I ordered 2 WAR2's and recieved them but they appeared to be used. Though my situation is being dealt with, "not by buywispgear" I still have not gotten one respone in going on two weeks. I did order 2 more WAR 2's and they did come promptly though.......

[kbldawg]

I think we're all fealing the pain...

We received some parts yesterday from buywispgear.com so, they are still shipping items. I don't think Todd has abandoned ship yet, he's probably struggling to keep up with the demand.

Lonnie, when do you think all will return to normal? It's getting pretty rough out here.

[go.fast]

Note, I wasn't complaining. I figured I'd wait for the war1 rush to get past and order them later.

I'm just looking for the best price :)

Anyone can give me the best price :)

[lonnie]

I cannot provide too many details but I think you guys are seeing what happens when a Reseller prices themselves too low.

The primary reason you purchased from buywispgear was price. As a result of their insanely low price I believe that they attracted too many orders, which we could not fill because we had prior orders from the other Resellers.

We are doing what we can, but the next order will only ship to us by the end of next week. Then we have to program and ship to Resellers. It will be the middle of April before Reseller will start shipping.

[go.fast]

A good way to look at it is their low price is very popular. I bet it only gets even more popular as the price gets lower.

I'll be in the market for a couple hundred over the comming months.

I'll patiently wait for product to catch up.

[kbldawg]

I cannot provide too many details but I think you guys are seeing what happens when a Reseller prices themselves too low.

The primary reason you purchased from buywispgear was price. As a result of their insanely low price I believe that they attracted too many orders, which we could not fill because we had prior orders from the other Resellers.

We are doing what we can, but the next order will only ship to us by the end of next week. Then we have to program and ship to Resellers. It will be the middle of April before Reseller will start shipping.

I can honestly say, that's not why we choose buywispgear.com. Three things that set buywispgear apart from your other resellers.


Location. Shipping across the border is out of control
Presence. Todd was very active in the forums and made a big effort to get his company name out there. That was/is a plus in my book. It showed that he was proactive and on a mission to sale gear.
Web Front. His website was familiar and easy to order from and he carried more parts than the others. Although it was rough from the start, he quickly made improvements and added merchandise.As a matter of fact, my ordering people told me we were paying about $6 more per unit going with BWG. Perhaps, they were wrong, but regardless that information is what I based my decision on. So, price was not a factor for us.

I have some great things to say about BWG, they have done some good things for us (thanks for that), and I honestly believe they are doing their best with a tough situation. However, there's always room for improvement and I need to know what's going on - as it's going on. Further, I need to know strait up, do you have stock or not, will it ship or not, if so...when will it be here. These are basic courtesies of doing business.

I would suggest, to all your resellers, to get an interactive delivery system in place so that we, as your customer, can track our orders, and make the necessary decisions we need to make. If I need to adjust my installers schedule due to lack of parts, I need to know that as soon as possible. That alone would help us out, and keep us out of your inbox and/or voice mail.

I have lost (just going by the seat of my pants here) probably 15-20 customers within the past 2 months due to waiting on parts. I am a pretty understanding guy, more than those 20 customers were. I try to give everyone the benefit of doubt, but loosing customers is something I can not grow used to doing.

Just some free information out their from my perspective, so take it for what it's worth.

[sligbot]

Just to let people know, we're in the process of re-doing our site in order to accomodate a lot of things that have been mentioned on the forums, including some key financing options. We didn't expect near the demand as there was when the "reseller approach" was adapted and thus struggled for the first bit to find our niche but there will be some very interesting updates on our site in about a week or so, so stay tuned. Keeping up with demand can be problematic unless you've got a business model tuned for the demand.
--Rich

[lonnie]

Chad, I was not saying anything bad about Todd. He is doing a great job, BUT, he advertised prices so low that the volume went WAY higher than we had stock for. Even for the coming order we are forced to allocate to each Reseller. I will have another order arrive in late April that will go a long ways to fixing the stock issue, but until then consider yourself lucky if you get some. They are in short supply and HEAVY demand.

[amp]

This is a little frustrating. Ive ordered some for evaluation, probably not going to get any till May. Once communication lines open up maybe i can cancel. Looking at each sellers pricing i would of bought the same quantity at whatever price. The deal is they are cheaper then war2s and under 100. That equals more sales, and may even put people in stock up mode.

Now to some extent some of the situations that have happened lies on valemount's back. Since they are certified star-os resellers who are new to the game, and some regulation needs to take place, like training a puppy. Now if a real seller like the old dogs who have sold wrap boards in the past and could ship 25 at a moments notice, and had the ability to run out too, and a sales staff. I think it would of eased up pressure.

A 1000 run of boards is an evaluation run basically. That means once everyone buys some maybe they should be sold in quantities above 10. That seems to make since. Or at least the website should be able to "run out".

I did not like the idea of slowing down war2 production cause now we all got to run the war2s out of stock again and they have gone up in price. And the higher they go up the more i must go with war1's for clients.

So the conclusion is.............. eh?

[lonnie]

Of course the out of stock issue lies on our back. In our defence we simply could not place an order larger than 1,000 until the product was proven. Now that we see the demand we have much larger orders in place and the out of stock issue will be dealt with in 5 to 10 days when the order arrives.

And it would not matter if the Resellers were new puppies or old dogs who used to sell WRAP boards. No stock is no stock. Also, I have to remind you that out of stock was always an issue with WRAP boards. It happens and there is not much that can be done in a world market where all sorts of things can happen to the supply chain.

[gunther_01]

And it would not matter if the Resellers were new puppies or old dogs who used to sell WRAP boards. No stock is no stock. Also, I have to remind you that out of stock was always an issue with WRAP boards. It happens and there is not much that can be done in a world market where all sorts of things can happen to the supply chain.

This of course is why it is difficult to rely on only one supplier (VNC) of a particular item. This was discussed in length by others. In the case of the WRAP board it was a simple I will buy them from sombody else. The WAR1 makes that all but impossible at the moment. So we all have to wait. In my own little world I saw this coming and didn't even jump in line to preorder. My business is not forgiving to lost customers being as small as we are.

I am rather content using what I have been using until the supply chain problems are addressed and stock catches up months from now.

[tony]

You have to remember, the WRAP has a single source of supplier (PC Engines), as do any other piece of hardware. Once the larger volume orders are circulated, this will no longer be a problem as one, or all the resellers should have stock at any given point in time.

[tkerns]

You have to remember, the WRAP has a single source of supplier (PC Engines), as do any other piece of hardware. Once the larger volume orders are circulated, this will no longer be a problem as one, or all the resellers should have stock at any given point in time.

and just like the WAR is single source to Gateworks, the Metro and the WAR1 are single source. The big difference was the WRAP did not have to be purchased ONLY from VNC. I never had a situation where I couldn't obtain a WRAP in 1-2 days.

I believe there will be shortages as long as VNC continues their present business model where every board must come through VNC first. This puts total pressure on VNC to predict and fund purchases to cover periods between production runs from their suppliers. Because each board is a build to spec. from VNC, the price will vary according to quantity purchased, and delivery times will vary. Now you also have to add the shipping to and from VNC which we all know is way out of line compared to other locations.

Add to this VNC's decision to stop purchasing the WAR's from Gateworks before they had a proven replacement, lower quantity purchase of the WAR-2's, and the selection of the Metro that is nearly 50% higher cost.

Now I have to go back to using CPE's (CB3's) that I was trying to get away from because I can't get product when needed. I will be using the 4 radio board directly from Gateworks for my AP's and backhauls because I can get them when needed. My business does not run when it takes 2 months to receive product.

[tony]

You seem to be ignoring the fact that the WRAP, and even CB3s are from a single source, and you are only purchasing them from resellers. The WAR-1 is no different. Once the stock levels have increased, and all the resellers have an abundance of stock, things should settle down.

Like any new product, there will be a short supply on initial introduction due to demand, but once the initial rush is over, and resellers are able to restock, there will be more than enough to go around.

[lonnie]

I'm glad you did not get into the pre-order phase, especially since you could see it was going to be so successful that stock would be hard to get. This is an awesome little board and I predict that demand will typically be ahead of our ability to keep it in stock. Do you pity the poor guys who will get some of the first batch, or any batch actually? I bet they feel LUCKY.

As for the BS argument that a single source is bad, well your list of hardware is pretty small if you insist on multiple manufacturing sources. I see your choices as being PC motherboards, Ubicom based boards and Realtek based boards. The 4 port IXP based units are available from multiple sources, but are not identical and thus not interchangable.

Your post is quite insulting, really, so now that you have gotten my attention, have a really nice day. OK? Eh?

This of course is why it is difficult to rely on only one supplier (VNC) of a particular item. This was discussed in length by others. In the case of the WRAP board it was a simple I will buy them from sombody else. The WAR1 makes that all but impossible at the moment. So we all have to wait. In my own little world I saw this coming and didn't even jump in line to preorder. My business is not forgiving to lost customers being as small as we are.

I am rather content using what I have been using until the supply chain problems are addressed and stock catches up months from now.

[tony]

Thank you Lonnie.

As a note to those of you willing (or wanting too, for lack of anything constructive to do) push this topic onward in a negative way, we will be forced to lock the thread.

Please keep it clean.

[go.fast]

I'd like to point out that wrap boards can still be bought and licensed with V3.

Also I recieved an email from a reseller a couple weeks ago saying that Moto was in short supply and can remember Trango being out of staock not that long ago. We all know this can happen from time to time.

This was the initial realease of the War1 client. It should have been expected that they would disapear as soon as they hit the shelves.

I doubt the next order is sold out. If it is sold out maybe the resellers ought to rethink the large qty orders over the small orders and think about "is it better to satisfy a lot of customers or just a few.?" It's a consideration that needs to be taken seriously by anyone expecting to survive in this game. Loyalty is everything, we wisps expect it from our suppliers.

Also, Lonnie, hopefully you guys have calculated the replacement units in. I'm sure there are a lot of wisps that have older cheapo bridges that are getting ready to retire/ I know if the war1 performs as advertized, then I'll replace about 400 units over the next year or so.

And after the clients get rolling, I''ll be doing a special speed pricing campaign and hope have organic growth of 50% over the next 12 months.

So you guys have to make sure that the future is ramped up as well. It's not just new units, it's replacement units that will eat up the supply line.

[tog]

Valemount isn't purchasing boards from Gateworks any longer?

We now have a suitable cheapie CPE, but I still have places in my network for the WAR-2 and WAR-4. As well as a place for the special heavy metal version of the WAR-4.

[kbldawg]

Just to let people know, we're in the process of re-doing our site in order to accomodate a lot of things that have been mentioned on the forums, including some key financing options. We didn't expect near the demand as there was when the "reseller approach" was adapted and thus struggled for the first bit to find our niche but there will be some very interesting updates on our site in about a week or so, so stay tuned. Keeping up with demand can be problematic unless you've got a business model tuned for the demand.
--Rich


Perspective from a consumer...

One problem we face when we get ready to order is having to go to two, three, or more distributors to get everything we need to do installs.

For someone looking for a niche, I would suggest stocking up on everything it takes to do an install.


VNC Product Line
Roof mounts
Tripods
LMR Jumpers
Mastic Tape
Cat5 cable (flooded)
Enclosures (think SR9)
Bigger selection of antennasI know all this takes time and several if not all will probably eventually get there, but a one stop shop would be nice.

I know you guys can't compete with prodcuts VNC carries, but there are a lot of products they don't carry, that we all use daily.
:)

[amp]

Yeah, i prefer my main point to be, buywispgear could of been completely out for weeks now, and i still cannot tell if they are since they are still being sold. So think what a non forumateer going there and buying 25 causing things to stack up even more. Just stuff like that. And the only way to get over the argument of 1 supplier is if there was a cpe priced star-os novelty version for another low cost board not run through vnc. Be nice when pc-engines gets another board out. In any event the current path could be worse. Everyone knew there would be 1000 available, tbh i only ordered cause of an email saying order now cause introductory prices are over soon etc, which did sound like there where enough still and buy now etc. But things should be smooth sailing in a few months.

[gunther_01]

Your post is quite insulting, really, so now that you have gotten my attention, have a really nice day. OK? Eh?

My post was not ment to be insulting, only an opinion. And I am not the only one who thinks that way. I am in no way saying that the WAR1 is not worthy or is a POS board, nor is the software (which I like). My negativity is justified even if you don't feel that it is. Once again an opinion.

There was a lot of hype about this board with a lot of people's money wraped up in it. Mine was not. For the outcome was easily predicable. I like many have waited for this CPE for a long time. Everybody understands the time it takes to do what you do, and the frustrastions that come with it. Please don't think I don't appreciate it, but I will voice my opinion.

[tony]

Yes, we are still purchasing, and offering Gateworks hardware in the form of the WAR-2.

The METRO is our replacement for the WAR-4, and will continue to offer WAR-4, and do-it-yourself releases for the Gateworks platform.

Valemount isn't purchasing boards from Gateworks any longer?

We now have a suitable cheapie CPE, but I still have places in my network for the WAR-2 and WAR-4. As well as a place for the special heavy metal version of the WAR-4.

[Mark]

I seem to recall the WAR1 firmware was going to be available ot install on your own WAR1 boards (which are not hard to get).

The question is, is that firmware available, and what will the price be? Presumably it will cost a bit more to get the boards and license separately, but it would help some bigger users get past the VNC / reseller bottleneck.

[lonnie]

go.fast, it has nothing to do with us. Right now we are pumping all available cash into this WAR1 product. I am buying a LARGE quantity, way larger than we have ever bought. Is it my fault or my bad if that is not enough? We are doing what we can. If I raised prices then we could double the orders at every step, but then we have the issue of howls from you guys.

The best advice I can give is simple really, get your paid orders in so you are assured of getting something from the next order.

[lonnie]

The software will be available for those who have the ability to jtag it to the WAR1. You can buy a V3 license from the website.

Be careful and make sure they have the extra parts that we get stuffed, since we rely on those parts for proper operation. And NO, I will not provide a list of those parts we depend on. I leave that exercise to the dudes who wanna be just like us. They can do their own R&D.

I seem to recall the WAR1 firmware was going to be available ot install on your own WAR1 boards (which are not hard to get).

The question is, is that firmware available, and what will the price be? Presumably it will cost a bit more to get the boards and license separately, but it would help some bigger users get past the VNC / reseller bottleneck.

[tog]

Ok, I got it.

What we can order and expect to become available through Valemount and resellers is the compex-based WAR-1, the Gateworks-based WAR-2, and the pronghorn metro-based WAR-4.

It's a fine lineup.

[Mark]

The software will be available for those who have the ability to jtag it to the WAR1. You can buy a V3 license from the website.

Be careful and make sure they have the extra parts that we get stuffed, since we rely on those parts for proper operation. And NO, I will not provide a list of those parts we depend on. I leave that exercise to the dudes who wanna be just like us. They can do their own R&D.

The other day, I got a check from a client who'd had some difficulties. It was for 5 months worth of service. Yup, 5 months behind. But I operate under the principle that the customer is by far my best asset. Not the network, not the 'net connection, not the efficiency of my billing machine.

I also turned someone down for service a while back, discouraged them, as a better for them and cheaper alternative existed. They sent me a good customer later.

Why do I go out of my way to be good to people? Even the ones who seem flaky or if it seems to cost me? Because that's how I'd like to be treated.

Even when it would make you more money and easier, you won't do it. You COULD up your cash flow without a cent's investment, and have helped people get through the reseller's tough times and helped both them and yourself avoid frustration. But you won't.

I am baffled.

[lonnie]

I agree, it is a fine lineup and represents the best we can find for a particular product type. This line will change and adapt as time goes and we will be improving things. That is what we do.

My feeling is that as a customer you should be looking at the end result and not the details in between. It is our job to look after the middle details to make sure the end result is what people expect. This gives us flexibility to change the board manufacturer, etc as we find better products.

Ok, I got it.

What we can order and expect to become available through Valemount and resellers is the compex-based WAR-1, the Gateworks-based WAR-2, and the pronghorn metro-based WAR-4.

It's a fine lineup.

[lonnie]

Mark, this is a tough one. It does not seem to matter what we have, you always want to build it yourself from parts that you buy from anyone but us. You say without a cents investment, so does that mean you place ZERO value on our time?

As I have said, more than once, we do NOT use the general products that you can easily buy. We have a few key things changed to meet our needs and my product is an improvement over the normal product. I am quite sure that you will soon be able to buy the general product with my enhancements, but certainly not before I get delivery. In simple terms, that means that when I was awaiting my order there is no way that anyone else would have had stock. It was being built for me.

You seem fixated with this concept that we will always keep in mind that people want to develop their own system and that we will make it somehow easy for them to build our product from bits and pieces they find elsewhere. That is R&D and it is what goes on to make our products. You seem to want to skip that step or have us do it for you. Sorry, but we have the resources to be the R&D section for ourselves. You will either have to do your own R&D or accept what we develop. I cannot do R&D for someone else, unless of course they agree to a large quantity and are willing to pay us what it is worth. We have done this in the past and it has resulted in some good products and the cash has helped us advance our products to what they are today.

We are open, but we are also focused on what we need and the majority of our customers need.

The other day, I got a check from a client who'd had some difficulties. It was for 5 months worth of service. Yup, 5 months behind. But I operate under the principle that the customer is by far my best asset. Not the network, not the 'net connection, not the efficiency of my billing machine.

I also turned someone down for service a while back, discouraged them, as a better for them and cheaper alternative existed. They sent me a good customer later.

Why do I go out of my way to be good to people? Even the ones who seem flaky or if it seems to cost me? Because that's how I'd like to be treated.

Even when it would make you more money and easier, you won't do it. You COULD up your cash flow without a cent's investment, and have helped people get through the reseller's tough times and helped both them and yourself avoid frustration. But you won't.

I am baffled.

[lonnie]

I've had some private emails taking me to task for not ensuring people can easily buy their own boards and use our software, such as for the Gateworks and the Compex.

Sorry for the length of this post, but I do have to explain marketing and R&D 101 to some guys. This is the Forum for it so that I do not have to keep answering to the same charges.

When we decide to create a new product we sit down (my people and I) and discuss the functions we want it to do. We also review customer requests. Then I go searching through the Internet and my contacts for the core product we will base it on. If we had more resources we would simply have it designed from scratch, but that is another story. Once I find some products and go over the specs and pricing with the manufacturer then I typically order 10 units for evaluation and if the product is chosen we have our development gear. No more waiting. This gets expensive when I have no real idea about the suitability of the various products, but I am getting better at determining that, with the end result that we do not waste much. If I buy 10 they become the first 10 test units while we await the first prototype run.

Quite often in the course of our evaluation and development we discover some flaws or shortcomings and we propose changes and enhancements to the manufacturer. This then requries another prototype phase so we can check the viability of the changes. We always put the new gear into critical sections of own network once we determine the hardware is stable. This allows us to do some real world stress testing.

At some point in time we decide the hardware is suitable and I then negotiate a price and delivery for 1,000 pieces which acts as our product launch and market evaluation. Most of the people we deal with expect at least 1,000 for such an order or they do not take you seriously.

As we show the product off to people we start to get a feeling for the acceptance and we then place follow on orders with increased quantities.

So far everything here is basic product development and we are not doing anything that any other company is not also doing, except we do not have Millions of $$ to play with.

Once our product is "out there" and people decide they like it, you would expect them to thank you and begin to place orders. This is where things start to go differently than what many others experience. I'll describe the WRAP Board experience since it is the problem that really hit us hard.

My first order for WRAP boards was 70% of the total order, or in other words I ordered twice as many as ALL other customers combined. We promoted the product and people responded and bought the initial order real quick. Given the HUGE success I ordered WAY more and even gave a second order for the following production run. That is what an ordinary situation would call for. Here is where it gets screwed up, though. The next production run was over sold and things went into back order. When the product shipped I received less than 15% of my order so of course I was out of stock. Normally this would simply mean that there was a delay and we eventually get them and be able to fill our customers back orders. Sounds simple, right?

It is simple until you factor in that we offered our software for anybody to put on their own WRAP board, so as Mark and others have pointed out, software license fees started to make us money. WooHoo you say, and so did I. A month or so thereafter we were notified that the rest of our WRAP boards were ready to ship. GREAT. Things were right in the world and we were on our way. The boards showed up but surprisingly few people were calling to buy them. Software License sales were still going strong so I was not too worried. Then I was notified that the order from the following production run was ready and that we had to send another huge amount of cash to stay in good standing and take our boards. I managed to scrape the cash together and we received the boards. Curiously the hardware sales were very slow and software sales were good. Some of the current names in the Industry were among those selling WRAP boards bought from PC Engines directly and using our software.

So where did we get hurt you ask? Well for one, we had all our cash tied up in the WRAP boards and they were not selling (by us at least). It turns out when I was out of stock and the others had stock, the customer base moved to the guys with stock. No surprise, and people tend to keep buying from the same source since they like to feel comfortable and they develop a relationship.

We did not have the resources to develop a cheap client that was being called for, in fact demanded by the market. So, some of the "other guys" who were selling WRAP boards and StarOS went looking and they discovered CB3 and Realtek based units.

This is how we got hurt. I was sitting on a veritable mountain of WRAP boards and CM9 radios but I had no customers, yet I knew others were selling WRAP boards and CM9 radios because I was selling licenses AND I was doing support for the guys who were buying from the "others".

My efforts had created a ready market for the WRAP board and my orders created a high volume, thus dropping the price for everybody. My software created a product with ZERO R&D for the "other guys" and they could compete with me based on my efforts and my purchasing power. It took almost a year for me to sell out from under the WRAP baords and I vowed that would NOT happen again. This was when we made the switch to the WAR board, which was superior, but a bit more money.

The "other guys" had by this time built a substantial customer base and given the credibility my software gave them they had a loyal following. That loyal following also took their "advice" and began to use the CPE products based on the CB3 and the Realtek boards. Any troubles with connecting to them did not result in the "other guys" having to fix the CB3 and Realtek units, that job was pushed off to us. Lovely.

So, had we NOT offered the WRAP software but instead insisted on selling the boards that we licensed we would have continued to sell LOTS of WRAP boards and CM9 radios, rather than watching from the sidelines. We would have had the financial resources to develop a CPE product and we would have been to market with it several years earlier, rather than just getting out from under a mountain of stock.

When we allow our R&D to be used by other people we jeopardize our own ability to sell the boards that we have commited to. If I buy boards and cannot sell them due to a bad product it is something we can fix and we satisfy the market. When we cannot sell the boards but the hardware and software are GREAT we have very little we can do and our cash is tied up. It hurts us financially and spiritually.

Thus, I reject all arguments that we should sell software to the guys who wish to pretend that they are developing their own product. They are using our R&D to compete against us. They are using our buying power to reduce their own costs. They really, really have to do their own R&D or they have to start selling the products that we develop. We cannot keep going through these development cycles and watching others profit while we struggle.

Our products are good. They are successful. It is time for that to be translated to our own success.

End of story. This was not meant to be a discussion piece. It is presented to let you guys know where we stand and why we reject certain arguments and why we do certain things or rather don't do certain things.