GPS, Golf carts, Wi-Fi and Passports
Here’s a press release with a little more to it than meets the eye. Ordinarily I wouldn’t even make note of it … I’ve talked about GPS and golf carts before … but it ties directly too my next post, so consider this a “setup” Full text here
Gary Player and Government Officials Honor IMG Managed Facility
VANCOUVER, BC — (MARKET WIRE) — June 19, 2006 — GPS Industries Inc. (GPSI) (OTCBB: GPSN), the leading innovator of Wi-Fi enabled GPS systems for golf facilities and residential communities, congratulates Jinji Lake International Golf Club on their successful grand opening. Along with dozens of government officials and dignitaries, legendary golfer Gary Player, who artfully designed the distinctive 27-hole layout in Singapore’s Suzhou Industrial Park, also attended the celebration.
This landmark facility is GPS Industries’ first high-profile signature course in China. The installation includes 200 of the company’s cart-mount and handheld INFOREMER™ GPS units, plus Wi-Fi Internet access that turns the golfing complex into a wireless hot spot …
So why does GPS Dave care about Gary Player getting even richer or that a country suffering from bitter poverty and with one of the most anti-human rights governments on earth wants to spend their money on fancy golf carts?
Several reasons, actually. First, I applaud any American company who actually gets off their butt and sells overseas … especially to China … a country which to many American’s surprise you have to apply in advance to and pay a fee to get a visa in your passport to enter. Of course that could come as a surprise mainly because so few of my fellow Americans don’t even own a passport to put a visa in. I did some searching on how many actually even could go to China and found that even though our balance of trade is horrible … the US ships so little abroad, especially to China that it’s embarrassing … and no one in the US can even figure out who has a passport:
- 25%: “75% of Americans don’t own a passport”
- 22%: “just 22% of Americans own a passport”
- <20%: “less than 20% of all Americans own a passport”
- 15%: “85 percent of Americans do not own a passport”
- 10%: “only 10 percent of US citizens *ever* own a passport”
- <10%: “fewer than 10 percent own a passport”
- 7%: “only seven percent of Americans own a passport”
So home team cheering and good old American jingoism aside, what else is good about selling these gold carts?
Marriage of technology. I’ve been preaching the melding of Wi-Fi and GPS for years. The two technologies do not compete (except in the case of some really dumb companies, more to come) but complement each other greatly. No one, however, is going to listen to a geek in the wilderness … and why should they. Practical examples of the married technology are what are needed. GPS locating and Wi-Fi communicating with the carts will present the technologies to movers and shakers. Men (and a pershingly few women) who have enough savvy to not only stay out of political prison but to make money in China … and (just ask Blackberry), privates don’t sell technology, generals demanding it do.
Ask yourself why an executive should spend the afternoon in the cocoon of his Wi-Fi enabled golf cart and then have to revert to antiquated voice cell phone technology for the drive home? Wide area Wi-Fi is doable and profitable … just needs the “pull” of demand.
So hats off to GPS Industries. And, by the way, do you have a passport?