Echoo: Midagi huvitavat
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Reuters:
Swedish startup Echoo plans to raise tens of millions of dollars in an initial public offering next year to launch a palmtop Internet device across Europe set to undercut more pricey rival products made by Palm and Nokia. Echoo has burned about $5.0 million in venture capital since its creation in 1999 but aims for annual sales of $200 million within 36 months, its chief executive Ola Bartholdson told. Echoo's Netboard palmtop computer is due to launch in Sweden next month and later in Britain, France and Germany, where it will challenge Internet-able mobile phones such as Nokia's Communicator and Ericsson's planned R520. Bartholdson said he expected the European market for such data "communicators" - personal digital assistants (PDAs) used for wireless Internet access - to explode from about one million units now to 30 million by 2003. Palm, Echoo's most direct competitor, has already launched a similar data-only terminal, the Palm VII, but that only works in the United States for the moment. Echoo hopes to corner the as-yet-untapped European market, capitalising on the low cost of its product, which like many subsidised mobile phones is sold with a two-year subscription. Its basic Netboard will retail for about 316 Swedish crowns ($33) before sales tax with a two-year subscription of 79 crowns ($8.30) before tax per month, compared to $399 for a Web-enabled Palm VIIx or more than $500 for a Nokia or Ericsson Internet mobile phone. Echoo said Netboard had received 12,000 advance orders and planned to sell 50,000 to 80,000 units in Sweden this year, with a gross profit margin of 40 percent. Echoo is 25 percent owned and largely funded by a member of Sweden's powerful Wallenberg family.
