As a head marketing honcho at Washington, DC-based Iridium, John Windolph plans to turn his company's upcoming global satellite communications services into a gold mine.
Windolph joined the company in 1992 and has spent the last six years preparing for this September, when Iridium becomes the first satellite operator to offer voice and paging service anywhere on the planet.
A former public relations specialist at Hill & Knowlton, he's the consummate spinmeister. "Who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean?" He asks confidently. "Now, who was the second?"
Windolph is banking that no self-respecting gadget junkie will be able to resist the company's lightweight handsets. For years, business travelers in the developing world have had to lug around the dreaded Inmarsat terminal, a heavy metal albatross. Now they can get the same functionality in a sleek 10-ounce phone. And with the devices priced at US$3,000 a pop, he's betting they'll stick with their Iridium investment when new competitors enter the market.
While Iridium may be the first, rival voice and data service companies such as Globalstar and ICO Global Communications will be ready to rumble by mid-1999. Shrugs Globalstar spokesperson David Benton, "We think the market is larger than just international business travelers." Meanwhile, Ka-band behemoths such as Teledesic will emerge shortly after the new millennium with fixed, multimegabit video and data pipelines. Windolph says Iridium, which maxes out at 2400 baud, will stick to its telephony strengths and let Teledesic woo the cybernauts.
Of course, Windolph isn't taking any chances. "This is crunch time," he says. "I have to drink this supermultivitamin drink every day, and then I have a protein shake. This allows me to work ridiculous hours when I should be sleeping." With competitors slamming power drinks of their own, Windolph's nap time doesn't appear imminent.
This article originally appeared in the May issue of Wired magazine.
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