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[southacresdave]

Kozuh...SCKT news... CBORD is a subsidiary of Roper Industries (a $10B Fortune 500 company). The Roper CEO in the last conference call said that division was doing record revenue. What they have done with the Socket Somo is further demo it and approve it for pretty much all their software product. The fact they expanded the use of it means, imo, they like it as a choice for customers. The PDA fits the same criteria as the Hp iPaq used to.....namely it's cheaper than the "real" rugged PDAs out there at $1000+, but it's more rugged than a flimsy iPod Touch/smartphone. There is a niche here and Socket fits it (especially in healthcare, long-term care facilities, food service).

It's just one more partner that they are adding in. The new Somo 655 should help build them. The plus to their business plan is it's partner based---the more Roper uses their Somo unit, the more the company makes with almost no increase in overhead. It's how they can go from $4M in revenue to $8M in revenue on only a couple hundred thousand in expenses.

It's just taking frickin' FOREVER for them to get it all going. One thing people forget here---their largest customer, Alere with their Epoc Blood Gas analyzer, hasn't been ordering from them this year. It's taken time for the product to break into hospitals (the Alere CEO on the last conference call was much more optimistic). They should be back ordering from Socket in the 1rst Q. What it means is if SCKT can get to 1 cent/share net income profit in 4th Q (which they have a great shot at or better), then when the Alere contract kicks back in (at $500K+/qtr), all that money will hit the bottom line. Socket can go from being "break even" to 5-7 cents/qtr profitable in a qtr (and that assumes no other growth). With additional growth, it's easy money for them. It's why management put up their own money recently rather than sell shares to a vulture fund---they are major shareholders themselves (and underwater too!) and weren't giving away the company when they are so close.

The big impact imo on the short-term: Watch the video on the main page of Lightspeed: http://www.lightspeedretail.com/ It is the first product out there that does cross selling (namely, you buy a dress and the sales rep shows you it in diff colors and matching accessories). It's being used at Nordstrom's Treasure and Bond store in NY. Tell me that wouldn't appeal to every high end retailer in the world. It's why Accel Partners (lead investor in Groupon, Facebook, Rovio.....) bought into them. They are going after national chains with their iPad product. That product is tied directly with the Socket 7ci scanner. It will take time, but this will be huge for the company. (Shopkeep, another iPad POS company changed from Motorola scanners to Socket right after Lightspeed went with them).

Socket's management gets a bad rap. Deservedly so, but they have had the foresight to build some incredible products. They just need to find the right partners to go forward with.

On a slightly diff subject: On the last CC Call, management stated they have determined that there are 1M+ Hp iPaq 210/211 units out there currently (the Somo is a perfect replacement for them and is actually recommended by HP). A lot of those companies will change technology, but for some of them, a semi-rugged PDA that runs their current software is the logical choice (ex. hospital that uses the units for inventory, patient scanning, medicine record keeping). Apple is exciting until the battery dies in the middle of a shift and then you are screwed since you can't replace it. There is a niche here and, like CBORD has found, a PDA like Somo fits it nicely.