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2000 Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association Show READ ALL ABOUT IT! PAGE 2 Motorola: Digital Sidecar Sidetracked Until Next Year Motorola told satellite TV executives today it will not be able to deliver its long-awaited digital sidecar unit until the first quarter of next year. Motorola had as recently as this month said it planned to start shipping the product by August. However, numerous technical issues have arisen that have made meeting that goal impossible, said Joe Cornwall, the head of Motorola’s C-band sales. The device was “significantly more difficult to construct than we originally thought,” he said in an interview. The company’s engineers are still trying to figure out how to make the unit interact with the dozens of analog C-band receivers dish owners might be using, and then write software that will enable that interaction, Cornwall said. “We finally have a grip on what we need to do,” he said. Motorola is confident that it can sell between 35,000 and 40,000 of the units next year, Cornwall said. Motorola plans to base the unit on the new version of the 4D-TV digital/analog box it plans to start shipping in September. That box will carry a suggested retail price of $1,299, but likely will sell for approximately $1,000. Motorola has the capacity to build approximately 1,700 of the units per week. “I intend to use that capacity until everyone who wants one has one,” he said. So far, Motorola has sold approximately 100,000 4D-TV boxes, and estimates that there are approximately 300,000 existing C-band users that will want either the digital sidecar or 4D-TV. TURN THE PAGE OTHER ISSUES TO LOOK FOR: Monday, July 19, 2000 Tuesday, July 20, 2000   Please direct questions about this site to general.mail@satbiznews.com q 2000 Satellite Business News Inc. All rights reserved.