After results of Belgian GSM data products manufacturer Option International NV reached rock bottom in the first quarter of the current year, chairman and CEO Jan Callewaert is confident that the company has turned the page and says he expects sales to strengthen. In the first six months, the company recorded a net loss of 67.2m Belgian francs ($1.7m) down from a profit of 17m Belgian francs ($444,945) on revenue that fell 44.9% to 221.3m Belgian francs ($5.7m).
Option is now shipping a a snap-on GSM adapter that will allow punters in Hong Kong to place bets through their mobile phones in a $3.5m contract with the Jockey Club (CI No 3,682). The company has also started shipping SoftRadius which connects mobile phones to the serial port of a Handheld or Palm-size PCs and enables access to the internet. Callewaert says he expects this product to take off as the market for software modems is expected to grow from 700,000 this year to 1.4 million in 2000.
