George Grey, founder and former managing director of diminishing Cambridge, UK-based Tadpole Technology Inc, is having another stab at setting up a computer business. Grey resigned amicably from Tadpole last year (CI No 2,950) when the Board decided his plans to get the company back to profitability were too risky. After having a long holiday, 36-year-old Grey put his thinking cap back on at the end of last year and created Geofox with the help of his two partners Noel Poore, a former Tadpole employee, and Andy Davis, one of the founders of Spider Systems Ltd. Geofox already has a prototype of its new portable-hand held computer that Grey believes will go down a storm with individuals and corporate businesses. Weighing less than a pound with dimensions of 71/2 by 43/4 by 3/4 of an inch, the machine will be targeted at people who need word processing, spreadsheet, electronic mail and Web browsing access on a mobile basis but are fed up with lugging about heavier and bulkier notebook machines. The computer can be connected to a keyboard and will be sold direct and via the Internet in what Grey describes as a Dell Computer Corp-type channel. The Geofox computer is to use the Advanced RISC Machines Ltd ARM processor and run a major operating system, according to Grey, who isn’t giving too much away at the moment because he is currently in discussion with third party companies. The product has been developed by Grey and his team, and a third party company will manufacture it, and Grey anticipates it will go on sale in the fourth quarter of the year with a price tag of between $840 and $1260, including VAT. He is not worried about competition form the likes of Toshiba Inc and Psion Plc, and says the product is quite different from their machines. Geofox is obviously a big risk for Grey who has put everything he got from Tadpole into setting up the new company, but is confident it will work and says Geofox will be able to learn from the mistakes made by Tadpole, which Grey established 12 years ago. Setting up a company from scratch doesn’t sound like a walk in the park for most of us, but Grey says: It’s been fun starting it again. Grey hasn’t decided what he will do with the company yet and is considering the possibility of floatation in the future, and also commented that Geofox could be a very appealing acquisition possibility for a larger company. Geofox is currently talking to several Original Equipment Manufacturers about the possibility of selling the computer under another name. Whatever happens, he believes Geofox will be making a profit in its first year of turnover and comments: our plans are relatively conservative at the moment.
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