Zero Off / PerfectPass GPS Speed Control Agreement

[NautiqueJeff]

So, what's your reaction to Zero Off's recent agreement with PerfectPass?

[ClemsonDave]

Jeff: I'll post my email response here to open the disucssion

......
Me and buddy were just talking about that. Interesting that Eric with PP said “sold this division of our business”. Do they do anything except speed control? Did they just sell the GPS? Will ZO now have rights to the servo control so they can retro fit other boats?

One theory…
A friend of mine with a ’97 196 just upgraded to SG. This included a new control module that does GPS and controls the servo. If ZO bought that system, then maybe they can adapt PP’s control module to run the ZO GPS software AND control the servo’s on the non TBW boats.

IF ZO cannot make it work with older boats, competitive skiing will suffer. The pull between both systems is significantly different. Those with older boats will have a tough time come tournament day.

dave

[NautiqueJeff]

Hopefully there will be some clarification soon on exactly what part of PP was sold. If ZO can be made to work on older boats, that would be great for everyone. Maybe that is part of their plan in buying part (all?) of PP.

[east tx skier]

While working with Perfect Pass on an issue I've been having with my SG update, I asked about a rumor floated on the MC forum on Friday that SG would be going away. I was told that was not the case at all. Some other things were mentioned that seem to me to form the substance of that email, but which were not specifically mentioned in it. I gave my word that I would not mention anything until PP had made a press release though. Not seeing the details, I can't really say much more.

Suffice it to say that it seems to me from reading that release that Perfect Pass will continue to produce its mechanical servo based systems for wired throttle boats while Zero Off will pursue OEM contracts with boats running throttle by wire. This last part is a guess, but is based on some fairly good info. It makes sense to me that PP would not give up the servo driven system since they have around eight years left on their patent.

[Eggie]

I think the perfect pass press release is a little clearer - check out the link


http://www.perfectpass.com/download/...ss-release.pdf

[wtrskii3156]

“Our new GPSenhanced Star Gazer System has been extremely well received and we will continue to offer it to existing customers with “throttle by wire” applications as well as to new and existing customers with “mechanically throttled” engines.”

so... does this mean they will still be selling the stargazer system? what did perfect pass sell to econtrols??

[east tx skier]

So basically this is a patent swap of sorts. I've been following the lawsuit on PACER and spoke to Gary at Perfect Pass on Friday when I heard rumor that "Zero Off had won the lawsuit." For starters, Econtrols did not win the lawsuit, which involved, among other things, the viability of Perfect Pass's 1997 patent on its servo driven system for mechanical throttle systems. They settled the suit before it even got into discovery.

Here's a recap of what I posted on Nicholls. This is just my personal opinion. As a self-proclaimed hack skier who is only competing against himself, I'm happy as can be that the company that is making and updating my speed control is Perfect Pass if for no other reason that for the outstanding customer service.

So what Perfect Pass has done is OEM contracts by virtue of a patent swap (its DBW patents for econtrols's GPS tech). So they sold a segment of their business as opposed to a division of their company. But they retained the servo driven system (that patent has about 8 years or so left on it).

I was specifically told by Gary last Friday that "Stargazer isn't going away." I know of at least one MC dealer that is dealing with with lacking customer service from Zero Off (he's been waiting six weeks since delivery of his 2008 TT boat to get pieces to make the system work). With Zero Off in all tournaments from 2009 on (that's an extrapolation from it being the OEM option in promo boats), they are going to have to be Johnny on the spot with customer service and have that system run great or be quickly servicable when it doesn't lest the tournament slalom community start to pine for the days of Perfect Pass. The tournament slalom community is a particular bunch of atheletes when it comes to equipment. Speed Control is no exception. Perfect Pass put customer service at the top of its to-do list for a long time and was rewarded with market dominance. Econtrols is not a boutique business and from what I've read on the Nicholls forum and others and appears to have a long way to go to come close to that level of customer service to which we have become accustomed with Perfect Pass.

I think Perfect Pass has done this long enough to know what it is they are giving up in the OEM contracts. It may be lucrative, but it's also probably the most service intensive end of the business if I had to guess. If Zero Off doesn't live up to the standards set by the predecessor, they'll get dropped hard and fast in the long run. Meanwhile, Perfect Pass has eight more years of making speed control for all boats up through 2004 (and those through 2008 which already sport Perfect Pass). Most anything labeled Pro can be updated to SG and with Econtrols's GPS technology, they can probably get the system behaving pretty close to ZO without having to deal with the intensive R&D that comes with having THE tournament system. Plus, if Zero Off doesn't dazzle the tournament set in the years to come, the tournament set still has an alternative, at least for training.

What's the saying, "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it's yours forever." It will be interesting to watch this play out, although I anticipate it will be hard on the tournament community if Zero Off isn't planning to earn this exclusivity past initial updates buying out the competitor's OEM contracts.

As for Wakeboarding, it's a speed over water discipline. GPS is speed over ground. If you wakeboard in a current, a pure GPS system that doesn't have something to account for the current won't work. Wakeboard Pro does that well and can be updated to SG if and when they work something out for current.

None of this is to say that Zero Off isn't a great product as is. I'll get to ski it in June and am looking forward to it. But more than the product is the service that backs it up. Until recently, I didn't ever have an issue with speed control. But when I did, I was fortunate to have a company like Perfect Pass to deal with. Not to bore anyone with the details, but I'm just some guy who's a hack skier and has a ten year old boat. There's nothing like having the President of the company in on a conference call to help me work out my problems with the product. For that reason, I'm pleased to have their product in my boat.