Lo-Q Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 14/5/2012 09:12

Good RNSNON today - everything progressing well at the water parks, with most importantly "encouraging" user numbers and feedback:



"Q-band Water Park Progress

- Lo-Q launches Q-band operations at two water park sites in the US -

- Successful opening weekend performances at both sites, with nine remaining water park launches on track -

Lo-Q plc (AIM: LOQ), the AIM-listed provider of virtual queuing systems for theme parks, water parks and major attractions, is pleased to announce that Q-band - the Company's water park product - has delivered a successful opening performance at the first two US water parks to roll-out the technology this season.

The Q-band product was launched at the two sites over the first weekend of May, on schedule and to precise specifications by Lo-Q's delivery teams. Both roll-outs have attracted encouraging early user numbers - and positive user feedback - over their first weekend of operation.

Q-band is a revolutionary RFID-enabled wristband that is both waterproof and lightweight. Guests renting the Q-band use it to reserve a "virtual" place in line at a park's most popular slides, using kiosks located throughout the park. When their reservation time arrives, guests enter via a separate entrance and scan their band to be validated, allowing them more time to enjoy the park with less time waiting in line.

Over the past six months, Lo-Q has secured strong sales traction for Q-band with three park operators signing agreements to take the Q-band product. Lo-Q's delivery teams are on track to complete the nine remaining Q-band roll-outs, as planned, for the 2012 water park season.

Announcing the launches, Tom Burnet, Chief Executive Officer of Lo-Q plc said:

"I am delighted with the excellent visitor reaction to Q-band at our first two roll-outs of the year. Our teams have done a fantastic job to deliver this new technology quickly, effectively and in time for us and our customers to make the most of the new water park season. This is a really encouraging start to our Q-band operations, and we are now increasingly excited about the next nine roll-outs on the horizon: each of which remains on track to launch in the coming weeks.""

[boros10] 13/5/2012 21:45

Barclays Stockbrokers has written to its customers seeking consent for a change which may have adverse consequences for investors who hold in excess of £85,000 in cash.

In the second half of 2012, Barclays Stockbrokers will cease to offer a broking service. Consenting clients will be transferred to Barclays Bank plc ("the Bank") who will offer the same service as at present.

The big potential problem arises from the change in the way cash balances will be treated. At present, cash balances are held as Client Money in accordance
with the FSA's Client Money rules. This means cash is held with regulated banks completely separated from Barclays Stockbrokers own money and assets. No more than 20% of Client Money can be held with banks within the Barclays Bank Group.

In future, cash balances held in broking accounts will be effectively treated as a deposit with Barclays Bank plc. In the event of Barclays Bank plc becoming insolvent Client cash will no longer be ring-fenced from use leaving Clients fully exposed as non-preferential creditors of the Bank.

I have set up a new thread (BROK) for Barclays Stockbrokers' clients affected by these changes and would also welcome contributions from investors using other brokers.

[spud] 12/5/2012 10:28

Hiring now:



spud

[spud] 09/5/2012 16:18

Nice - Park revenue up 10%.

spud

[supernumerary] 08/5/2012 23:32

Never mind, Mr Disney can answer for you:

[effortless cool] 05/5/2012 16:02

I've been comprehensively outmanoeuvered.

[m.t.glass] 05/5/2012 15:44

dru - I see you edited to change the question at the end.
I wonder which question EC was answering - the visible one or the prior one ;o)

[effortless cool] 05/5/2012 15:03

No. Next question?

[druinsky] 05/5/2012 13:12

High prices hit football away days hard
Those that have been hammered by high petrol prices on leisure spending, include the dedicated football fans who trek up and down the country to watch their teams play away. And the full impact of fuel increases will be highlighted for football fans this bank holiday weekend.
TOP TIPS TO CUT DOWN ON FUEL COSTS
According to the RAC, a change in driving habits could save motorists an average of 8 per cent on fuel bills, which equates to £50 to £100 per year on average.
Read our guide on how to cut your petrol costs.
Fans based in the North West driving down to the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Liverpool will have to pay roughly £80 on fuel alone to travel to London and back, compared to £53 for the same journey in 2009.
David Bizley, RAC technical director, said: 'Motorists are struggling to cope with the impact of high costs on their lives and our research shows that many drivers have or will soon have to give up family commitments due to the rising cost of fuel.


Read more:


Should an investor hold in the light of this news?

[m.t.glass] 05/5/2012 07:21

Still in.

Overnight a further Qless email was forwarded:


"Sorry to hear about your decision. I don't believe the customer list should be the deciding factor. Whether or not the system meets or exceeds the potential needs of the customer should be the decision point. This is why I suggested the demo so you could see first hand the power of our solution and the key differentiators between us and the other firm you mentioned. They are very different and you should take the time to see for yourself. Our customers include Vodafone, British Telefonica, the State of Kansas, O2 and many others. The important thing to remember there is that our solution provides an upgrade to whatever they were receiving from any of our competitors.

Regards"

(copy added to earlier post)

[effortless cool] 04/5/2012 22:13

MTG - you in this now, or just watching?

[supernumerary] 04/5/2012 16:49

markt - if the information in the abstract is insufficient, why don't you follow the links I gave and read the full patents? Loq has solid patent protection - why not just search for it on the publicly available databases rather than wasting time hypothesising on here based on incorrect or missing information?

MTG - there is more information on their blog: They claimed a million customers (people queuing, not buying qless systems!) in February 2011 and they've been going for a few years, so they seem real enough, or of course complete liars, but I discount the latter explanation.

[spud] 04/5/2012 16:30

See 9291 for your answer..

spud

[shanklin] 04/5/2012 15:25

Is it Q-Less or Clue-Less?

[strollingmolby] 04/5/2012 14:35

Anyone else sense that Q-Less has no clients?

[m.t.glass] 04/5/2012 14:22

My own email to Qless (post 9294) got bounced - so I asked a longtime business friend of mine (director of a company designing and carrying out groundworks and landscaping at festival sites) - noting that the Qless website named no recognizable customers and asking if they could list a few of the bigger ones. Here is the email exchange:


------------------

Hello,

I would be happy to reply with a list of our valued customers but first could you please provide me with some additional information about you and your company? Are you interested in using QLess for your business?

Thank you for your interest in QLess.

Regards,
John Brock
Global Leader, Sales
QLess
----------------------------------------

My companies - Cassius Design, and Cassius Construction - are
occasionally involved in landscaping work on festival sites in
Britain, France, Holland and Germany. We like to point out to our
clients that space normally allowed for queueing can be put to more
profitable uses. At present we are weighing whether to recommend
Q-Less or Lo-Q to our clients. We would not ourselves be a direct
customer. Lo-Q have shown no hesitation in detailing who their major
customers are - they feature on their company website, and we have
spoken with some of them.

Regards,

-----------------------------------------
Hello ###,

I am not trying to be difficult or evasive, but we do have a strong list of valued customers that I can share. Having said that, there is certainly more than a list of customers that can determine who is the best at solving queue management issues. I am not sure on what you would base your recommendation but QLess can out perform our competitors as we provide several desireable features that our competition does not. I would be delighted to provide you with a demonstration of our service capabilities. QLess is an Internet based solution coupled with cell phone technology so the individual, or group, does not have to stand in a line and wait. They are given the freedom to spend that time how they would like, all the time receiving text or voice messages stating their updated wait time and summoned when to return.

We understand the need to list customers and will provide references. We also like to protect the privacy of our customers. In addition, we would like to work with you to help determine the specific type of queuing solution for your customers as not all are the same. As you would like to learn more about QLess, we would also like to learn more about the firms you represent. We work very closely with several partners globally and are always looking to add to our valuable list of partners.

I look forward to continuing our discussion.

Regards

--------------------------------------
Hello John.
I am disappointed at your lack of openness, which creates a somewhat
negative impression in strong contrast with the other company's
helpfulness. For the timebeing I have decided to work with Lo-Q for
our 2012/13 projects and to advise clients accordingly.

Regards,
## #####
-------------------------------

Sorry to hear about your decision. I don't believe the customer list should be the deciding factor. Whether or not the system meets or exceeds the potential needs of the customer should be the decision point. This is why I suggested the demo so you could see first hand the power of our solution and the key differentiators between us and the other firm you mentioned. They are very different and you should take the time to see for yourself. Our customers include Vodafone, British Telefonica, the State of Kansas, O2 and many others. The important thing to remember there is that our solution provides an upgrade to whatever they were receiving from any of our competitors.

Regards
---------------------------------------------------------------------

[markt] 04/5/2012 14:19

supernumerary 4 May'12 - 13:08 - 9299 of 9300

imho the info given in your patent abstract (which is not enough info to really form a view)....does not indicate anything that is patentable imo.

has to include something that is an invention, that is not obvious to someone skilled and experienced in the sector.
Queue systems in say a post office or supermarkets issue paper tickets and then visually display who is next in the queue......to take that system and operate it with mobile phones is not an invention imho, just an application of existing technology which happens all the time and can not (and must not) be patent protected since it would stop normal new products being developed/released. and using mobile phones for sending sms for queue status to a customer is completely obvious imo, not an invention at all.

Mobile phones offer many apps....many doing useful things.....because a m.ph. use is new or useful does not infer that it can be patented.

The LOQ patent or pat. applic. could be great ...or not defendable.....not enough info in the abstract/summary.

(I doubt that queuing via mobile phones as a subject could be patented, since it is obvious to someone skilled and experienced in the sector (eg. Qless).....but some part of LOQ process could be innovative and patentable.....but I struggle to think of how). If some part of LOQ process has solid patent protection....then there is normally always a solution, normally there are other ways to do things to avoid infringing a patent. LOQ can not patent the whole sector of electronic queuing !. (I've written a few patent applications....tricky to try to protect an innovative idea when you would like to protect the whole 'thing' when can in fact only protect the invented part, and requires that no one in the world has ever invented it before....can't protect just 'good design').

[rivaldo] 04/5/2012 13:53

It's here at around 2 hrs 40 mins - interesting that it's re queueing at a mobile phone shop:



I certainly remember TB's confidence that Q-Less were very small and that LOQ's patents were basically unbeatable.

[supernumerary] 04/5/2012 13:08

For those who are interested in that sort of thing, these are the two QLess patent applications I can find (I can't see anything granted). I don't think they've got much chance with either of them, but we shall see.


June 5, 2008
WIRELESS REMOTE QUEUING SYSTEM AND METHOD
Abstract
The disclosure describes methods and systems of allowing people to virtually queue in a line via text messaging or mobile phone calls. The person wishing to get in the line sends a text message or cell phone call to a queuing system. Alternatively, the person can register via a computer network connection. The queuing system then sends a text message back to that person when it is nearly time for them to receive the benefit of being at the front of the line.


December 15, 2011
ELECTRONIC QUEUING SYSTEMS AND METHODS
Abstract
The present disclosure describes methods and systems of allowing entities to create virtual queues that correspond to actual queue in an electronic queue-managing system, and allowing individuals to join the virtual queues using electronic devices (e.g., cell phone technology, wireless network communication technology). The queue-managing system updates the virtual queues based on information from an entity. The queue-managing system also sends messages and notifications of updated status of the virtual queues to the user periodically, automatically or in response to the user's request.

[fft] 04/5/2012 09:59

Looking at the Q-Less website, they do seem to be more aimed at areas that LOQ are not currently in and have certain functionality that could be useful to LOQ.

[spud] 04/5/2012 09:40

Interesting - thanks.

spud

Edit - Does anyone have the link?

[fugwit] 04/5/2012 09:24

By coincidence Q-less were on the today show this morning, sometime in last 20 mins if anyone wanted to listen again.

[father ted] 03/5/2012 18:38

I knew a guy that had a patent, he was only a small company and most of his competitors infringed his patent, some were bigger players than him, most were smaller.

Some he had sued, others he had not.

I asked him why he didn't go after all of them and his logic was quite sensible to me.

1 - Only fight 1 battle at one time and only if it doesn't distract you.
2 - Only fight if you know you will win and there is something worth it at the end. Basically, no point shutting down a small player, wait for him to be a little bit bigger so he can afford to pay for the infringement.

(PS - his ex wife was a lawyer)

[m.t.glass] 03/5/2012 16:51

ta super. Makes sense.

I couldn't see a list of big customers on the Q-Less website - so I've emailed to ask.