national
Battalion/Page if
‘Beeper’ sales up, uses varied
United Press International
DETROIT — With an insis
tent beep-beep-beep from boar
droom to boudoir, electronic pa
gers are signalling a change in
the way Americans live, work
and play.
They are also ringing up bil
lions of dollars in sales and are
on their way to becoming as
common as telephones in Amer
ican culture. An estimated 1.5
million pagers are in use in the
United States and the number is
growing.
Some beep, emit a tone or
vibrate to notify the bearer a
communication is at hand.
Others are capable of leaving a
10 to 20 second audio message.
The latest technology has pro
duced pagers that emit a printed
message at the push of a button.
And manufacturers say the age
of the two-way beeper, similar to
Dick Tracy’s two-way wrist
radio, is not far off.
“It used to be if you saw some
one wearing a pager you
assumed they were in the medic
al profession and they probably
were,” says Jeff Prough, director
of sales and marketing for Ram
Beepers, Inc. a national firm
with offices in Michigan. “Now
doctors represent the smallest
percentage of our customers.
Doctors are way behind even
the illicit users, whose numbers
have skyrocketed.
“The largest percentage of
users are in sales and repair
work,” Prough said. “And now
we’re getting beyond the busi
ness use, people are using them
for personal reasons.”
A few American parents are
using pagers to avoid staying at
home when Johnny calls for a
ride home from football prac
tice. Pager salesmen report a
growing use of the devices
among single parents who leave
the number with their children
in case of emergency.
Another national pager ser
vice, Radiophone, has a “Stork
Alert” program where pregnant
woman use them to tell the
fathers when it’s time.
“Just today a man rented one
because his wife is pregnant and
he’s on the road a lot,” said Russ
Matson, Southfield, Mich, sales
manager for the Radio Relay
Corp., one of the nation’s largest
pager services. “Some people
rent them for no other purpose
than for status — for a few good
lines at the bar.”
The uses of pager systems has
seemingly become as varied as
the human imagination.
Prostitutes and call girls are
now just a beep away from a
trick with the use of pagers.
Police in several of the nation’s
cities report that highly paid call
girls are using the system in the
finest hotels.
In January, while Detroit
hosted Superbowl XVI, a repor
ter was approached in the Re
naissance Center by a woman
who made personal gestures
and an expense account inquiry.
Her beeper sounded and she
was dispatched to another hotel,
leaving the reporter with a feel
ing of naivete and a pager
number.
All major suppliers ques
tioned about illicit uses of pagers
agreed they have a problem but
few would discuss it on the re
cord.
“We can’t refuse to issue a
beeper to someone. We can’t
even ask what they are going to
use it for,” said Prough. “They
are used by drug dealers and
prostitutes who apply them to
their business . There’s nothing
we can do about it.
“Occasionally we get beepers
in the mail that police confis
cated in (drug and prostitution)
raids and send back to us,” he
said.
A spokesman for the Federal
Communications Commission,
which regulates the pager distri
butors, says it has no regulatory
authority over individual users
of the devices.
Beepers have penetrated all
areas of society and it is not un
common for them to be heard in
restaurants or theaters as har
ried patrons rush for a tele
phone.
Along with the growing use of
the devices is fierce competition
for the nearly $500 million in
revenues generated this year by
the flourishing industry.
Clayton E. Niles, chairman of
Communication Industries in
Dallas, recently told the New
York Times paging company re
venues will swell to $2 billion in
1990.
The nation’s largest paging
companies, including a subsidi
ary of AT&T, are planning na
tional and international services.
Currently, most pagers are us
able only within a given metro
politan area. Pagers allowing the
bearer to receive messages with
in an area of several hundred
miles are available but more
costly.
BUT YOU CAN GET THEM
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All Stores
Firms rely
on new goods
United Press International
NEW YORK — One of the
ironies of the American busi
ness climate is that most
manufacturing companies are
dependent on a constant flow
of new products for profitable
operation yet only 10 percent
of new products are really in
novative.
John Rockwell, a vice presi
dent of Booz Allen & Hamil
ton management consultants,
said new products are needed
because existing products
“degenerate into profitless
price competition,” no matter
now great a need they fill.
Many of them are replaced by
new or improved products
and simply vanish from the
market.
A new study by Booz Allen
of the technique of successful
ly introducing new products
concluded that only 10 per
cent of those introduced in
the last five years “were truly
innovative or new to the
world.”
The study said 30 percent
of the new products that
actually reach the manufac
turing and marketing stage
are failures. Other studies in
recent years have put the fai
lure rate as high as 65 to 70
percent. It is generally agreed
that hardly more than one in
20 new product suggestions
that receive serious considera
tion by management actually
reach the stage of mam
t uring and marketing.
Yet, Rockwell said, non
cessful company can eioj
the need to maintain am
slant How of new pnxkii-
He said this means |
manufacturer mUstappoB
peoples’ wants, not itt |
needs. Thus, a new
in marketing terms, maytti
ly mean finding a newiMij
an existing product bvid
signing it, repositioningw
the market or repackamp
so it will fill a public Mil
Rockwell said thechalle*
to manufacturers to keep,
the flow of new prodra-
products that either arerti
innovative or fill a new®
— will be extremely amt,■
the coming decade betas
competition both at hontea
from foreign firms willkt
Houst
looks
sify.
The Booz Allen studys
the line between successs
failure in introducing i*
products can be very III
Companies that fail with it
products often invest asm: >
money and effort into :
veloping and introducj 1
them as those that succeei.
success record usually 1 in
the result of good luckbuii
result of experience:
pertise and of total dedicate
of management in thectJ
pany.
lUH fl:
leads '
of kidneys
lengthen
United Press International
ST. LOUIS — Doctors are ex
pected to begin human testing
soon on a device that researchers
say should triple the time a kid
ney can he maintained outside
the body for a transplant opera
tion.
Increasing the time a kidney
can be preserved permits a more
thorough search for the proper
tissue match between a kidney
donor and recipient, thus in
creasing the chances of trans
plant successes.
“With better matching, you
have less rejection,” said Max jel-
linek, one of the St. Louis Uni
versity researchers who de
veloped the machine.
“Also, it can shorten the sever
al weeks of dialysis customary af
ter a kidney transplant.
“We’re trying to include the
kidneys that are marginal,” Jel-
linek said. “We’re trying to im
prove the storage time. We’re
talking about human suffering
reduced and we’re doing this
with a slight increase in cost.”
The recently-patented
machine works by precisely con
trolling the amount of oxygen in
the fluid, called perfusate, that is
pumped through an extracted ki
dney awaiting transplantation.
If there is too much oxygen, the
kidney quickly deteriorates.
“The human being is
slant ly protecting itself froiti
damaging effects of oxyp
Jellinek said.
Conventional
machines lower the kidneys
ygen needs, but increase!
organ’s susceptibility to os']
damage.
“The kidney is forgrc
within certain limits,” Jell)
said. “But if you keepfi
(with normal perfusion), in
fail everytime.”
Minimum cost of thedtj
will be $350 plus about Slj|
additional expense each!
is used, Jellinek said.
il
Corne
bolstei
About 3,500 kidney iw
plants are performed bem!
non-related people annuall
the U nived Stales, wndskwl
could increase the poo) oft f
able kidneys by 10tol5pf
The machine, which cbjl
of a two-chambered cyliilj
and an electronic meter,sfl jl
into the tubing of anexisll
kidney storage machine
maintains the organ forasl
as six days. The current lin
only two days.
The six-year study to dew
the machine was headedfc
John E. Codd, professot
surgery at the St. Louis liM
sity School of Medicine.
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