News

Overseas firm clinches kiosk deal

March 31, 2004

While a number of overseas companies make battle plans to invade the U.S. kiosk market, one kiosk maker just established a beachhead.

In March, Netnote Inc., a Dublin, Ireland-based kiosk maker, inked its first U.S. distribution deal. The distributor is Zmail Media Inc. of Houston, a subsidiary of Affordable Telecommunications Technology Corp. (ATTC).

Zmail Media purchased 50 machines from Netnote, said Kyle MacDonald, Sr., the company's chief technology officer and senior vice president. Under the agreement, Zmail Media will resell Netnote's products in the U.S. and will help support and host the content of the systems, MacDonald said.

The kiosks, called WebNote by Netnote but marketed as Zstations by Zmail Media, are small, affordable Internet-ready machines. The Zstations let users pay to browse the Internet and access e-mail in hotels, truck stops and convenience stores.

Zmail markets the small-footprint Netnote WebNote kiosk as the Zstation 3000.

The first 20 Zstations are already being test marketed in the Southeast and the West Coast atPantry and Microtel hotel chains, Houston's Houstonian hotel and at the Crescent Hotels in Dallas.

Zmail Media plans to make its return on investment from sales, advertising, servicing and hosting fees. Revenues should run in the range of $500 to $1,500 per kiosk, though the higher revenue would be the exception, MacDonald said.

"You`ll see most of the revenue below $1,000," MacDonald said.

The distribution deal is part of Zmail's plans to install and manage kiosk networks.

"Our business model is to be more of a distributor and an owner/operator of networks of kiosks, versus being a development company in terms of the software and hardware," said MacDonald.

Netnote sells its WebNote Internet kiosks for $3,000 - $4,000, depending upon the configuration. The machines are small, wall-mounted devices. They run on a UNIX-like operating system called QNX, which also contains a browser, said Enda Murphy, Netnote chief technology officer.

Bill Cremin, Netnote's vice president of sales, said that the QNX operating system allows the kiosks to be excellent turnkey systems.

"The kiosks cost between $3,000 and $4,000 but act like a $7,000 kiosk," Cremin said.

Other kiosk makers hoping to command a piece of the U.S. kiosk territory include NEO Products, an Australian designer and manufacturer, and ePOINT Ltd., a kiosk designer based in Scotland.

Zmail Media was founded in February 1999, and currently has 12 employees. On April 10, the company was purchased by Affordable Telecommunication Technology Corp.  ATTC trades on the OTC Bulletin Board as ATTP.