A mutual fund manager contacted me this morning regarding SonoSite ultrasound. He was interested in what I'd written and GPS Medical's take and sales of SonoSite systems. The conversation led me to finally write something about this market and where its going.
As a fund manager, he was interested in ensuring long-term growth in this market and whether GE would simply swallow SonoSite. A good question. I told him good things about SonoSite and GE, and that the key between them is the market focus. 
For SonoSite, I feel the key is the SonoSite operating system and its overall durability. The machine boots in 8 seconds and you can drop the probes. For Point-of-Care situations for which the SonoSite is designed, it solves a need: a fast, simple machine that is easy to use, images well, and doesn't mind getting a little banged up. Oh, and of course, the machine needs to have a good image, which SonoSite does.
GE also benefits from an excellent operating system, but in a completely different way. For GE portable ultrasounds, the keys are versatility, a known brand, and similar quality to its popular Logiq, Vivid, and Voluson products. GE uses a version of Windows XP on its systems and has a more complex user interface. This allows for much more versatility and Windows XP gives its engineers a way to port code from its Logiq and Vivid systems to a laptop version.
In addition, GE has solutions for nearly all modalities in a portable ultrasound, wheras SonoSite has its limited capabilities when it comes to the broader markets. GE's problem with SonoSite's market is their systems are slower to boot and not nearly as durable.Of course, SonoSite has designed it that way... the way SonoSite acheived its competitive advantage is to understand its market and provide the best product it can. A fast-booting, durable, easy-to-use ultrasound system.
So what is the future? Well, its definitely in compact ultrasound, the fastest-growing market in ultrasound. But who will be the champion?
It seems SonoSite caught most manufacturer's asleep behind the wheel. SonoSite used its own proprietary operating system before a truly viable Windows platform was available. With WIndows 2000, GE joined the market, and realized its vast marketsize GE then did things in the GE Ultrasound way: it released a bunch of products with small differentiations between them (Vivid i, Vivid e, Voluson i, Voluson e, Logiq e, Logiq i, Logiqbook XP, Logiqbook, and who knows what else in the coming months). SonoSite has stuck to its guns in providing a durable, fast, solid machine. SonoSite systems have good image quality, but are relatively basic compared to their GE counterparts. Philips/ATL has nothing (SonoSite was a spinoff from ATL), Siemens has the outstanding Acuson Cypress for the cardiology market and released released a palm-top/pocket-like machine that is decidedly not as versatile. Zonare and others are working in the market and it'll be interesting to see how those companies grow. For now, it's SonoSite and GE for the mass appeal, adding the Cypress ultrasound for cardiac and vascular applications.
My concern is whether SonoSite's Operating System could also be its achilles heel. With such a huge installed base, can SonoSite build and diversify, or will it always be exactly what it is. If so, I'm sure GE has a plan as does Siemens, Zonare, Ultrasonix, blah blah blah... and what ever happened to Biosound Esaote, the original leader of this market?
For now, though, it appears most manufacturers are far behind the curve and I told the fund manager that SonoSite would be a good bet for the immeditate future. I can't believe Siemens hasn't tried to port its Antares system down to a smaller model or any of its other Windows XP-embedded systems. Until then, it's free money for SonoSite and GE.
portable ultrasound,compact ultrasound,SonoSite,logiqbook xp,hand carried ultrasound,mobile ultrasound
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