While it was an advantage for Ricochet to be one of the first wireless products on the market, setting a precedent can also be regarded as a weakness. When Metricom introduced their product to the consumers, they did not adequately convey the benefits of their unique product. As a result, the average consumer did not understand the nature of the product in its entirety. Metricom has to take some of the blame for this because they did a terrible job of promoting the benefits of the product. Metricom promoted its product primarily to the business traveler who flew around the country and yet, the service only expanded up to 17 cities throughout the nation. Focusing on the business traveler delivered the wrong message. Their ads magnified the fact that the Ricochet service was not applicable or available to the general public.
To build a national wireless network requires a lot of equipment and investment dollars. Metricom did not have enough investment capital to start with. This along with aggressive expansion plans proved to be the undoing of the company. To reduce costs, Metricom's strategy was to eliminating the direct sales force. They did this by partnering with MCI/WorldCom and Juno Online Services. This vendor partnership with MCI\WorldCom proved to be a mistake. Both Metricom and MCI/WorldCom were never able to get the critical mass of subscribers to make the partnership work (Davies).
