Amserve - the business behind Amstrad"s em@iler phone-cum-email thingy - has finally made a profit. Four years or so after the Webphone thingamajig was launched to a somewhat sceptical world, those who have maintained their faith in the em@iler have at last seen some financial reward. In the six months to the end of December the Amserve business moved into the black with a pre-tax profit of £1 million on the back of increased sales worth £6.5 million.
In same six-month period last year the business lost £5.5 million on revenues of £4.2 million. In essence, the em@iler business model is based on subsidising the sale price of the units with revenue recouped from using the em@iler thingamabob. So far, 298,000 em@ilers have been sold and registered and, no doubt, it will be hoped that a post Christmas price cut (from £49 to £29) will help boost sales still further. Last December, the average revenue generated per day was £21,000 (which works out at around £7.6 million a year) with the majority of revenues continuing to come from email and Web access.