Mobile Fuel Digital Power Product Line Debuts

By Staff On Dec 5 2005 - 8:00am

A line of digital power adapters, charging units, universal lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, international adapters and accessories for the portable electronics market is being offered by Blackstone International.

Called MFuel, products are designed to provide an “all-in-one” digital solution that consolidates power, charging, data transfer and travel needs for notebook computers, portable DVD players, iPods, cellphones, PDAs, MP3 players, satellite radios, digital cameras, camcorders, portable gaming and more — all into one device.

The MFuel line incorporates three product categories — Pak, Jack and Power Bank — which debuted at the 2006 International CES press preview here last month. Retail store availability is January 2006.

All Pak products made by Blackstone, a Baltimore-based marketer and manufacturer, feature dual power outputs and up to 120 watts of continuous output power. The Pak allows for simultaneous charging of a high-power device, such as a notebook, plus any one of the large number of low-power portable electronics on the market.

Products in the Pak line include the high/low power Max Pak 100 power adapter kit for 100-watt charger, the high/low power Wall Pak 110 for 110 watts and the high/low power Auto/Air Pak 120 for 120 watts. Also, there are two high/low power World Paks, the 120 for 120 watts and the 100 for 100 watts.

The Pak line includes an extended play Game Pak universal power kit that extends playing time for portable video games up to 125 hours. Games can be charged from any power source or played on the go. Game Pak XP adds a deluxe travel case to the kit. Suggested retails for both are $199.99.

Suggested Pak retails range from $199.99 for Auto/Air Pak, Game Pak and the World Pak 100 to $219.99 for the Wall Pak 110 and $249.99 for the World Pak 120.

The World Jack enables a user to power a dual voltage electronic device in more than 120 countries. It comes packaged with all AC-powered MFuel products and also is available separately. The MFuel Jack series also offers a large number of application-specific AC and DC charging products. There also is a variety of wall, auto/air and car Jacks.

Suggested Jack retails are World Jack, $19.99; Wall Jack 5 and Car Jack 5, $39.99; Wall Jack 18 and Car Jack 18, $49.99; Auto/Air Jack 72 and Wall Jack 75, $99.99; and Wall Jack 100, $119.99.

The Power Bank series allows portable electronics users to carry a power source on the go. This is a “smart” portable power system, fueled by Li-ion batteries. The Universal Power Bank features dual high- and low-power outputs and provides up to 12 hours of additional notebook run time and 100 hours of additional cellphone talk time. Also available are the high power notebook Power Bank and low power portable electronic Power Bank.

Suggested Power Bank retails are $199.99 for portable electronics, $249.99 for notebook power and $299.99 for universal power.

Data-transfer capability in the MFuel line is provided by Power Pucks, which are retractable power cables that also function as data transfer cables. Included Ethernet and USB tips may be used to transform the retractable power cord into an Ethernet or USB cable. Low power and high power Power Pucks also are sold separately and can be linked to expand the reach of charging and data transfer-capabilities.

The high power Power Puck has a suggested $29.99 retail and the low power is $39.99.

Also available in the MFuel line is the Take Charge emergency portable battery pack for iPods, cellphones, smartphones and PDAs, which provides up to 12 hours of emergency talk time and up to 8 hours of additional iPod play time. Suggested Take Charge retail is $39.99.

MFuel products are packaged to provide consumers a complete out-of-the box solution. The line's all-inclusive packaging approach is said to ensure consumer satisfaction and dramatically reduce SKU assortments for the retailer.