Magellan Tapping New Niches

By Joseph Palenchar On Jan 10 2012 - 6:01am

LAS VEGAS — Magellan plans to expand its customer base with its first GPS-based fitness products, a lower opening price in its outdoors-oriented eXplorist handheld GPS line, its second portable navigation device (PND) for RV users, and its first PND for trucks.

Behind closed doors, the company is meeting with retailers to preview other PNDs that will ship in March.

In GPS-based fitness products, the company is launching the Switch fitness watch with GPS and the Switch Up, which can be snapped into an included wristband or into an included bike mount via quick-release mechanism. The water-resistant products will be packaged with and without wireless heart-rate monitors at expected everyday prices of $249 to $349 when they become available in the spring, senior product and marketing manager Mike Maxson.

The Switch is targeted to running enthusiasts who also engage from time to time in other outdoor activities such as motor biking and skiing. The Switch Up is targeted to multisport athletes, including triathletes. “People don’t just run or bike,” Maxson said of the devices’ crossover appeal.

Both devices capture distance, pace heart rate, track calories and location, and feature and activity pacer. They are also compatible with heart-rate, foot-pod, and bike sensors that use ANT+ wireless technology.

The Switch Up adds a vibrate alert, altimeter and ambient temperature sensor. A variety of accessories will be available for both models.

Both devices let users upload data to a Magellan website due to go live early in the second quarter. The website will also send that data on to third-party sites that deliver “serious performance analysis,” he added.

Although GPS fitness devices from two other suppliers also target the crossover user, Magellan’s products will be smaller and, unlike the others, will feature ambient temperature sensor and offer an activity pacer that tells an athlete what pace they must maintain to meet a goal, Maxson said.

Only one other crossover-targeted product in the market has a barometric altimeter, he added.

In its outdoor-oriented eXplorist series of handheld GPS devices, Magellan is lowering its opening price point to a suggested $129 from $199 to appeal to the consumers who take infrequently to the outdoors.

The new $129-suggested eXplorist 110 features 2.2- inch QVGA transreflective color screen for readability in direct sunlight, IPX-7 standards for ruggedness and waterproofing, a SiRFstarIII GPS chipset to provide 3-meter to 5-meter accuracy, and a preloaded World Edition Map.

Most competitors in this price range use monochrome screens, said product marketing director Sam Muscariello.

For the RV market, the company’s second PND is the $349-suggested 9145, which just shipped to join the $399 9165. The new model offers the same features as the stepup model with the exception of hands-free Bluetooth and and free RDS-TMC traffic updates.

Versions of both models with free lifetime map updates will ship later in the month.

Also new is a PND for trucks with driving-restriction database, loud speaker, and ability for multiple drivers to log in their mileage. The $379-suggested 5190 with 5-inch screen ships at the end of the month. It interfaces with fleet-management systems, enabling a dispatcher to add destinations to a truck’s PND for routing.

Two more truck-oriented PNDs are due late in the first quarter without the interface to fleet-management systems.