SANTA CLARA, CA– May 1, 2013 – Magellan, a leader in GPS devices for vehicles, outdoor, fitness and mobile navigation, today announced the availability of its new Magellan® SmartGPS device at Best Buy U.S. consumer electronics stores and BestBuy.com.
Magellan® SmartGPS is the game-changing GPS device integrating social, local and mobile content, including reviews and tips from Yelp and Foursquare, through Magellan’s revolutionary cloud-enabled Smart Ecosystem. Combining the reliability and safety of dedicated GPS devices, the content and mobility of smartphone applications, and the content and innovation of cloud services, the SmartGPS transcends traditional GPS solutions. In addition, the SmartGPS delivers current and localized fuel prices, weather, traffic events and speed camera warnings, along with social content, directly on the navigation map.
"Magellan SmartGPS is the first truly ‘smart’ GPS system that uses ‘the Cloud’ as it should be used as a universal interface,” said Rob Enderle, analyst for Techworld and Enderle Group. “SmartGPS allows users to have the benefits of both smartphone based navigation and the larger, and in California more legal, dedicated screen of a standalone GPS system, nicely blending the offerings into a solution where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts."
SmartGPS consumers also receive free companion smartphone apps for iOS (Magellan RoadMate On-the-Go) and Android (SmartGPS). The SmartGPS companion apps connect to the SmartGPS device through Bluetooth, creating a connected car solution. End users have live search of Yelp and Foursquare locations (iOS app) and points of interest (POIs) at their fingertips, and can easily send locations from the SmartGPS app to the on-dash SmartGPS for navigation.
Magellan’s free iOS and Android SmartGPS companion apps create a total-solution SmartGPS experience that is affordable and truly mobile, enabling location sync and sharing, hands-free operation and data connectivity, without requiring an additional data plan. Using their SmartGPS app, SmartGPS enabled navigation system or PC, users can search for a location, save the location in Magellan’s Smart Ecosystem cloud, and sync and share the location to any SmartGPS enabled device via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
“The Magellan SmartGPS is our first consumer product built on Magellan’s cloud-based Smart Ecosystem,” said Peggy Fong, president of MiTAC Digital Corporation. “By seamlessly integrating cloud technology, social media, location-based content and smartphone apps, we are delivering a lower cost alternative to expensive in-dash infotainment systems.”
Magellan SmartGPS features:
• Valuable social reviews and offers from the Yelp and Foursquare communities are pushed directly to the SmartGPS device screen based on the user’s location. The community-aggregated information helps the user explore their surroundings, find new businesses and services in their area, and save money.
• Dynamic, real-time navigation content, including Fuel Prices, Traffic Alerts, Local Weather and Traffic Camera Alerts by PhantomALERT, is delivered directly to the SmartGPS device saving money, time and stress.
• Free companion Magellan SmartGPS apps (iOS and Android) offer powerful POI search functionality with capability to send searched destinations to the SmartGPS device with the simple touch of a button.
• Premium GPS functionality featuring a 5” Capacitive Touchscreen, Free Lifetime Map Updates and Traffic Alerts, WiFi and Bluetooth, Highway Lane Assist and AV-in for connection to media devices and Wireless Back-up Cameras.
The new Magellan SmartGPS with free apps for iOS or Android, is available from Best Buy now for $249.99 (MSRP). Consumers can upgrade to Premium SmartGPS apps for iOS and Android, featuring turn-by-turn directions with voice navigation, for $49.00 with US maps/$59.00 with US & Canada maps. (iOS companion app available in May 2013. iOS premium navigation upgrade available summer 2013.)
