Imagine needing to install a different type of electrical outlet to plug in your toaster, stereo and each lamp you own. Sounds crazy doesn’t it?
Until recently, many cellular phone users confronted this very dilemma. Car kits are considered a valuable accessory by many cellular users, providing power and enabling hands-free talking. However, individual phone manufacturers that produce the kits usually design them only to function with their phones. For users owning more than one portable handset or upgrading to a new portable, buying a new car kit isn’t always feasible. Phone manufacturers’ car kits retail starting at $200, according to a Cellular One salesman in Denver. Another $100 is tacked on if the user wants to boost power to 3 watts.
For several years, Cell Port Labs Inc. of Boulder, Colo., has been engineering the technology for a universal car kit. Licensed with the technology, San Jose, Calif.-based Hello Direct-a developer and marketer of telecommunications products and accessories-has introduced CellBase, a product that enables connectivity for most any model of phone.
Pat Kennedy, chairman and chief executive officer of Cell Port Labs, maintains CellBase provides advantages for cellular carriers, phone manufacturers and end users, and expects it will become astandard.
By way of a 20,000-unit order from McCaw Cellular Communications Inc., Hello Direct unveiled CellBase in the marketplace last month. The product package is comprised of a base unit, a connector that incorporates a patented universal interface and an adaptor “pocket” that fits between the portable and connector. Together Cell Port Labs and Hello Direct design a unique pocket to configure with each phone model, said Kennedy. Voltage, charging, audio interface and antenna interface are among the variations between phone models, noted Kennedy.
This universality provides CellBase with a key market advantage by enabling cellular carriers’ to reduce inventory costs, Hello Direct said. Making the same product in large volumes, Hello Direct amortizes its costs and can sell a complete kit for as little as $150, explained Kennedy. Additional pockets run $40 to $50. Car kit costs may be absorbed by the carrier or passed to the end-user with little or no mark-up.
Providing a headset or microphone accessory, car kits promote safety by enabling hands-free operation. In fact, in a number of countries-including Australia, Brazil, Israel, England and Italy-it is illegal to talk and drive at the same time unless drivers are hands-free, using a microphone or one-sided headset attachment, Kennedy noted.
Car kits also may yield greater profit to the carriers. CellBase and others encourage more frequent use by powering the portable, recharging the battery and providing broader coverage and better transmission quality through an external antenna. A few years ago, GTE Corp. found that car kit owners used their portables an average of 20 percent more than those without kits, explained Chuck Parrish, general manager of mobile data services for GTE Mobilenet. Parrish cited reduced battery drain and an external antenna as factors motivating increased use.
CellBase also features backward and forward phone compatibility, said Kennedy, including compatibility with both analog and digital cellular phones. Personal communications services handsets will function with CellBase as well.
Hello Direct offers adapter pockets for Motorola Inc.’s Flip Phone and Ultra Classic Series, Audiovox Corp.’s MiniVox Lite/Toshiba 9300, and is developing pockets for Nokia Corp., Ericsson Inc. and NEC phones. Kennedy noted Cell Port and Hello Direct also are in discussions with other phone manufacturers.
