SPOT LLC (www.findmespot.com), a subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc (NASDAQ:GSAT) and the pioneer behind the award-winning SPOT Satellite Messenger, today announced that the company has received the prestigious 2008 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award for its SPOT Satellite Messenger that was named this year’s winner of the Consumer Electronics category. This marks the sixth industry award for SPOT since being introduced in November of 2007.
The Wall Street Journal received more than 700 entries to be considered for the Innovation Awards. Judges looked for innovations that broke new ground in their field and demonstrated a measurable impact. Only four percent of the entries received the final award in 19 different categories. A full list of this year’s winners can be viewed at www.WSJ.com/Reports.
The SPOT Satellite Messenger is a handheld personal safety communications device that uniquely combines GPS and simplex satellite technology, enabling users to stay in contact directly and reliably with friends, loved ones and emergency responders from virtually anywhere around the globe – even the most remote places – independent of cell phone coverage.
“To be singled out by the Wall Street Journal as the most innovative consumer electronics technology for 2008 from a field of hundreds of breakthrough products is truly a prestigious honor for our team,” said Darren Bassel, Director of Marketing for SPOT LLC. “SPOT was designed to increase safety in the outdoors where traditional means of communication are limited or non existent and to provide peace-of-mind for friends and loved ones through satellite communications. SPOT has quickly established itself as an everyday lifestyle product that does much more. Today, tens of thousands of people around the world – from outdoor adventurers to soccer moms to trucking companies and social networks, are using the SPOT Satellite Messenger to stay in touch and track the GPS locations of the people that are the most important to them.”
SPOT is battery-operated (two AA lithium batteries), rugged, and waterproof, and allows users to send satellite text and email messages for help, or to check-in and inform loved ones that they are out of harms way. In an emergency, SPOT will notify GEOS, an international emergency response center used to dispatch local rescue authorities to the SPOT user’s GPS location.
Since its debut the SPOT Satellite Messenger has helped save more than 40 lives with its 9-1-1 emergency message function. SPOT retails for $169.99 SRP with a $99.99 annual subscription service. SPOT is available at more than 5,000 points-of-sale including retailers in the United States and Canada and at www.findmespot.com.
SPOT will be honored for their Innovations Award at an awards ceremony and dinner in conjunction with the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations Conference on October 21 In Redwood City, California at the Sofitel San Francisco Bay Hotel. For more information about the awards ceremony and the conference please visit: http://AlternativeEnergy.dowjones.com
