I’m Ari Silkey – Product Manager for Insignia’s GPS Solutions line. I joined Best Buy in February 2007, and have been in the GPS business since 1999. Perhaps you’ve had a chance to learn more about the Insignia story on our website? This blog is another way I can stay connected and engage with people like yourself, who can help us make better products. I hope you’ll share your comments.
This is some background on our new Insignia GPS solutions, which we launched in the fall of 2008. To develop and bring to market a consumer electronic product takes a significant amount of time – and the Insignia GPS products are no exception. It took 18 months from initial idea to in-store availability. Along the way our focus was always on the needs of our customers: this is what we kept in mind as we made technical decisions about the final products launched.
Our GPS units feature a cellular modem that allow them to connect to Google Local Search, receive real-time traffic updates, and check gas prices wherever you are. You can also email directions from your computer to your GPS. We think they are remarkable when you consider how all the components have to work in concert – like the touchscreen, interface design, Bluetooth-phone connection (on the NS-CNV20 model), managing drivers and updates, the physical shape and controls of the product – many features which have never been put together in this way before.
We actually talked to dozens of companies before choosing partners who we felt had the right vision and flexibility to put the experience together. It’s really more art than science in many ways, because there are so many unknowns at the beginning, and opportunities for synergy throughout. Our goal is to be ahead of the technology curve in ways that benefit our customers, but grounded enough to bring a product to launch. Given the rapid pace of technological change, it’s compelling to keep adding newer features while you are developing, but it’s not always a good idea to do so.
One goal we did shoot for and succeed on was being the first Personal Navigation Device (PND) to pass the Cellular Certification process. I’ll talk more about why I think that's important to our customers, and other parts of the development story, in future posts.
On our home page intro movie we talk about how we do real-world testing for the products we make: in the case of the GPS units, we also enlisted our own employees. We installed units into 65 Geek Squad cars for 90 days. Their feedback resulted in some very useful changes, like a 90-degree connector to fit vehicles better, adjustments to the mounting bracket, and changed the interface to display the destination address more clearly.
Are you an Insignia GPS owner with ideas or suggestions? I’d love to hear your comments.
Ari
Message Edited by Ari-INSG on 05-15-2009 06:08 AM
John (John-INSG)
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Blu-ray 101
