The TripLink, which looks like and weighs about the same as an average pocket-calculator (5 oz.), is targeted to the many millions of every day business and leisure travellers looking for a simple and practical device to download basic travel information from the internet into a portable handheld unit.
The TripLink, expected to be priced to the end user for under $100.00, can download turn-by-turn directions from street address to street address directly off the Internet from a specific URL. The TripLink is also equipped to provide directions to over 70,000 interstate services (i.e. gas, food, lodgings, hospitals, etc) and distance & drive times to cities and towns across the country on Interstates and U.S. Highways.
Ultradata System`s Chief Marketing Officer, David Biernbaum, says that the TripLink will be marketed through consumer direct programs, business to business, and through coordinated partner-marketing efforts. The consumer direct programmes, according to Biernbaum, will involve distribution to consumers through integrated direct marketing companies that purchase the product as a distributor, and sell the product through direct media response programmes that might include any combination of television, infomercials, and nationwide print ads in leading newspapers and magazines. Revenues from the TripLink will be produced from the sale of the hardware itself, service fees, and co-op marketing. The B2B programmes will be targeted to support loyalty programs, customer service programs, and transportation and logistics programs. These programs are enhanced by the products nature of bringing the user back to the same URL on the Internet or an Intranet for new sets of directions. Biernbaum says, “examples of potential B to B customers might include Internet Service Providers (ISP`s) looking to develop loyalty programs with consumers, or street-delivery services that employ drivers seeking fast and easy directions to any number of locations or addresses.” Ultradata Systems, Inc. also plans to partner with other consumer and business marketing partners that already have existing sales organisations in place.
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