Pet Technology Company Teams Up with SIGFOX to Ensure Dog Owners Never Lose Their Pets.
Whistle, the makers of the leading pet health and activity monitor, today introduced WhistleGPS, the next generation of its line of pet tech products. This device and connected mobile app will help ensure that dog owners in the U.S. can always find their pets. Harnessing the U.S. deployment of the SIGFOX network, the first wireless network dedicated to the internet of things, Whistle aims to prevent the loss of the roughly 10 million family pets that go missing annually.
“WhistleGPS offers pet owners peace of mind that they’ll never lose their best friend,” said Ben Jacobs, CEO of Whistle.
“Until now, GPS devices on the market simply didn’t make sense for most dog owners. Subscription costs are high, battery life is short, and products are too big for most breeds to even wear. By leveraging the SIGFOX network, we’re offering a GPS device that pet owners can use effortlessly, and be proud to put on their dog’s collar.”
WhistleGPS is a sleek device that attaches to a dog’s collar to collect and categorize key information, including location, activity and rest. Pet owners can use WhistleGPS to make sure their dogs are getting the right amount of daily activity and to pinpoint their dog’s exact location from their smartphone.
Unlike other GPS products on the market, WhistleGPS addresses three key challenges for location monitoring, including:
- Size – At roughly the size of a silver dollar (16 grams), WhistleGPS is less than 1/3 the size of other available trackers, making it the smallest and lowest profile pet monitoring device on the market. This means more dogs of varying sizes will be able to wear the device comfortably.
- Battery life – Leveraging brand new low-energy wireless network capabilities to communicate location, WhistleGPS is able to provide 2x the battery life than currently possible in other devices. This allows people to use their device for at least one week before needing to recharge the battery, for a better experience.
- Affordability – Bypassing expensive wireless providers and connecting to the new internet of things ecosystem allows WhistleGPS to keep cost of subscriptions down to 1/2 current price of GPS services.
As the collaboration with Whistle demonstrates, the new low-energy network with SIGFOX addresses the widespread need for new wireless communication solutions. Current options for mobile connectivity only offer close-range syncing via Bluetooth and WiFi, or cumbersome and expensive 3G and 4G wireless systems. The introduction of the SIGFOX on-demand wireless network in the U.S. – timed for the end of this year – bridges the gap between the two current offerings and will unleash new opportunities for addressing connected home solutions, smart city grids, valuable asset tracking and much more.
Ludovic Le Moan, CEO of SIGFOX, said:
“WhistleGPS is a perfect example of how low-energy systems like ours open the door to innovation, especially within the internet of things sector.”
“As we approach the sunset date of older 2G networks, more products will be forced to evolve and iterate in months and years to come while enabling entirely new ones like WhistleGPS. The U.S. deployment of our wireless system is an exciting opportunity to usher in the new wave of connectivity and invention.”
Available for pre-order May 21 – 28, 2014
WhistleGPS is available for pre-order from May 21-28, 2014 for $49 (SRP $129) online at www.Whistle.com through a limited time offering powered by Crowdtilt Open. WhistleGPS will ship starting summer 2015.
