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Parrot is French. And if you have affection for French film the way I do, then you know how well they communicate the language of love. So, ooh la la, it’s no wonder then that I fell in LOVE with Parrot’s Bluetooth portable party speakers in Vegas at CTIA.
A stretch, no? But the more you learn about this European product-maker and what they are releasing to the U.S. market this spring and summer, the more you’ll fall in love too.
I was so smitten by Parrot’s Bluetooth/NFC-enabled speakers, (more about NFC later in the story), that I casually looked for something comparable in wireless stores and mall kiosks as well as checked a local big box retailer, and I found nothing remotely similar on store shelves. And the Parrot Party Black speaker line is not the only awesome product they’re launching this summer. How do you say, ‘have it your way car stereo’?
Parrot is calling their aftermarket car stereo unit the “RK80”, but it’s a perfect 360 when it comes to an all-in-one inline music player and hands free speakerphone. Missing only the turntable for vinyl records, the RK80 features everything else. It has an SD memory slot, one-gigabyte internal memory, a 3.5 mm jack for mp3 players, an iPod jack, Bluetooth streaming, and a CD player behind a blue LCD faceplate. This jewel has an MSRP of $299 without installation but installation can also be a revenue source for the retailer when cooped with Parrot’s dealer incentive program.
Visiting Parrot.com and perusing their entire line of Bluetooth speakers, hands free speakerphones, Bluetooth dongles and digital picture frames will have you saying ‘j’taime mon Parrot’. But what really had us at Wireless Dealer Magazine, was their unique history in innovation and user-friendly product designs.
European design has historically been thought of as engineering marked by simplicity and the intuitive human interfaces, (easy buttons). The American aesthetic tends to look as if complexly engineered. That’s not a criticism because it has its charm, especially with fiercely independent do-it-yourself early adopters. When it comes to consumer electronics however, the average person doesn’t want to work that hard at using their phones, speakerphones and Mp3 players, (which is why America’s Apple is gaining market share). That’s also why Parrot’s product designs will suit the post-early adopter consumer set well. But simple design does not mean weak engineering, in fact the company was part of the nineties start-up generation with voice recognition technology.
Parrot’s history began with its founder, Henri Seydoux, in 1994 and was the first to create a voice-activated PDA, which was designed for two noteworthy, visually impaired musicians: Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. Parrot has been a player at the edge of mobile technology and is even now among the first manufacturers to incorporate NFC into their products. If you haven’t heard about NFC don’t worry, but keep your eye on it as it will surely compete with Bluetooth over the next decade as the preferred short-range pairing option.
NFC is the acronym for Near Field Communications, which allows for simple wireless pairing between devices. Device searching is done automatically instead of manually and in the background usually without pin codes. Two NFC-enabled devices are held up next to each other and will automatically pair. Parrot has installed this in their Parrot Party Black series of speakers and their new, digital picture frames. I was given a demonstration at a press event and felt inspired by its potential, but I’m not the only one.
NFC has been more commonly referred to as RFID and has caught the imagination of everyone from financial institutions to ATM manufacturers but Parrot is one of the first to smartly begin putting it into their products even if before phone manufacturers have yet to place it into every phone.
David Wenning, Parrot’s SVP of Marketing and Sales, says the company has always been on the leading edge of hands free technology and he feels incorporating NFC into the product line is consistent with that. (See a video interview with Parrot and a demonstration of NFC on this website / CTIA 2008 Interviews tab and scroll to Parrot.)