Mio Plans Black Friday Block Party For GPS

Mio Plans Black Friday Block Party For GPS - 10/10/2007 9:38:00 AM - TWICE

I bought my first GPS unit a Mio c310x during last years black Friday and needless to say that I have been extremely happy with my unit. It has been dependable and pretty accurate. Granted we had trouble with the old maps that came on the device and the support for the map update provided in July of this year was pretty bad. But the unit itself is good and there is tons of information on hacking/upgrading the software online.

 

This year too it looks like MIO plans on new black Friday offers on their lower end units.

Here are the interesting parts from the Twice article:

• The company said it is considering marketing tactics such as serenading shoppers queued up by the door before the stores open, and handing out coffee and donuts. It also plans demos of the high-end features available on personal navigation devices (PNDs) to educate consumers, said marketing director Eric Larsen who likened the promotion to a Black Friday “block party.”
• The company went from “nowhere” to a 37 percent market share for Black Friday week in 2006 when it moved 45,000 units.
• Year-to-date sales in 2007 through August place Mio in the No. 4 spot behind Garmin, TomTom and Magellan, with a 6.8 percent share in GPS unit sales to consumers, according to The NPD Group.
• Industry members say they expect to see door-busters as low as $79 to $99 for the industry.
• Mio’s new camera/PND is the DigiWalker C720t shipping this month at a suggested $599 with a 4.3-inch screen. Users can snap a photo of a building or intersection or any location and then navigate to it in the future.