In the conventional American household, a family typically consists of a mother, a father, a brother, a sister and a valued pet. Many pet owners are guilty of pampering their pooches and feline friends with gourmet food, plush toys and, of course, limitless love and affection. When a beloved companion decides to follow its instincts out the door and onto the street, owners often find themselves at a point of desperation.
Now Qualcomm has released Tagg-Pet Tracker, ensuring an efficient way for GPS tracking to locate runaway pets, which enables owners to find their exact coordinates.
The tracker latches onto the collar and can be set to specific, desirable settings, such as creating an alert system to notify the owner if the pet has wandered off from a designated area. The pet tracker is unique because, like a trackable mobile device, it includes a service provided by Verizon Wireless, enabling access to vast coverage and a reliable network. The Tagg Master Kit comes equipped with one year of service for $199.99 and can be expected to be shipped within the month.
“Hundreds of thousands of pets go missing every year and, according to the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy, only 15 to 20 percent of lost dogs and only 2 percent of lost cats are ever returned to their owners,” a press release on Qualcomm.com said. “Tagg — The Pet Tracker is a purpose-built solution that uses a sophisticated combination of GPS and wireless technology to monitor a pet’s location and quickly notify the owner via email and / or text if the pet leaves its Tagg zone, the area where it spends most of its time — typically the home, yard and adjacent areas.”
Qualcomm Incorporated designed this convenient innovation primarily to provide pet lovers with more comfort. This only further establishes the company’s status as a self-coined “world leader in mobile technologies.” Other companies such as Garmin and SpotLight have launched pet tracking devices as well. However, Qualcomm aspires to market its product on a larger scale. From a business perspective, the company clearly strategized and had a well-developed idea by calculating the millions of homes that include pets.
“It’s certainly a big market,” The San Diego Union Tribune reporter Mike Freeman said. “There are more than 75 million dogs owned in the U.S., according to a Humane Society survey completed last year. More than 10 million pets are lost each year, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. And The American Pet Products Association estimates that consumers spent $48 billion on their pets last year.”
By targeting the nation’s soft spot, Qualcomm may have struck gold with the tag.
“We created Tagg because we understand that pets are an important part of today’s family,” Snaptracs President Dave Vigil said. “As pet owners ourselves, we were inspired to design a purpose-built solution that provides owners the peace of mind that their pet is where it is supposed to be. A lost pet is something no owner wants to experience, and we are proud to have developed a simple-to-use and affordable tracking system that will help reunite pet and owner quickly if the pet wanders off.”
This new tracking device is sure to launch Qualcomm ahead in the mobile world yet again by strategically tapping in to a very important part of the typical American home. The cost may be expensive but the next time a beloved pet slips out the back door, its electronic track will be hard to miss.
