It’s been exactly one year since we publicly announced the SPOT satellite messenger as a product and SPOT as a company at Outdoor Retailer 2007. We shipped our first messenger in November 2007. Today, we are proud to announce a major milestone — Over 2,500,000 SPOT messages sent so far since January.
That’s a lot of peace of mind, a lot of adventures shared, a lot of lives saved. Those messages include 38 confirmed SPOT saves, a number we’re particularly proud of.
In that time, we’ve added coverage in Alaska and South America, launched SPOT shared pages, added Google Earth compatibility, in addition to Google Maps, and showcased SPOT with the amazing Primal Quest adventure race.
Thank you to all of our distributors, retailers, and most of all, to you — those who choose everyday to trust SPOT to stay in touch.
Thanks!
9 responses so far ↓
Steven Weed // August 9, 2008 at 3:27 pm |
Y’know what I’d like to see as a new feature,
a little beep when Spot sends the signal,
that way I’d know it was sent (sometimes
hard to see the lights and I probably doing
other exciting things).
A little tone could be added then you’d know
you could turn off the unit and save battery
life.
findmespot // August 9, 2008 at 6:08 pm |
Thanks for the feedback! We’re looking into more convenient ways to let users know when the message has been sent. Right now the only way is to be looking at the lights when the go solid for five seconds.
Any other ideas, let us know.
James, Lisa, and Burgess the golden retriever service dog // August 19, 2008 at 3:07 am |
Many glider pilots are buying SPOT so that their flights can be tracked, and to notify their family when they have safely landed. I belong to a group of glider pilots that routinely fly in the Sierra Nevada mountains where Steve Fossett disappeared (see http://www.soartruckee.com/SPOT.html). After talking to other SPOT equipped pilots I would like to offer some improvements:
1. Allow users to create and join groups on the SPOT website so multiple SPOT tracks can be displayed on a single web page. Pilots buy SPOTs as individuals that are not under the same account and so we must open separate tracking pages, which is inconvenient.
2. SPOT should also include GPS altitude data in addition to GPS coordinates on tracks.
3. Allow users to select shorter tracking time intervals online as an option in managing their SPOT messengers. Our gliders are capable of flying at speeds up to 150 mph and we can cover a lot of territory in that time, especially if a SPOT message is skipped. At other times when we are not flying 10 mins would be fine.
Stu Douglass // August 24, 2008 at 1:38 am |
I’d like to have the ability to adjust the timing of tracking signals. More infrequent for long distance riding with more frequent for short rides.
Great product and service!
John JAG Garrard // September 2, 2008 at 10:10 pm |
We deal with alot of customers that we leave in the field. Is there a next gen SPOT that would be able to transmit a 2 digit code that could correspond to an agreed upon list of messages.
ie: 01-pick up in 1 day
02- pick up in 2 days
03- good weather here
04- poor visability here
etc.
It may add to the messages sent and add to the price of the unit but it would sure make it a more useful tool.
We just had a search and rescue situation where it would have been nice to use the service with multiple units to show which sectors had been searched. Again the use of multiple messages could have been a great plus, aka, house searches post disater.
Looking forward to the next upgrade
Thanks
Chris // September 5, 2008 at 11:28 pm |
Great product!
I found it invaluable to notify family & friends on a recent trip to the Arctic. We got stuck due to weather and the spot notified everyone of our location. It gave my love ones great piece of mind.
The only negative I have is the unannounced maintenance to your website today scared everyone when they did not see my normal check in.
Justin // September 15, 2008 at 3:24 am |
Used the heck out of my SPOT while exploring Yellowstone where cell phone coverage is nil. Great piece of mind while out hiking out there.
A few things:
1. My original intent of purchasing my SPOT was for SCUBA surface emergencies. Any word on a waterproof/pressureproof container?
2. I would love to have more profiles available. I use my SPOT for several completely different activities that require different contact and emergency info. It’s tedious to delete a profile I know I’ll use soon, just not for that activity, then fill out a new one. 3 available profiles is pretty limiting.
3. In the future, is there an upgrade procedure (besides buying a new one)? Being a year old now, I’m sure there are plenty of suggestions out there for feature requests, many with impacts to the firmware, DSP, etc.
Thanks for a great product!
Jack // October 7, 2008 at 12:59 am |
After quite awhile on the phone with customer service and severals calls, it works and seems to be very good so far. Customer service did do a great job helping me with my problem.
Thanks
Capt. Steve // December 10, 2008 at 11:58 pm |
A great product and service. I wish we could erase previous position reports so as to reduce page clutter and confusion. A simple software addition to our account would fix this. Service in Hawaii would also be very welcome.