Product Review - Powermat

Mario Armstrong: Its Mario Armstrong at sbtv.com here at the International 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. I think we’ve uncovered, I think we’ve uncovered the best secret at the show for our small business viewers. This is phenomenal. You know how I'm always talking about your device is only as good as the applications that you can run on it but it’s also only as good as its battery life. If there's no battery life, you have no device to use. So we found a technology and a product that we think is great for you. We’re going to introduce you to Mr. Ferger, President of Powermat. Ron Ferger: Yes. Mario Armstrong: Exciting technology. I'm trying to you know refrain all of my energy. Why don’t you explain a little bit about– Ron Ferger: You don’t have enough energy. Mario Armstrong: What Powermat does? Ron Ferger: Okay. What Powermat does is we are wirelessly charging your favorite devices without the tangle of wires. People have been talking about wireless charging for years right. Nobody’s been able to apply the technology to actual devices that people can use. So, our technology is made up of three types of technology. One technology is made from the three. One of them is magnetic induction. Mario Armstrong: Okay. Ron Ferger: The problem with magnetic induction, slow and not efficient. We have a second technology, okay, it’s proprietary, I could tell but I have to kill you, okay. Mario Armstrong: We don’t want that. Ron Ferger: Its secret ingredient. It’s actually a lot of patents, a lot of technology. We’re able to eliminate the weaknesses. We can charge in real time. What does that mean? You have your product, your phone, you plug it on the wall, it takes X number of minutes. You put it on our mat, our mat will charge your device in the same time. So we eliminated the slow aspect. In terms of efficiency, if you talk about the normal adapter that comes with your phone it’s about 60% efficient. This means you have 40% power loss. Our devices are running it over 90% efficiency. So you're talking about a lot of things. You're talking about getting rid of wires. You’ve got one cord that’s going into our mat and its charging as many of seven devices out of one power source, right? That means that when you remove the devices, you only have one thing being, you know, we don’t remove our plugs in the United States, we’re all too lazy to remove the plugs. Mario Armstrong: But this is a great point, I want to show–we’re going to show this product but I'm thinking of people, you know, how you travel a lot folks, you're carrying multiple devices when you travel. So number one, you no longer need to carry all of those chargers with you, number one. But number two, how many of you have been frustrated like me when you go into a hotel room and there aren’t enough outlet to even charge all of your different devices. So this eliminates that. You're talking, one outlet is all you really need and a Powermat and multiple devices can be charged. So, can we show a little bit of this? Ron Ferger: Yeah! Sure, first of all we’ve got five different mats depending on your lifestyle. So on this case, what we’re going to show is first the travel mat. It comes in a case like this, right? You basically open it up and you can see one over here open but it unfolds, right? We make our own custom adapters, the reason that’s important is because these adapters have over 90% efficiency and they are super cool. Okay, look at the shape, the feel. Anyway, as you plug it in and what you see over here is we've got three different devices over here. We've got a–we actually have BlackBerry, two BlackBerries, let me pull something else, we can grab, here's an iPod, okay. So, we’re able to charge multiple devices. At the end of the day, all we’ve got to do is wrap it up, put it in here. Stick it back in the case and drop in our bag. Mario Armstrong: Okay. So right now, just so that we can see, this is the only power cord for this device. Ron Ferger: Exactly. Mario Armstrong: This is plugged into a regular power outlet. Ron Ferger: Exactly. And like I said, it’s over 90% efficient versus like a 60%–it’s a big deal because of the power, people are a little conscious on that right now. Mario Armstrong: Now real quickly, how do the devices recognize the Powermat? Ron Ferger: Okay. Great question, what's going on over here is we’re actually using an RFID system. So what's happening– Mario Armstrong: Radio Frequency Identification Technology. Ron Ferger: Exactly. You use that like a retail. So, like if we go over here, what's happening when I put this device down on this pad, what this phone is saying, “Hi! I'm a BlackBerry model, XYZ. I'm a 25% power, I require 5 watts, please send me power.” Okay. So the mat sense the device, the power that the device needs and magically, when the device is full, it doesn’t need anymore power, the unit stops, the mat stops sending power. The efficiency is amazing. Now, what's incredible about this specific unit, we call this our PC Plus model is that you're able to charge a low power device like a cellphone, an iPod, handheld game side by side with a computer. This computer is actually charging using the Powermat system. So in this case, it’s a 100 watts. Now, what's great about the system, it’s very safe so if I try to charge using the wrong cord, it will not charge. Here, I have to be on the right area otherwise, there's no hand shake again to the RFID system. Mario Armstrong: Okay. So break this down and simplify it as well, low powered and high powered devices can all be charged from one mat. So we’re showing here that a laptop which needs way more power than a handheld BlackBerry phone does but all of that can still be powered from one device. This is amazing. Now lastly, this is a proof of concept over here. Ron Ferger: Yeah! This is a concept, you know, if you're living a lifestyle of Powermat, you know, you’ve got one–you know, we’re making them for all over the place. We make one next to the bed. Why? People don’t have landlines now. They don’t want to waste their money with AT&T. They want to buy a cellular phone. You need to charge it at night. So we make a bedside solution but at the end of the day, you have a system, you want to be able to go into your car and use that system so what this pieces over here, it’s an automotive piece, you could basically adjust it to any device and it will charge that device. It doesn’t have to just be this, it could be anything. It could be, you know, you're like addicted to like you know, Game Boy, you can charge your Game Boy there as well. Mario Armstrong: Okay, last two questions for you, number one, I see on the back of this devices that there's this Powermat logo and it looks something that’s just like maybe a little sleeve or something, so this is what actually talks to your charger, right? Ron Ferger: Right. First of all, we call that the badge of honor. Mario Armstrong: The badge of honor. Ron Ferger: Okay! And actually–and in this case you can actually change its color. This is a sign of status, you know. But this is the receiver. There's three types of receivers that we have with the Powermat system. We have a case receiver which is–this is basically a case just like, you buy a case, you know. Mario Armstrong: So for those of you that are wondering, you just basically put this case right over the top of the existing product and then it charges. Ron Ferger: Exactly. Yes, so you have two other types. You have this type over here which I showed you the dock, this is a docking solution. Why would somebody want to buy this solution? Because if they are like into Apple or whatever they can do all the music devices they can do with iPhone, the Touch, they can do everything. So, they would this type of piece is a dock. The third type is what we call the Power Disc. And this is the Power Disc and basically what it’s all about–if somebody that’s into the tips. Okay, the top opens, stick whatever tips you want in here and you know, when you have a device like this, you can plug it into the device and you just press this and you put this on here to charge that device. So those are the three types of receivers. Mario Armstrong: Excellent. Lastly, how much does this cost? Ron Ferger: How much do you want this mat? Mario Armstrong: And is it, I mean, small business owners want to know, is it available? Ron Ferger: Yeah! First of all, its going ship this fourth quarter, you can go at powermatusa.com to learn more. Mario Armstrong: The fourth quarter of 2009. Ron Ferger: The fourth quarter this year we will be at retail and the retails are very reasonable. When you think about the case that I've bought for my iPhone, it’s just a piece of rubber, it cost me 30 bucks, all of our receivers are going to cost 30 bucks. All of our mats are going to cost a hundred dollars. So when you buy this mat, its going to come with this power, its going to come with this mat, a hundred bucks, affordable, look cool, style and high tech, right. Mario Armstrong: Yeah! It is. Very much so. Mr. Ferger, I appreciate the time. The last thing that I saw, the last thing that I saw that I thought that was really great for small business owners is that I actually desk, I mean, you know, like a desk itself. Ron Ferger: Yeah! Mario Armstrong: You guys are actually putting your Powermat technology into furniture. Ron Ferger: Well, you know, what the next step is really–it’s really, what it is, we’re trying to put this devices into consumers’ hands because we know that they love them. And really the next stage for this is where the device people, like the people that make this product or that product, and they have been coming to this sort, we've had people from the computer industry, people from the cellphone industry that want to embed our technology because we can print what you have in this mat, we’re able to print it on tape. I'm talking about something that’s very thin. So we’re able to embed our technology into devices so that you don’t even have to have a receiver, you can just– Mario Armstrong: Awesome, so you could just–essentially what he is saying is, you'll be able to just take the device, place it on a table or a certain spot on the table and get it charged. It’s phenomenal, unbelievable. Mario Armstrong at the International CES 2009 with Powermat. Thank you. Ron Ferger: Thanks a lot. Mario Armstrong: That’s Ron Ferger, President and he’s really cool too because he said he loves my Donkey Kong. Ron Ferger: 82 Men. Mario Armstrong: He actually knew the year. It’s awesome. Alright, more to come, more to come right here on sbtv.com. we’ll be back.