Nothing Mickey about Talon's Mouse system

By YOKE HAR LEE

A tiny satellite-based receiver system built by Talon Technology bundled with a street guide product sold by US giant map company Rand McNally will give Talon over $5 million in sales by next year.

Talon managing director Peter Maire says the product has become a dominant player in the US market, pipping the position held by Rand McNally's competitor Delorme.

The global positioning system (GPS) receiver, nicknamed Mouse, has also enabled Rand McNally to price its street-finder product competitively.

For the first time, a GPS-based street finder product has been sold in the US for under $US100 ($198).

"We went from rough concept to delivery in just three months and as soon as it was released in the US, it became the biggest-selling product on the Rand McNally web site within three days," Mr Maire said.

"Now we have just finished shipping an all-time record 5000 items in four days and we are confident of exceeding a very optimistic forecast."

To meet the demand for production at the company's Northcote plant, a new automated component assembly line will be installed.

The Mouse GPS receiver sits on the dashboard of a vehicle. The receiver is capable of tracking up to 12 satellites continuously for navigation data. It plugs into a computer or laptop and interfaces with Rand McNally's software.

Mr Maire said the GPS receiver had several innovative edges. Because it was for city areas, it had to be totally accurate functioning in an environment that had a lot of interference.

"We went for low power consumption and this still hasn't been matched by other GPS receiver manufacturers."

The company also used specialist material to overcome hot dashboards to provide a stable operating environment for the receiver.

Talon also designed all aspects of its production to be able to produce a competitively-priced product.

Production time was cut by 25 per cent through on-going innovation.

Mr Maire said the company worked on product development in partnership with Rand McNally.

"We worked with Rand McNally on how the product would go to market, and we agreed that the pricing would have to be at least half that of existing products. In turn, we worked with our own suppliers to make sure we could meet those goals."