Plantronics Inc. has taken one small step by expanding its existing headset business into the wireless market.
The company first introduced communications headsets in 1962. Initially designed for airline pilots, the headsets have been adopted for other applications including operator services, air traffic control and the space program. It was a Plantronics headset that transmitted astronaut Neil Armstrong’s memorable words, “One small step for man … one giant leap for mankind,” when he walked on the moon in 1969.
Plantronics, based in Santa Cruz, Calif., said it now is offering a mobile headset product called CHS 132, which connects directly into the headset port of a mobile phone or hands-free cigarette lighter adapter. The product is designed to provide enhanced sound quality and driver safety, said the company.
“This is our first major program in the mobile marketplace,” said Joyce Shimizu, director of the office business market unit for Plantronics. “What we’re looking at right now are other small markets. The mobile industry has more and more consumers signing onto services. Voice activated dialing and voice activated voice mail are a breakthrough that will help take the danger out of using cellular phones [while driving]. The voice activation services are voice recognition based, and the performance of a speaker phone is not adequate to produce satisfactory results.”
A speaker phone is situated far from the speaker’s mouth, which results in background noise and distortions, commented Shimizu.
The Plantronics headset has a noise canceling microphone that enhances the transmitted voice signal. “For voice activated services, you want a very clean voice signal for a high degree of accuracy,” she said.
The headset’s design offers other advantages. “It’s not your typical headset. It’s very sleek and unobtrusive and is very easy to take off with one hand.”
Plantronics also is offering the CLA 132 high performance cellular headset adapter that plugs into a vehicle’s cigarette lighter receptacle and powers and charges Motorola Inc.’s MicroTac series and equivalent portable cellular phones while providing a headset port for use with the CHS 132 headset.
The CHS 132 is compatible with analog and digital cellular phones as well as personal communications services handsets that use Time Division Multiple Access and PCS 1900 technologies, said Shimizu. The product also is suited for cellular Global System for Mobile communications technology, which is used predominately throughout Europe. Shimizu said Plantronics is adapting the headset to be compatible with Code Division Multiple Access technology.
Plantronics posted a net income of $7.2 million, or 81 cents per share, for its second quarter of fiscal 1997 ended Sept. 30, a 15 percent increase from the previous year.
Revenues for the second quarter were $47.1 million, a 4 percent increase from its revenues of $45.2 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 1995.
