Still More Michigan Tech Mojo At CES
Another day, another bevy of cool Michigan technology companies at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
I started my North Hall visit with Comfort Research, a company founded in Wyoming, near Grand Rapids, in 1997 by two entrepreneurs, Matt Jung and Chip George.
They started out making giant bean-bag chairs filled with polyurethane foam, which is more comfortable and easier to ship than earlier bean-bag fillers.
They got the idea to build videogame rocking chairs five years ago and started adding speakers and other electronics to them a year later. Now, they sell video gaming chairs to the big box and Internet markets.
Coolest of all, they have a license with Disney to market Tron-themed chairs.
Well, maybe not coolest of all. For PC gamers -- folks my age, in their 40s and 50s -- they're marketing the Zeus Hero office chair, a plush $199 office chair that happens to have video game hookups, a subwoofer in the back and two full range speakers in the headrest. And of course I want one.
George said it's Comfort Research's first time at CES, after having displayed at several major furniture and housewares shows, and they're looking to meet more potential wholesale buyers.
Comfort Research currently has 120 employees, and George said the company does as much of its manufacturing as possible domestically.
More at www.comfortresearch.com.
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Next up was Ferndale-based Wireox, a supplier of wireless phone accessories. Senior sales exec Kevin Karasinski said the company supplies cell phone refurbishing companies with data cables, boxes, manuals, batteries and other parts.
Wireox also supplies phone wholesalers with packging and products, manufactured under its own brand name, Mivolt, at a Wireox plant in China. Included is everything from Bluetooth headsets to chargers.
The coolest new item: a $99 integrated wireless keyboard case for the iPad. It turns any iPad into a complete computer.
"It's been a hit here at the show," Karaskinski said.
Karasinski said Wireox is at CES for the first time looking to meet distributors and larger retailers. The company has about 25 employees.
More at www.wireox.com.
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Then it was off to a simply amazing company called Got2bWireless, a Wixom company that's doing all those Bluetooth hands-free phone accessory makers -- and even Ford's Sync -- one better.
Got2bWireless sells hands-free devices that allow you to operate your wireless phone hands-free while driving. But that's about the least of what they do. When you buy Got2bWireless, you also get a service that does everything from read your e-mails to you while you drive to let you text-message people by voice command to update your Facebook and Twitter accounts by voice command to check our Outlook calendar.
The service is free for one year when you buy the Got2bWireless gizmo and $49 a year thereafter. The service is housed at computer servers at Got2bWireless headquarters, with a backup site in Canada.
Partners Tim Suri, a former executive at hands-free equipment maker Parrot, and Paul Pawlusiak founded the company last year. Already, they're filling 15,000-unit orders for European automakers. You can also buy their products at Sears, ABC and Mickey Shorr, and they're landing more retailers both offline and online at CES. In fact, Suri said, Got2bWireless' biggest problem now is finding the financing to expand.
The company now has seven employees.
More at www.got2bwireless.com.
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Then I stopped by Silent Call, another Michigan-based manufacturer of warning devices for the deaf and hard of hearing. Silent Call, founded 27 years ago, makes alerting devices -- clocks with under-bed vibrators and strobe lights to warn the deaf and hard of hearing of everything from incoming phone calls to smoke alarms.
The company's products retail from $239 to $289 and feature battery backup for power outages.
The company is part of the CES SilversSummit tech zone for seniors. The company's at CES for the second time, looking to meet new distributors, health care providers and agencies.
More at www.silentcall.com.
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North Hall was also the home to HMDX, another nameplate of Homedics, which I covered Friday. It offered a bunch of iPhone and iPad docking and speaker stations.
And then there was Benton Harbor-based Whirlpool, in a nice display in the Mommy Tech tech zone with four high-tech top-of-the-line washers and dryers.
The washers offer features like LED screens with specific instructions based on specific stains, color and fabric selections. There's also an automatic detergent dispenser -- you pour in a whole jug, then tell the machine what kind of clothes you're washing and how dirty they are, and the machine will decide how much detergent to use. (Whirlpool says that's because most people use way too much detergent.)
The machnies also offer cycles depending on whether you want the clothes done more quickly, washed in a gentler fashion or washed in a more eco-friendly fashion.
One line even features a USB port for future updates to wash cycles as fabric technology evolves.
These aren't cheapies, however. The washers and dryers displayed retail for $1,499 and $1,999 -- each.
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Then it was off to the press room to file this story before wrapping up my CES 2011 visit with a visit to a few more companies in the cavernous South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
