Smart Adds cut cost of Gizmondo

Gizmondo Europe has announced the release of Smart Add enabled Gizmondos. For £129 (£100 less than the standard Gizmondo price) you’ll be able to pick up one of the new Smart Add enabled handhelds which are identical to a standard unit, but include an ad delivery system.

Adverts and promotions will be sent to your device every day (three per day max) as a way to subsidise the cost of the unit. The ads will feature anything from movie trailers to album previews and will never interrupt your use of the device; the ads will only be displayed when you return to the Home menu. Ads will also be targeted to the user, meaning young outgoing people won’t be bombarded with adverts for products which they have no interest in.

Peter Lilley, Head of Smart Adds, says: “Imagine the emotional power of TV combined with the accountability of direct marketing, the accuracy of direct mail and the mobile interactivity of SMS; that’s what a Smart Add is. A Smart Adds-enabled Gizmondo is effectively being subsidized by the marketing budgets of major youth and product brands in return for showing the consumer their latest ads.” He continued, “The brands will have to be relevant and interesting to our demographic to be allowed on Smart Adds, and we believe they in turn will look forward to receiving them.”

The Smart Add enabled Gizmondo will be available from April 22nd and will come in two packages. The standard pack contains a battery, charger, earbud headphones, USB lead, and a contract free SIM card with £5 of credit, and the Value pack contains all the above and plus an extra £90 worth of accessories and games. These include Hifi stereo headphones instead of the earbuds, a recordable 128MB recordable SD card containing demos of games, films and music, a free copy of Trailblazer, and a voucher for the first ever GPS game, Colors. The standard pack will retail for £129 while the Extra Value pack will retail for £199.

Customers who wish to switch to a Smart Adds enabled Gizmondo will be able to upgrade their device and receive a voucher for all the accessories included in the Value pack.

Carl Freer, Co-founder and Chairman, Tiger Telematics, says: “We’ve enjoyed an accelerated success with the Gizmondo, and in doing so have met the conditions we set ourselves for the introduction of this Smart Add-enabled version of the device. It’s attractive to the consumer not only because of the lower price point, but also as it could effectively pay for itself in product discounts and free merchandise.”

The full roll out of Smart Adds is expected on May 2nd 2005.