The current copy of Wired magazine shows Brad Pitt with a Bluetooth headset and carries a warning: “Ditch the headset. He can barely pull it off – and you are not him.”
A company with deep roots in wireless wants to change that, so anyone – Brad Pitt or not – can wear a Bluetooth headset and look good doing so. Novero, part of which is composed of former Nokia assets, today released its first product, TheFirstOne, a premium Bluetooth earpiece.
“TheFirstOne is beautiful, yet unassuming and never the focus of attention,” states the product press release. The device is available for $149 at www.novero.com or through Amazon.com. The product includes accessories on top of accessories: a cradle for the car, a necklace or wearable clip and reusable packaging.
Novero founder and CEO Razvan Olosu says the company is not a startup; its executives have been in the business for a long time and the company is the result of a management buyout of Nokia’s Automotive Group. Novero has about 400 employees and its headquarters is in Dusseldorf, Germany. It has been designing solutions for consumers and automotive clients, including Land Rover, Volkswagen, BMW, Ford of Europe and others.
Novero is in the process of establishing its brand with consumers and while the industry already is home to well established accessory providers, Olosu says his mission is to serve niche markets that aren’t necessarily getting targeted. “Our big mission is to integrate the consumers’ lives with wireless and do it in a seamless manner … I would like to humanize technology.”
The company has about 10 or 12 different products in the pipeline and expects to start releasing more toward the end of this year and early next year.
