Logitech International S.A. engages in the development and marketing of products in PC navigation, Internet communications, digital music, home-entertainment control, interactive gaming and wireless devices.
The company’s products, for the PC, include mice, trackballs, keyboards, gaming controllers, multimedia speakers, headsets, webcams and 3D control devices. For digital music devices, the company’s products include speakers and headphones. For gaming consoles, the company offers a range of controllers and other accessories. In addition, Logitech offers wireless music solutions for the home and advanced remote controls for home entertainment systems. It sells products to a network of retail distributors and resellers and to original equipment manufacturers.
Products
The company engages in the design, development, production, marketing and support of personal peripheral products. Its personal peripheral products include PC navigation devices such as corded and cordless mice, trackballs and keyboards, and 3D control devices; Internet communication devices such as webcams and headsets; digital music devices such as speakers, headphones and wireless music systems; advanced remote controls for home entertainment control; and interactive gaming devices such as joysticks, gamepads, steering wheels and keyboards for PCs, and accessories for game consoles.
Pointing Devices and Keyboards
Mice
The company offers varieties of PC mice, sold through retail, OEM, and system builder channels. Most cordless pointing devices from Logitech use the company’s 2.4 GHz or proprietary 27 MHz digital radio technology to transmit data to the host computer. The company, in 2007, introduced the successor to the MX1000 mouse, the Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse.
The One-Touch Search button does away with the need to use a browser or toolbar to perform an Internet search. Document Quick-Flip quickly moves through multiple documents open within several applications.
The company’s mice products also include a line of gaming mice, including the G5 and G7 mice for gamers, which represent performance breakthroughs, such as the use of full-speed USB to transmit data at faster rates, 2.4 GHz digital cordless technology for a stronger wireless connection, 2000 dpi resolution for superior speed, custom weight tuning for the G5, and swappable, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for the G7. The notebook mouse line has been improved with the addition of the VX Revolution mouse, the V450 Laser Cordless Mouse for Notebooks, the V350 Optical Cordless Mouse for Notebooks, and the corded V150 Laser Mouse for Notebooks and V100 Optical Mouse for Notebooks. All of Logitech’s premium retail mice are bundled with Logitech SetPoint software, enabling users to program mouse buttons for specific tasks. The company also sells both corded and cordless mice designed specifically for OEM customers.
Trackballs
The company offers various trackballs for the retail channel. All corded and cordless models use Logitech’s patented Marble optical sensing technology, which enables accurate operation without the need to regularly clean the device to prevent buildup of dust or grease. The Cordless Optical TrackMan trackball also features a ‘cruise control’ scrolling feature as well as various programmable buttons to enhance usability.
3D Controllers
The company’s 3Dconnexion subsidiary offers 3D input devices for the field of 3D control. In the year 2007, 3Dconnexion introduced the SpaceNavigator, intended for people using mainstream 3D applications such as Google Earth and Google SketchUp. Approximately 300,000 professionals use 3Dconnexion controllers, including the SpacePilot, SpaceNavigator, SpaceExplorer, and SpaceTraveler.
Keyboards, Desktops and Notebook Stands
The company offers a variety of corded and cordless keyboards and desktops (keyboard-and-mouse combinations) from the rechargeable diNovo Edge keyboard to the basic Media Keyboard. The recent addition to the diNovo line is the diNovo Edge keyboard, the company’s first rechargeable keyboard. Less then 3/4 of an inch thick, the diNovo Edge combines sleek design with advanced technology, including Bluetooth 2.0, dynamic backlighting, a touch-sensitive volume control, an integrated TouchDisc for controlling the computer’s cursor, and improved key travel and resistance. The diNovo Edge is marketed separately to enable the user to select their favorite mouse complement – the MX or VX Revolution.
The Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser includes various buttons designed to help people take use of Windows Vista features, such as Flip 3D and Search. The company also introduced a new category with the Alto Notebook Stand, a one-piece notebook riser with an integrated, full-size keyboard. All keyboards offer Logitech’s SetPoint software, which enables one-touch access to a variety of common tasks, including launching music software, accessing the Internet, and starting a chat with Instant Messenger software.
Voice and Video Communications
Web Cameras
The company’s QuickCam webcams offers friends and family to keep in touch by seeing and talking to each other using their computers. It works with application developers to help deliver the video communications services and software that connect consumers and create demand for webcams. In addition, the company’s Logitech Video Effects avatars and face accessories software has become a main application for users wishing to record and post video to Web sites, with approximately 12 million downloads from www.logitech.com. The company, in the year 2007, introduced the QuickCam Ultra Vision webcam, offering a video calling experience by delivering twice the image clarity as that offered by typical webcams. This webcam features the Logitech RightLight 2 Technology – a system of hardware and software technologies designed to optimize video settings in low-light and uneven lighting environments.
Logitech’s performance webcams – the QuickCam Ultra Vision, QuickCam Fusion, QuickCam Orbit and QuickCam Pro 5000 products –include Logitech RightLight 2 Technology and the ability to record HD video. The company’s redesigned QuickCam software is included with all new webcams, complete with a new icon-based interface allowing access to all of the camera’s settings and features, including the Logitech Video Effects software. The company also expanded its line of webcams for the notebook PC market with the introduction of the QuickCam Deluxe for Notebooks and QuickCam for Notebooks.
PC Headsets, Microphones and VoIP Handsets
The company offers headsets, microphones and handsets designed for applications such as PC voice communications, Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications and online gaming. The Logitech Premium Notebook Headset is designed to enhance the experience of using Internet calling applications such as Skype, with a noise-canceling microphone, convenient in-line volume and mute controls, and the flexibility of connecting via digital USB ports or traditional analog (3.5 mm) ports.
The Logitech QuickCall USB Speakerphone delivers voice quality in a speakerphone by using a two-microphone array – one on each side of the wing-shaped phone – that can capture voices and sounds from a wider area in a room, transmitting even whispers from several feet away.
The Logitech Cordless Internet Handset makes using Skype on the PC. The Skype Certified handset supports the key Skype calling functions.
Audio
Speakers and Headphones
The company designs and manufactures a variety of multimedia speakers, from its 5.1-channel multi-platform, 505-watt Logitech Z-5500 Digital speakers and Z-5450 Digital speakers with wireless rear satellite speakers – both of which work with PCs, game consoles, televisions and DVD players and feature THX certification – to high-volume, two-piece speaker systems. The company, in the year 2007, launched the Z-10 Interactive Speaker System, which offers an interactive, tactile and visual experience. Using USB technology and software, the speakers can display track information from popular media players, including iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, and Musicmatch. The digital display also reveals a clock, volume levels and other system information from the PC.
The company’s product line includes speakers optimized for the iPod as well as a variety of portable platforms, from MP3 and CD players to notebook PCs. In the year 2007, the company extended its iPod speaker product line with the AudioStation and the AudioStation Express. The company also offers headphones for iPod and other MP3 players, including the new Logitech FreePulse Wireless headphones.
The company also offers the Logitech Noise Canceling headphones, which feature SilentSound noise canceling technology that can cancel up to 22 decibels of noise. They can be used with an iPod, PC or TV in the office, at home or on a plane.
Streaming Media
The company added the Squeezebox and Transporter products to streaming music systems lineup. Users can stream digital audio content from a PC or the Internet, and can leverage Internet audio services, such as Pandora and Rhapsody in the United States and similar services offered in other countries. The software for these products has been designed with contributions from a worldwide community of open-source developers. The company, in the year 2007, unveiled the Logitech Wireless DJ Music System, which connects the PC to a home-entertainment center or speaker system and plays any PC audio format, including MP3, iTunes (AAC), WMA, Internet radio, and podcasts, without requiring a wireless network. The long-range Wireless DJ remote, with its display and scroll wheel, can navigate a music collection from anywhere in the home.
Gaming
PC Game Controllers
The company offers a range of game controllers for PC gamers. The products address main game genres: joysticks for flight simulation; steering wheels for driving; gamepads for sports, action, and adventure games; mice and keyboards for strategy, RPG, and first-person gaming; and headsets for online gaming. They are focused on satisfying the needs of gamers and share some core Logitech technologies, such as cordless connection, force feedback, optical sensing, and interactive LCD. The company, in the year 2007, extended the G-series family of products with the Logitech G25 Racing Wheel. The Logitech G25 wheel offers advanced features.
Console Game Controllers and Accessories
The company offers products for console platforms such as PlayStation2, PlayStation3, PSP (PlayStation Portable), Xbox and Xbox 360. It works with platform providers and game developers throughout the world to develop new applications and technologies for this market. It also provides advanced software drivers and tools to game developers. The company, in the year 2007, introduced a line of products for the newly launched PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system that includes the new Logitech Cordless Precision controller, the Logitech ChillStream controller, the Logitech Cordless MediaBoard keyboard, the Logitech HDMI cable and the Logitech USB Headset.
Remote Controls
The company’s line of Harmony advanced remote controls with patented Smart State Technology provides complete control of elaborate entertainment system, including one-touch control of all entertainment activities. Its online database includes codes and characteristics needed to control approximately 200,000 different home-entertainment device models from approximately 5,000 different manufacturers. Logitech’s Harmony advanced remote controls offer interactive media capabilities, allowing users to select TV shows, movies or music titles from the interactive display. The new addition to the line is the Harmony 1000 remote, which features a 3.5-inch QVGA color touch-screen and includes radio frequency (RF) wireless technology, providing the ability to control components and systems that are hidden behind closed cabinets. The company also offers high-end solutions for custom installers and high-end audio-video dealers, which can control multi-room entertainment systems and some advanced lighting systems.
Collaborations
The company, in February 2007, in collaboration with Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), created the Logitech EPFL incubator, which would offer a select number of students and researchers financial, educational and functional support to develop their ideas into the technologies and personal peripherals of the future.
Acquisitions
Slim Devices – Streaming Media Systems: In October 2006, the company acquired Slim Devices, Inc. (Slim Devices), a privately held company specializing in network-based audio systems for digital music, based in Mountain View, California.
Competition
Corded and Cordless: Microsoft is the company’s main competitor in retail cordless (mice and desktops) and corded (mice and keyboards) categories.
Video: The company’s competitors for PC Web cameras include Creative Labs, Philips and Microsoft.
Audio: In the PC, mobile entertainment and communication platform speaker business, competitors include Plantronics and its Altec Lansing subsidiary, Creative Labs, and Bose Corporation. In the PC and console headset, telephony and microphone business, the company’s main competitors include Plantronics and its Altec Lansing subsidiary. Audio product portfolio competes with consumer electronics companies, like Sony and Philips.
Advanced Remote Controls: The company’s competitors include Philips, Universal Remote, Universal Electronics, RCA and Sony.
Gaming: Competitors for interactive entertainment products include Intec, Mad Catz, Pelican Accessories and Saitek Industries. The company’s controllers for PlayStation also compete against controllers offered by Sony.
History
Logitech International S.A. was founded in 1981.
