By April 2007 more than 100 individuals and businesses owned at least one Segway PT in New Zealand, and we were predicting the national fleet would exceed 200 before the end of the year.
"A very wide range of individuals with physical and/or neurological impairment are enjoying life in ways they never thought possible thanks to their Segway PT"
This sentence predicted the future strength of this user segment for the Segway PT. For example, in the decade to 2023 more than half of annual sales of Segway PTs in NZ has been to disabled users.
The newsletter also discussed other market segments, noting for example that by early-2007 half of the Universities in New Zealand had deployed Segway PTs for security patrols, mail delivery and/or research.
Segway Tours were beginning to take off around the country, with businesses underway in Taupo, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown. Segway New Zealand was offering private tours in the Auckland and Tauranga regions - it would be 2008 before the first tour opened in Devonport, Auckland. Within a couple of years Segway Tours would be established in locations from Whangarei to Dunedin, and in a dozen places in-between (at various times).
Other highlights in this Newsletter was a freeze-frame of a video of Segway On Q's Kevin Hey as he knocks the bugger off (to paraphrase Sir Edmund Hillary) by climbing the world's steepest street on a Segway PT (Baldwin Street, Dunedin).
PC World NZ reviewed the Segway x2, voting it one of the Top 20 Most Innovative Products of the year, while our Newsletter highlighted the benefits of the x2 Golf model. Tauranga's Dr Shaun Holt claimed "I can play 14 holes in an hour. Plus, I'm playing better than I've ever played". Dr Holt was the first person in the Southern Hemisphere to take ownership this new golf model.
NZ owners of 'Gen 2' Segway PTs (ie i2 & x2) received a nice little surprise with this newsletter - a free Wristband (and matching bezel) so they could wear their InfoKey as a watch. The strap could also be used when the InfoKey was in the Dock, securing it around the LeanSteer Frame should it become dislodged during riding.
**********
From our archives:
Here is a copy of the Safety Notice (voluntary recall) letter produced by Segway, Inc. announcing that all first-generation ('Gen 1') Segway PTs - or HTs, as they were originally known - could receive a software revision.
This revision (v14.2) removed a bug that could result in a fall if the speed limiter was engaged and the rider came off and then back onto the platform within a short period of time (e.g. if they jumped or bounced up and down on the mats while the speed limiter was engaged).
The revision also enabled all i167, e167 and i170 models to use Lithium battery packs first introduced with the i180 models. It also reduced the maximum speed of the power-assist mode.
