Redfly Mobile Companion for Windows Mobile Devices

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.celiocorp.com/products.php' target='_blank'>http://www.celiocorp.com/products.php</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Smartphones have laptop power in a pocket-size design. But the pocket-size design has a natural limitation in the size of the keyboard and screen. Celio Corp extends the Smartphone with the most valuable features of a laptop. The REDFLY Mobile Companion is a sleek clamshell design that includes an 8" display, a full function keyboard, and a touchpad mouse. Measuring just 1x6x9 inches and only 2 pounds, the REDFLY Mobile Companion offers over 8 hours of battery life and boots instantly! It also adds three new features - instant VGA output, access to USB flash drives, and the ability to charge your smartphone via USB. REDFLY is very unique - it changes the resolution of your smartphone display so that applications, web sites, email, and attachments all have more room to play!"</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20080104-redfly.jpg" /><br /><br />With a keyboard, touchpad, display, USB, and VGA-out, it really doesn't take much to view the <a href="http://www.celiocorp.com/products.php">Redfly Mobile Companion</a> as a compact laptop. But it's not. Think of it as an extender for your Windows Mobile device. It's a neat concept, although it's questionable as to whether it's a practical one. There's already a discussion brewing at our sister site, <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/showthread.php?t=31968">Smartphone Thoughts</a>, where readers are questioning why consumers would settle for this $500 device over an actual laptop? Your thoughts on this one?<br /><br />On a different note, our own Jason Dunn will be walking the floors of CES, so expect to hear more about this product over the coming days.

[alese]

Too expensive for what it does.
If it would be cheaper then it could be a nice accessory for the phone, but for $500 one could duplicate the functionality with Asus EEE and even save some money...

[tendomentis]

Not for $500, sorry. Maybe if it was a $100 or $200 add-on, but considering that my Latitude D410 ultra-compact laptop cost me $493+shipping and included a next day repair plan and runs Vista Ultimate and has WiFi and Bluetooth and an 80GB hard disk etc, why would I spend that much on what amounts to a Windows Mobile Foleo that does maybe a tenth of that?

[Rod3]

Looks to me like another Foleo, too. And that one didn't do so well. I didn't much see the point of the first one. I have an Asus Eee that has more functionality, I think.

[bkerrins]

This is completely the wrong direction for me. I'm expecting my PDA to get faster and more powerful and function exactly like a laptop. My expectations are that the PDA (phone/GPS/ etc) simply be my computer. I would then hook up a keyboard and/or monitor via wireless connection when I have large projects to work on. The last thing I want is a laptop that preforms like a current day PDA.

[virain]

You can have Asus EEE for less money, which is full featered umpc

[sesummers]

I can't understand why these people think it should be worth that much. I can buy a 19" LCD display for $150, and an add-on keyboard for another $50, tops. Considering the small display size, I can't see why they couldn't sell something like this for $200. At that price, they might sell a few. At $500, they won't- and the idiots in their marketing department will attribute that to no demand, rather than their stupid pricing decision.

[Eriq Cook]

Reminds me of the Palm Folio. An ok idea (not the Folio) but too expensive to just be an "extender" of sorts. I'd rather buy a fully functional mini-notebook for $200 more.

[Eriq Cook]

You can have Asus EEE for less money, which is full featered umpc

My thoughts exactly.

[Russ Smith]

I think you guys might be missing some of the implications here. This isn't like a Folio. A Folio was a Palm device built with the form-factor of a laptop. With the Folio, you got all the carrying difficulties of a lap-top with all the program functionality limitations of a PDA -- the worst of both worlds. This is an add-on that wirelessly allows your existing PDA to use a large screen, keyboard, mouse, and USB devices and includes the capability to send the video to an external monitor or projector. You'll pay about $200 for a device that allows you to (sort-of) give a PowerPoint presentation from your handheld, but you have to upload the presentation to the device and you're limited in terms of transitions, backgrounds, and can't do embedded video at all. With the REDFLY, you could do any presentation on your handtop without a lot of limitations.

I can understand owning a UMPC when you want/need the power of desktop applications or the compatiblity to run a certain program, but if you don't, you can get 8 hours of use out of the REDFLY on battery. What's the battery use time on the EEE? If you go with the UMPC-Smartphone/PDA combination, you're still going to want a full-sized keyboard, a full-sized monitor, a mouse, and you're still going to have to do all that @$#%&amp;@% synching.

Finally, I can see a possible next move of making a REDFLY module to which you could plug in your monitor, your mouse, your keyboard, and your USB devices and could conceivably cost about $200. I'd buy that.

[sesummers]

I think you guys might be missing some of the implications here. This isn't like a Folio...This is an add-on that wirelessly allows your existing PDA to use a large screen, keyboard, mouse, and USB devices and includes the capability to send the video to an external monitor or projector.
I understand the implications- it's like an external keyboard with an external screen and stuff added on- the brain is still the Pocket PC. I really do like the idea. I'm just not willing to pay $500 for it.

Given that I can buy a 17" flat panel display for close to $100, and an external PPC keyboard for $50, why can't I buy an integrated 7" flat panel display and keyboard for $200 instead of $500? If the price were reasonable, this could be a really popular product. At the price of a low-end laptop, they aren't going to sell any.

[Russ Smith]

From what you wrote, I can see that you do get it. I should say that I get the price problem too. On the one hand, this is a wirelessly connected external monitor and keyboard and mouse and USB host ports and external video-out, all powered by a rechargeable battery and in an easy to carry along form. $500 isn't unreasonable for what you're getting.

It's not that the REDFLY is over-priced. It's that the functionality it delivers isn't worth the $500 for most of us. One hopes that the R&amp;D that went into this can be leveraged into something less expensive later on.

I'm still somewhat tempted. I paid $200 for a device that lets me do presentations from my PPC (something like the Impatica Showmate) and it doesn't do as much as the built-in screen can do :( I'd love to be able to do decent presentations without having to resort to UMPC or laptop. During a recent vacation, I used my PPC to do a lot of web-browsing to find venues and such. I would have appreciated the larger screen, keyboard, and mouse in the hotel room. Still, the $500 seems too steep.

[IpaqMan2]

I realize my reply to this post is on old information, but it bugs me how clueless so many people are. The debate why people would choose this over a laptop is the same dumb and stupid debate that we have seen over the years about change in the PDA community. (from year back) Why do we need color displays, I can do everything I want in a monochrome display. Why do we need an mp3 player on my pda I already have a dedicated music player. Why would anyone ever want a minuter hdd on their PDA when flash flash memory is easy and cost 17 times more than hard drive space... because not everyone is you with a small restricted box around your head that prevents you from seeing what other people would want and can do with the same device.

In short....The question was asked:
There's already a discussion brewing at our sister site, Smartphone Thoughts, where readers are questioning why consumers would settle for this $500 device over an actual laptop?

You would think no one in here as ever supported end users: The answer to this is easy... Because this device, unlike a PC running Windows of any flavor of your choice, will allow you to have the freedom of using your PDA on a bigger device with out the headaches of a PC that must load from a hard drive, constantly update for security patches, run software additional software like anti virus programs, and all the other bloated junk that end users tend to get on their PCs - which usually causes a PC to slowdown and even fail. Now think END USERS HERE. THINK of the Mom and Pops. Think of those people who never figured out how to stop the blinking clock on the VCRs. These are the people whose smart phone may be the most technically advance piece of equipment they may own and would like something with a bigger screen to add their contacts, and or do other things related to their smartphones, but would not want to use a PC or laptop.

[Russ Smith]

Wow. Well put IpaqMan2. The only thing I'd add is that I also tend to look at this as a harbinger of what may come. The REDFLY is at that odd spot that a lot of emergent tech finds itself. It costs a bit more in the first or second generation, but soon becomes so commonplace that we wonder how we ever did without. As WM continues to mature, the capabilities will continue to get closer to their desktop counterparts. (Take TextMaker and Opera Mobile (and even Mini) for example.) As they get better, it might make more sense for some people to go with something like a REDFLY as opposed to a conventional laptop.