The (near) future of Personal Computing is here, pt. 2. May 22, 2008
Posted by N9IK in : technology , trackbackI have read several times during this past year that the volume of sales of personal computers in Japan has declined, and that this trend is expected to continue and spread to other markets, the US and Europe included. One of the (many) reasons for this is the continuing increase in functionality, processing power and speed of cellular phones – especially “smart” phones.
More and more, cellular phones have sufficient processing power and memory to run not just email and web browsing app’s, but also full-fledged word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications, not to mention games, mp3 and video players, and still- and video-cameras, and oh yes, the GPS. There is still a long way to go before the hand-held device will completely replace the desktop or laptop PC for those home and business users that need more “oomph”, to do photo and video editing, for example.
Having said all of this, it is still obvious that sometimes the small screen real estate and tiny keyboards are just not sufficient. With this in mind, Celio Technology Company recently developed and released what they are calling the “REDFLY Mobile Companion” that “extends the the Smartphone with the most valuable features of a laptop. This is a 1″x6″x9″, two-pound device that looks like a small laptop, but does not have a processor, storage, or RAM. Instead, it is essentially a clam-shell combination of keyboard and video monitor, with a touchpad mouse, a VGA port to plug in an external monitor or projector, Bluetooth, and two USB ports.
At roughly $500 per, these are a bit pricey considering that you can buy a full-fledged laptop for less that that. As far as I can tell, the REDFLY is being marketed directly only to businesses – specifically sales forces, but it’s only a matter of time before something like this is marketed as an inexpensive companion device for consumers.
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?