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Many workers on the go have their smartphones and their laptops, but do they really need both? A Utah company has a product that bridges the gap between these two things.
It's called the REDFLY, and product managers say it unleashes the power of your smartphone.
Celio Corp. Enterprise Account Manager Andrew Johnson said, "We have three times as along battery [life] that actually extends your phone as well as charges it when you're connected to the REDFLY."
It's a two pound box that connects to your smartphone, making it easier to surf the net. It gives users an eight inch screen instead of the small one on the phone, plus it gives users tools they can't really use well with just a phone.
"With Windows Mobile it comes with PowerPoint, it comes with Excel and Word as well as a note-taker," Johnson said.
While it may look like a laptop, Johnson says it's really just an extension of the phone, meaning if you can't download games or music to your phone, you won't be able to do it with REDFLY either. But it does have USB ports to read your video iPod or external memory.
"We've actually loaded hard drives and it has read hard drives up to about 400 gigs," he said.
The trick for Celio Corp. is to find a new market for a new product, which didn't really work when Microsoft invented the Origami. Johnson says its biggest customer is the Memphis Police Department who puts it in their patrol cars.
"When they're coupled with a smartphone and the REDFLY along with some software, it allows them to pull up police records, gun serial numbers, license plates, things like that," he said.
But with the economy in the shape it's in, is it safe to try to create a market for a product that hasn't existed yet?
Spring Capital Managing Director Edward Dean Ekstrom said, "We're going to invest our way through it. Most smart companies do."
Spring Capital is investing in the REDFLY. Ekstrom says there's nothing else on the market like it yet.
"But competition will come. The biggest form of flattery is when somebody copies you. When competition comes, that will be validation," he said.
For now, REDFLY only works with Windows Mobile.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
