You all know I was just waiting for Papa Ed over at Brighthand.com to chime in on the REDFLY that he got the chance to demo at CES. I figured since he was so enamored with the Foleo, he'd be sure to go for this thing.
Dear reader, my wait has paid off. Well, sort of at least.
Like a lot of other people smoking pixie dust trying to give the device the benefit of the doubt, Ed Hardy breaks from tradition and stings the REDFLY on its lack of multi-media capabilities. Rightly letting the cat out of the bag that this thing doesn't do multi-media well.
No, duh people. (Unfortunately, Ed hedges his bets for when there is a review unit, I'm forecasting a thumbs up from Ed).
In a move even more bone headed than the Palm Foleo, the creators of the REDFLY Mobile Companion, have made a simple dumb terminal. All the thing does it display what's on the screen of your Windows Mobile device to the screen of the REDFLY. It doesn't do anything else and for this, they want you to shell out $500.
I went on record last week saying this thing needs to follow the path of the Foleo and die a quick death. Not because I have anything against the folks that make the REDFLY (seem like decent enough folk), but it's because it still (just like the Foleo) is a dumb and over priced concept.
Remember when the battle cry was to carry less stuff? Why are we returning now to companies wanting us to carry more stuff? Now, all of a sudden, your phone needs a "companion". You aren't already happy enough to have shed devices that they now want you to get more of them?
We here at Morning Paper were about to start blogging live from the floor of CES with nothing but a Windows Mobile and Palm OS phone, virtually impossible a year ago.
Things are converging, like it or not. We will soon have very capable devices that are no larger than the phones we have. It is already amazing what can be done with the one device we all carry with us already.
I'm going to leave the REDFLY alone now. The thing is said to debut in March and the market will have ample opportunity to vote with their dollars.
It's still a dumb idea, though. I'm just sayin'.
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