CTIA Follow Up
Will the new Mobile Viewer cannibalize Celio’s REDFLY hardware sales?
CTIA was a big occasion for Celio Corp. The announcement of the new REDFLY Mobile Viewer, now in Public Beta, allows users to extend their smartphone applications to the display and keyboard of their laptop or desktop PC. The Andrew Seybold Choice Awards named the REDFLY Mobile Companion the most Innovative Mobile Service. And Celio announced support for an additional 18 Windows Mobile compatible phones.
In the course of Celio’s CTIA briefings an analyst asked, “Will the Mobile Viewer cannibalize Celio’s REDFLY hardware sales?” That’s a great question. We’ll answer it here.
Celio’s mission, which we state in every presentation and announcement, is to create, define and drive the technologies that allow the smartphone to become the primary mobile computing device.
The Mobile Viewer is directly in line with that vision. Clearly, the ability to instantly view and use the smartphone’s applications from a laptop or desktop PC has wide applicability and it opens REDFLY functionality up to a new assortment of users. But could it reduce the acceptance and sales of the REDFLY Mobile Companion itself?
In a word, no. Consider this: Gartner is reporting that even in a down market smartphone sales increased by 3.7% for Q4 2008 and analyst firm iSuppli is projecting growth of more than 11% for 2009, which by even conservative estimates would mean an additional 183.9M smartphone unit sales.
For some users, the ability to use smartphone applications from existing laptop PCs is sufficient. But for tens of thousands of others, the convenience of using smartphone applications outside of the office - and without having to carry or fire up a laptop PC - makes the REDFLY Mobile Companion form factor the winning key. In fact, the REDFLY is regularly eliminating the need to buy and support additional laptops for field force workers such as police officers, mobile healthcare professionals, and myriads of other mobile service providers.
For us, it is all about giving users more ways to interact with their smartphones as the smartphone becomes the primary computing device. If you or your company’s IT Staff want an instant-on, low TCO, no maintenance hassle (no PC upkeep, virus protection, etc.) larger screen and keyboard for your smartphone - REDFLY Mobile Companion is right for you. If you don’t mind waiting for your laptop to boot, keeping two data plans, maintaining two sets of apps, or need the full computing abilities of a laptop (Photoshop, video editing etc.), but still want a larger screen and keyboard for your smartphone usage - REDFLY Mobile Viewer is for you.
If Celio’s mission is to drive and create the technologies to enhance smartphone computing in a way that meets every user’s needs and desires, then clearly the Mobile Viewer is one of the necessary components of that vision. Even more clearly, Celio’s overall market share and hardware presence will continue to mirror the growth of smartphone usage.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:25 am
[...] People have also been asking Celio if this software would cannibalize REDFLY Mobile Companion sales and they answer this in a new blog post. [...]
April 8th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I own a 1st generation Redfly but am looking forward to giving this beta app a try on my netbook. I hope the production version is reasonably priced. Any chance it will be offered at a discount for Redfly owners?
April 9th, 2009 at 8:39 am
@Todd,
Yes, existing and future REDFLY hardware owners will be able to purchase the REDFLY Mobile Viewer software at a significant discount.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:08 am
What will the price of the Mobile Viewer be? I am trying it out now another great product please keep up the great work.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
The Mobile Viewer MSRP will most likely be around $40 and existing REDFLY Mobile Companion customers will be able to buy it for likely 50% to 75% off MRSP.