From the REDFLY web page:
“The REDFLY Mobile Companion is a sleek clamshell design that includes an 8″ display, a full function keyboard, and a touchpad mouse. Measuring just 1×6x9 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.”

The REDFLY is an amazing piece of technology. “It wirelessly extends the smartphone to a larger display, full keyboard, mouse and USB ports. Any application on the smartphone is shown instantly on the new display without modification or synchronization.” All it takes is an Interface Driver, loaded on the Smartphone without any additional configuration. That’s pretty amazing when you consider how little processing power a Smartphone posesses.

It’s a “laptop adjunct” for a smartphone, not a laptop carrier for a handtop, but does it point the way to things to come? If Celiocorp thinks there was enough of a market for such a device to extend a smartphone, why wouldn’t Sony, OQO, or another UMPC manufacturer see the benefits?

The REDFLY should cost about $500. That may be a bit steep for a laptop adjunct for a Smartphone when a laptop costs just a bit more and gives a lot more functionality. However, if such a device were developed for UMPCs, it would be cheaper and easier than buying a separate laptop and synching, swapping USB sticks, or some other method of duplicating data files.