Windows Phone Thoughts: CES 2008: Redfly Mobile Companion Hands-On

If you caught Darius' post a couple of days ago on this device, you'll know there is a lot of skepticism on both the merits of the Redfly and it's laptop-like price. To further inform the debate, we've got two CES 2008 hands-on experience links to relate:

•The first is from jkOnTheRun, who managed to corner Celio into answering some questions. Money quote: "We asked about the $499 price tag indicating that folks might be reluctant at that price point. Celio's response was that the Redfly isn't really a companion to your device; it's an extension of your smartphone and gives you instant access to your data on an easy to carry package." Er, say what?! There's a difference?

• Second from Gizmodo, who (besides taking some nice pics) say, "Is it worth $499? Only if you're really dependent on your Windows Mobile phone and don't want to carry around a UMPC with you. It also has 8 hours of battery life and charges your phone during use, which helps justify the price tag." Not to me it doesn't.

How much is the Redfly worth? If you put in all the capabilities that the Redfly has, you might be able to justify dropping half a grand on it - but then you'd get much greater value just picking up a basic laptop, or one of the new Intel MIDs. And I'm guessing that a lot of the opinion will fall on that side of the argument - we may already have the makings of vapourware of the year for 2008.

Update: Ed Hardy at Brighthand has a mini-review up that's even better reading.