PocketSurfer2 takes Zoho mobile & heads for Australia

Stuart Corner
Friday, 09 November 2007 02:43

Your IT - Entertainment

UK company DataWind has tied up with online office application provider Zoho to make Zoho applications available on its PocketSurfer2 mobile Internet access device which it intends to introduce to the Australian market within a month. The PocketSurfer2, www.pocketsurfer.co.uk, launched in July 2007, is claimed to be "the world's fastest handheld mobile internet device." It sells in the UK for £180 ($A410)and is billed as "allowing you to browse the web in its original HTML layout, with full graphics, Java support and other complex web functionality on a 640 x 240 colour wide screen display...[with] an integrated mouse pointer and a full format, backlit qwerty keyboard [making] it the most usable hand-held web device around." It is very compact, measuring 152 x 75 x 15mm and weighing 174gm

Its main claim to fame is its patented acceleration technology that is said to produce "page-load times of under seven seconds over GPRS...[where] comparative devices regularly take up to two minutes to download similar web pages." It is, however a 2G GSM devices so data speeds are limited compared to what is available on Australian 3G networks, especially Telstra's Next G.

It also comes with usage charges, included in the purchase price or the first year. After that, in the UK fees are £40 ($A91) for one year with a maximum of 20 hours per month, or £5.99 per month for unlimited usage.

Few details have been given as to how the product will be introduced into Australia. However, Derek Kopke, DataWind's VP of sales told iTWire: "we will be launching an Australian version of the PocketSurfer2 which will be in stores in less than a month.