CTIA09: Celio to release REDFLY Mobile Viewer public beta later today

To put it gently, the Celio REDFLY didn’t launch without criticism. Essentially a mono-purposed netbook which is fueled by and acts as an extension of a Windows Mobile smartphone, the REDFLY pulls your WinMo handset’s display onto its own, and pushes all keyboard/touchpad input back to the handset. The main issue people seemed to have is that they simply didn’t understand why it was necessary; they already carried a laptop, and they already carried a phone – why bring more hardware into the mix?

A few months ago, Celio announced that they were working on a fix for this fault. Rather than requiring users to add more gear to their kit, they would release an application which more or less replicated the functionality of the REDFLY on any Windows computer.

Later today, Celio will be releasing the first public beta of this app, which they’re now calling the REDFLY Mobile Viewer. The application will be free throughout the beta once it’s made available on Celio’s site, but will go for $39.95 once the beta has come to an end.