Different Types of Portable Devices Gaining Popularity

Some people would laugh if you said that the only portable digital products on the market are cell phones, PDAs and notebook computers. These people are carrying around such devices as scanners, printers, projectors and DVD players, once recognized for use on desktops only.

Portable photocopiers

Kim Tae-woo and Hong Young-joo are two college students who entered the Management Department at Hongik University who do not like waiting in line at the library. Instead, they scan passages from books using portable scanners which they carry all the time in their bags, and then save their notes in laptops. Sometimes, they even print them out on the spot with a portable printer.

“Since I can copy what I need right away, I never waste any more time standing in line at the photocopier,” Kim said.

Portable scanner

HP Photo Smart 1200 (190,000 won)

Portable Printer

HP Deskjet 450 (290,000)

Portable DVD players

Oh Sang-gyo, an auto salesman, takes his portable DVD player to sales meetings, when his other colleagues fill their briefcases with pamphlets and estimate samples. He dazzles his potential customers with DVD quality automobile commercials that could previously only be seen on larger, heavier TVs.

“An automobile has more than 20,000 parts. How can you possibly explain this to a potential buyer with a few phrases and piece of paper?” he said.

Portable CD plus DVD player

Sharp DV-L80TV (1.2 million won)

Portable projectors

Shin Jin-sup, a senior manager at the advertising agency Youngcom still remembers his worst on the job experience. When he arrived at a bidding presentation meeting, he found that he could not open his materials which were saved on his laptop. When he finally managed to gain access, he was not able to see all his colors due to the low-quality projector prepared by the sponsor. He did not get the project.

Now, he saves all his materials on a portable hard disk and uses a portable beam projector so that he can give the best presentations he possibly can.

Portable beam projector

Sony VPL-CS2 (4.2 million won)

Portable hard disk

Anypak1.1 20G (170,000 won)

Portable servers

Computer programmer Lee Jae-hee used to rent trucks when participating in exhibitions. He would also have to recruit the help of 3 to 4 colleagues to move the five to six large server PCs and printers as well.

These days, he takes his own car because he now carries a high-quality notebook computer that doubles as a temporary server, and several other notebook computers that are used instead of the cumbersome desktop PC and brick-size portable printer in his trunk. He still has room left over for a few bottles of water.

Workstation-level notebook

Fujitsu E-2010 CM22 (2.8 million won)

Portable printer

Lotte Cannon BJC-55 (350,000 won)

Seong-Yub Ra cpu@donga.com