A Technomation Studios employee displays a prototype Defined-e. Pic: Hein Latt Aung

DICTIONARY, camera, MP4 player and Windows capable – sounds awfully like a mobile telephone doesn’t it? But it’s not – it’s the Defined-e and is able to perform all of the above functions at a cost of around K100,000 says the CEO of the company that will make it.

He says the Defined-e out-features all of the competition and comes in cheaper too.

U Htoo Myint Naung, the chief executive officer of the Technomation Studios, says his company is working with A&T International to produce the pocket-sized computing gadget, adding that it’s aimed at students.

When it hits shelves early next year, the Defined-e will have come from domestic factories and will rely on local software, although it will be assembled using imported parts, he said.

When it enters the market the Defined-e will compete against a range of similar products ranging from MP4 players, mobile telephones and electronic dictionaries but U Myint Thu, the spokesperson of the Technomation Studios, says he is confident it will find a share of the market.

“Our main target customers are students,” said U Myint Thu, adding that the product may come with a one-year warranty.

At 3.7 inches (9.25 centimetres) long, 2.3 inches (5.75cm) wide and 0.5 inches (1.25cm) thick, the gadget will come with four memory levels – from 1-4 gigabytes – and consumers will have six colour options.

It will have a 3-inch LCD touch screen that users will be able to write on using an electronic pen. This text will then be automatically recognised by software and converted into normal Word text.

There will also be a 1.3-megapixel camera, a speaker, USB port, Micro SD Card slot, ear phone jack and a microphone.

Technomation Studios say battery life should be good for about five hours.
“It can run Windows CE operating system and support .Net framework. It will allow users to access applications including the Microsoft office suite,” said U Htoo Myint Naung.

Since the product is being assembled in Myanmar it will offer both Myanmar and English fonts.

And being an MP4 player, users can also watch videos and listen to music, he said.

U Htoo Myint Naung said the company hopes to sell 50,000 units a year.
Initial public reaction to the new product has been positive. Daw Khin Thuzar, a director at the Cybertron computer centre in Kyauktada township, said the gadget has potential if it does all that it’s supposed to.

“Some electronic dictionaries that have MP3 functions sell for about K60,000. If this Defined-e performs as a dictionary and MP4 player and offers still more functions it will be worth its price,” she said.

Ko Ye Naing, 28, said that some of the music features, such as letting users name songs and search through albums in Myanmar language, could attract current MP4 owners.

“For me this product looks more useful than most MP4 players that you can currently buy. And because it comes with a one-year warranty and will let you read e-books catches my interest. I think I’ll be buying one when it’s released.”