Synnex To Offer New Brand Of Products For Solution Providers

The first two products, PC NoteTaker and Mobile NoteTaker, use positioning technology to capture handwritten text and drawings that can be uploaded to a PC or notebook via USB, said John Paget, North America president and COO of Synnex, Fremont, Calif.

The devices sense the movements of a digital pen that also writes with ink. They can be used on paper or any surface, according to Paget. "It's like a tablet without the screen," he said, adding that the devices have a number of uses in vertical markets such as education and health care.

The handwritten text can be converted into text recognized by Microsoft Word using a Word handwriting-recognition add-on utility and Pen2Text, an application bundled with the devices.

Mobile NoteTaker has a suggested retail price of $149 and PC NoteTaker is $79, according to Synnex. The distributor did not reveal margins for solution providers compared with retailers, but at least one solution provider thinks that the products could be a hit.

"I like these kind of niche products. You end up offering the customer a solution and the price of the product becomes less of an issue," said Pat Walsh, president of Computer Station of Orlando, a Longwood, Fla.-based solution provider.

One user, United Locating Services, Missoula, Mont., employs the devices to draw out where utility lines are when someone needs to dig up a road. United Locating creates 2,300 sketches a day across multiple states, and its crews are using the devices for quicker access and storage of the sketches, said Aaron Gibbs, IT manager at United Locating.

"The amount of paper that stacks up over a year is incredible, and everything needs to be tracked. Having it electronically makes it so much easier," he said. Synnex plans to launch other NexConcepts products--some it will build and some it will OEM from other vendors, according to Paget.

The products will be available through distribution, direct marketers and retail outlets, Paget said.