April 11, 2005 - “IF YOU can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” That seems to be the reasoning behind Panasonic’s announcement that a handheld product will soon join its range of IFE systems.

Though physical details of the new offering are still sparse, the company says that the first of a family of Portable Media Players (PMPs) will be launched in the second half of this year. The Panasonic range is currently spearheaded by today’s eFX and the in-development eX2, both of which are embedded systems.

“We are pleased to offer portable IFE as an extension to our X-series product line,” says Chris Lundquist, general manager product planning. “For certain markets and airlines, portable IFE is perfect.”

The first PMP to see the light of day will feature a 7in screen, an integrated credit-card reader and a graphical user interface able to support advertising and airline branding. Larger screen sizes and added functionality are to be introduced next year.

Industry observers suggest that Panasonic plans to steal a march on the present market leader, APS/Wencor’s digEplayer, by offering a device capable of communicating wirelessly with a head-end server on the aircraft. This would allow PMP to provide not only entertainment playback but also interactive functions such as data communications and inflight shopping.

Panasonic has also clearly heeded emerging signs of dissatisfaction with the level of in-service support currently on offer in the handheld sector. Describing PMP as “a total solution approach,” the company says that its worldwide maintenance services group has the infrastructure and experience to manage content loading, battery charging, maintenance and servicing.

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