Eclectic Electronics

Travel accessories

Huh?: USB memory drives, mini mice, foldable keyboards and various portable chargers are items well-suited for the road.

Consider: “Every type of industry has professionals on the go ... traveling to meet with clients, conduct training or sales presentations,” said Scott Pearson, vice president of merchandising for Sweda Company, City of Industry, Calif. “ Technology is traveling with us and there are all sorts of functional accessories to help make life easier.”

With mini mice or keyboards, making things easier means a focus on portability and solid construction. For USB drives, there are a variety of features available that are particularly useful for travel. Sweda Company, for example, offers a flash drive with fingerprint security, a good idea for anyone traveling with sensitive information like employee data or revenue figures. Going a different direction, Direct Connections Inc. can program any of its USB drives with something it calls “StickyDrive,” essentially a customizable browser for the drive that, among other things, makes easy work of sorting through huge masses of files.

User-friendliness: Good. Mice and keyboards will be similar to standard device upgrades, but typically easier to use, considering a lack of complexity is often a trade off for a smaller size. Any USB drive worth using should be simple by nature, functioning like an extension of the computer’s hard drive, but this can vary depending on how the drive’s interface is programmed.

MUSIC

Huh?: Now-ubiquitous portable music players like Apple’s iPod or other MP3 devices.

Consider: Many of the music players offered by suppliers are not Apple-affiliated, meaning they can work with any download client, be it Amazon’s or Walmart’s digital stores, as opposed to the iPod, which must be used with iTunes. This gives non-Apple music players a broader user base. However, from a form perspective, there’s no reason to let all of Apple’s marketing efforts go waste. Mirroring Apple’s sleek device style can be an excellent strategy for improving a promotion’s appeal. “The design is a popular design in retail,” said Crug.“I think that when they offer [something similar] to promote, it gives them added perceived value.”