Sony and Mobile Products Put Orange County Real Estate Agents on the Road to High Tech Home Sales
IRVINE, Calif. — June 12, 1995 — Orange County real estate agents are moving into the 21st century of home sales now that Sony Electronics and Mobile Products, Inc., have up to provide a powerful and easy-to-use portable solution for accessing, storing and retrieving up-to-the-minute property information from the Orange County Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
Sony's Magic Link(TM) personal communicator and Mobile Products' Mobile MLS(TM) software provide real estate agents with a means for storing and accessing property listings. The Magic Link communicator also serves as a personal information manager and communication tool that gives real estate agents an immediate competitive advantage.
The first product to hit the market based on General Magic's Magic Cap(TM) platform and Telescript technology, Sony's Magic Link communicator enables faxing, sending and receiving electronic mail, access to on-line services, nationwide paging, appointment scheduling, organization of client contact information, filing of documents, as well as calculating mortgage payments and other financial data. The Magic Cap platform's intuitive graphic interface makes the Magic Link communicator very easy to use.
Using Mobile MLS, real estate agents can download property listings and go into the field with the up-to-date listings stored in their Magic Link communicator. While out with a client the agent can access and select the listings using different parameters ranging from a simple location search to a more complex search based on a number of client requirements including location, price, number of rooms, etc.
Until now, real estate agents had to rely on printed property listings published every two weeks or they had to access information from fixed-site desktop computers. While a real estate agent could carry along the 2,000-plus page books or prepare a printout of selected listings from a desktop computer in advance of a client meeting, neither option provided real estate agents with the true portability and flexibility that is made possible with a Magic Link communicator.
"Real estate agents gain a tremendous competitive edge by using the Magic Link communicator and Mobile MLS. This solution allows agents to take a database of property listings on the road, send a fax to the listing agent, and place a call to the owner or potential buyer — all with one hand-held device," said Alex Gruzen, Director of Product Marketing for Sony's Personal Information Company. "The Magic Link communicator is proving to be a vital tool for real-time business applications. In this case, it's providing real estate agents with the greatest flexibility for showcasing and looking at homes and reviewing up-to-the-minute listing information."
"The Sony Magic Link communicator and Mobile MLS software combine to provide real estate agents with a very liberating technology. That's because it allows them to work more efficiently in the environment where they really need to be — in the field — and still have their essential office tools right there with them on a Magic Link communicator," said Michael Zagaris, CEO, Mobile Products, Inc.
"For a long time the portable product was the printed book. Many real estate agents no longer want to order the books because the information in them is quickly outdated and their costs are so high," said Russ Bergeron, General Manager, Orange County MLS. "The Sony Magic Link communicator with Mobile Products' Mobile MLS software is a very attractive portable and affordable solution for real estate agents. Its easy-to-use features like the name card files, fax and e-mail give an agent a competitive edge."
The Sony Magic Link personal communicator with Mobile MLS software is available directly from Mobile Products for $1,235.00 or through monthly financing. For more information, call 800-780-0674.
Mobile Products, Modesto, CA, was founded in 1994. It provides software applications for business and professional people who use the Magic Cap and Telescript technologies of General Magic. Mobile Products is a licensed Magic Cap and Telescript developer and is a value added reseller for Sony.
Sony's Personal Information Company, formed to develop products for the mobile communications market, has worldwide operations based in San Jose and is a subsidiary of Sony Electronics Inc. Customer service and consumer product information for the Magic Link personal communicator are available to PC and Macintosh(TM) users through Sony's Magic Link Information Center on America Online or on the Magic Link home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/Magic.
CONTACT:
Manny Vara of Sony Electronics Inc., 408-955-5142, or [email protected];
or
Patricia Mozzillo of Technology Solutions, 212-696-2000, ext. 252, or [email protected]