Claimed to be the first of its kind, Hyderabad-based Netindia Private Limited has launched a revolutionary product - Piano Mail - a portable, sleek, sophisticated, easy to operate and about the size of your palm at a lower rate of Rs 2000 a handset including a set of rechargeable batteries. The company has already tied up with a US-based company KDA Technologies Inc for exclusive marketing of this product in the US, Europe and Canada and has already applied for a patent.

Addressing the press conference here on Monday, Mr Hari K Prasad, managing director, Netindia, said Piano Mail is a handheld electronic gadget, which can send and receive data to a pre-designated network of computers through any normal telephone by using handset.

The computers work on indigenously developed software by the team at Netindia, which can understand the data request from the Piano Mail and respond accordingly for a error-free reliable communications, Mr Prasad said. Piano Mail converts all the typed text into specific signals and passes it through the telephone and similarly it can also receive these signals and convert them into text and display it on the liquid crystal display (LCD), Mr Prasad explained. Every member will be provided with an ID card and a separate password. One can avail the facility of instant messaging, sending voice mails to other servers like Yahoo!, Hotmail as attachments and send voice messages to non-member also, Mr Prasad claimed.

The company will start marketing the product from October 18 through a franchisee in Hyderabad.