North west based technology company Brain Boxes has seen a huge 400% rise in the sales figures of their PCMCIA serial port cards over the past 12 months, as a result of many PC and laptop manufacturers actually missing this vital connection point.

Brainboxes have been manufacturing the PCMCIA serial port card for some time, but have experienced a sudden and dramatic upturn in sales of the product. Stephen Evans explains: “Many large companies have sales forces that use the RS232 port to connect to personal data assistants or to mobile phones. The removal of this port from many laptops, has left them in a difficult position.”

An example of this is Ideal Hardware who distribute the products for Brain Boxes. They recently took an order for several hundred of the cards from one of their major banking customers, who use them to connect to Nokia mobile phones.

Stephen continues: “Many laptop manufacturers, including Dell, Toshiba and IBM, are leaving the port off their new machines. This creates a problem as companies need the feature to enable staff to carry out day-to-day tasks on their laptops. The result has been that one of our long standing and eminently popular products has suddenly become our star seller.”

The PCMCIA card, which is available with a one or two port option, means that the new breed of laptops, without the facility built-in, can once again be linked to outside equipment, for example to mobile phones, printers, and to other machines. Stephen concludes: “This is a very simple add-on that gives back to the laptop some of the versatility, for which it was designed in the first place!”