When I met Thomas Kroll (pictured), the CEO of Laplink, yesterday, it felt like I was "Back to the Future"! I haven't heard from Laplink since 2001 when, then CEO and founder, Mark Eppley launched PDASync at Demo Mobile. So it was a great opportunity for me to recall some good memories... and I probably bored Thomas and crew with my Laplink for DOS and serial cable story! Anyway, the Laplink team was in the Bay Area for the launch of PCMover 3.0 which now lets you choose which applications you want to migrate. Before, it was "all or nothing"!

"Laplink is an old brand and our challenge today is like taking the Polaroid brand into modern times. We have a lot of technology, patents and trademarks and our goal is to be the center company for all these kinds of connectivity utilities that makes everyday life easy on the PC", said Kroll.

"Our product lines now include remote control/easy connectivity products under the Laplink Gold/Everywhere name. Then we have synchronisation products (PDASync, PCSync). [Believe it or not but] Vista does not have synchronisation in it and Microsoft asked us to build it for them. And the third category is really why we are running around this week, is the PC migration. It's a very interesting market because today over 75/80% of the new machines are replacement PCs. So whenever you have a new PC, you already have one. Then you need PCMover to move your data and applications and so on. So the target market is extremely big."

PCMover moves applications over

For me, the main competitive advantage PCMover has over Detto IntelliMover, CA Desktop DNA and Microsoft's Windows Easy Transfer is that it can also move applications like the Office apps and so on. This is just a great time saver. Of course, it doesn't work for apps that uses hardware drivers or uses non-Windows conformant drivers like systems utilities, as well as spyware (that's good!) and anti-viruses. Another plus is that PCMover migrates all PC user profiles at once and also works with a Mac with a PC virtual software like Parallels Desktop or Apple Bootcamp.

"We calculated that in a business environment, PCMover can save a minimum of $300 per new installation/move. Gartner talks about $550", added Kroll.

Avanquest sells Laplink products in retail worldwide:

"Retail is a lot of work and if you have only one or two products it's even tougher. So last year we decided to let Avanquest, a French republisher, distribute our retail products worldwide. That has worked extremely well for us: in the US we are every retailer (Staples, CompUSA, Fry's...) except Wal-Mart, Costco and Best Buy (because they have nothing in this category)."