``June 8, 2003, Anaheim, CA — A new IFE portable media system called the Personal Entertainment Appliance —or “Pea”—has been announced by IMS, a Southern-California content management and software development company. But the Pea is very different than other portable media solutions.

“The key to the Pea,” says IMS Chairman Joseph Renton, “is the comprehensive Content Management system itself that aggregates and delivers the content quickly, securely and economically, enables transactions, and provides return data.” In the first generation solution, the device is the system, he says. “But our system is essentially ‘device-agnostic’ utilizing customized COTS devices.”

With as many as 20 to 30 movies, 40 audio CDs, 8 interactive games, popular TV programs, digital newspapers, digital magazines, e-books, and inflight shopping—all on a revenue-generating, credit-card-reading, interactive handheld platform with no wires—the Pea offers more content, more and newer movies, a bigger screen, more functionality, more information, and more security than the IFE’s first generation of portable media, says Renton.

“We wanted to provide a content set—an entertainment package—that rivals or exceeds the content available from more sophisticated embedded systems, but at a fraction of the cost,” says Renton. “So the first thing we wanted to ensure was the availability of early-window content from major studios.”