No third party software, lockin to Mac apps. No decent keypad.... average hardware except stuff I don't give a rats patootie about (camera) ....I can go on. Its about as 'serious' a tool as a Sony Playstation portable. IE- great for 'rockin out' and entertaining yourself and others, but not real geek candy.

What I really want to see are any or all of the following:

1.
Entirely Embedded Java run phone- IE, a lightweight kernel OS layer that runs a Java Virtual Machine, and all functions of the smart phone are portable (and possibly 3rd party) Java programs. There would be a huge programmer base, an Off The Shelf toolkit, lots of competition... etc. Hell- I could see enterprising programmers making a 'home office' side business in developing all the fantastic things that can be done with Web+GPS+Bluetooth. Java Micro is helathy, dynamic and growing... an exciting prospect.

2.
Linux standardization between the various smartphone makers who use linux-derived OS's. This will allow for virtually the same scenario as I detailed above with 'javaphones'. There are a lot of annoying programmers in the linux community (long story), but also some of the most talented.

3.
Palm pulling off its own twist on the second item above: A Linux OS robust enough to run Ultra-Mobile Personal Computers (Palm Foleo is a halting stumble in that direction), yet lightweight enough to be a platform for another generation of Palm 'smartphones'... and good enough to draw other manufacturers/vendors to offer that OS on their phones

Here is why I think its all about the OS: Smartphones are the 'seed' of what could become a whole new paradigm in personal mobile computing. What this new paradigm needs is a *few* good OS's that compete vigorously with eachother, *and* are open to innovation from 3rd party developers that can compete for realestate in those OS's.

This sort of 'market force' can drive the 'smartphone' paradigm to what it could become- inexpensive personal take-everywhere computing that people can integrate into their daily lives for productivity, enjoyment, communication and intellectual enrichment.

Here is what I think is wrong with things as they stand:

Windows has absolutely no vision for the future of the 'smartphone' future. They just see a market, and they want to produce cheap versions of their barely-tolerable OS to expand into what they see as simply another market for their software. The current Windows lightweight OS is simply too heavy and cumbersome to do anything but completely hog the limited power of the emerging platforms. Furthermore, Microsoft has a positively intractable and philosophically stupid notion about Digital Rights and worse, a 'Model' of the end user that is disempowering in every since of the word. Windows taking total control of the 'smartphone' universe is a dead end for the smartphone.

Mac simply wants to build iPod 2.0. They want to provide a bunch of 'funky cool' capabilities that everyone will love, everyone will buy, but is ultimately unimaginative as to what can be done with ultra mobile personal computing. They want to lock out innovation from third party vendors and 'lock in' all things mac. Same thing as the Windows case: a dead end for the future of smartphones and take-everywhere computing.

The fragmented Platform-specific linux OS's out there offer little in the way of open competition for app developers and interoperability of apps. 'Linux soup' is a lot less 'owned' future than the Mac or Windows micro future, but it is so fragmented that we won't see any leaps and bounds with innovation.

Furthermore, Windows and Mac both think that, in the long run, they can just port ther OS's from the 'desktop/laptop' personal computing environment to the ultra-mobile environment. I don't think this will work for a myriad of reasons- just one of those being that Mac and Windows OS developers have not really had to fret over every flop and cycle of the environment- the platforms they innovated for are alwars reliably faster and more powerful with every generation.

Additionally the 'basic' functions of the desktop/laptop environment are fundamentally different than the 'basic' functions of the ultra-mobile/smartphone environment. With the desktop world, its about web browsing, office productivity and etc. The environment of the ultra-mobile 'frontier' are still largely without definition, but they center around connectivity, communication, and an emergence of location-based services... For example- walk in a store and with a word or two command to your smartphone, find out whats on sale, and where to find it. Boot your shopping list onto your UMPC and have it compute a 'trip route' that will minimize time, fuel consumption and cost... pop up a map with directions, etc...

Very few people are going to want to edit office docs, etc, off their UMPC platform. Instead, they are going to want technologies and apps that they can integrate into their moment-to-moment lives that center around communication, social networking and movement out in the world.

Hardware wise, all the interactivity devices that the desktop environment evolved around are damn near obsolete in the UMPC world. Keyboard input has to be rethought, vocal interactivity needs to be matured. Just as input/output devices are standardized, seprable and open for third party innovation, the same is needed for the I/O devices for the UMPC world. Trying to cram optimal input, optimal display, etc, into something slightly larger than a hershys chocolate bar is simply not going to work.

Imagine buying your UMPC as a small simple gadget with Processor, storage and wireless connectivity in a simple poketable box. Then imagine that your 'phone' interface for your UMPC is a small flip-phone that is a small cheap 'client' for your UMPC box, connected via bluetooth or bluetooth like wireless tech. For your screen you choose either a top-shelf head-up display for your gasses, or maybe just a cheaper 'rollable' oled display for occasional use. For a keeyed-input device, maybe you choose a cheap rollable fabric bluetooth device, or maybe just a small bisiness-card size keyboard.

You can by the UMPC box from one of many vendors, boot an OS onto it from one of many competing vendors, load on your favorite third-party apps, buy any number of peripherals from any number of vendors... Such an open market promots lower cost through competition, spurs innovation and turns the UMPC into a market for innovation- just like the PC. And just like the PC, we'll see stageringly rapid advancements.

BUT- the first step comes down to getting universal OS's that run accross 'smartphone' vendors. Without that- its all vendor lock-in and buying a brand. This is the essence of what the iPhone is. Windows mobile is just a sad-sack Half-assed attempt at market monopolization, and the current 'linux soup' is a less nefarious but equally stiffling solution.

Palm has made some breathtaking advances, but they have seriously stalled hardware-wise since the Treo 600/650. They have completely botched the future of their original OS with crippling license decisions in the 90s, and a failure to innovate beyond the first GOOD universal mobile OS. Elavation Inc obviously thinks that Palm has something really good with their next generation of OS and/or their next generation of smartphones and/or their next generation "third product line" that begins with the Foleo (even though I am very underwhelmed by the Foleo). Either that, or the half billion dollar cash reserve that Palm had on hand was their motivation for stepping in....

Anyway, I am very excited about the potential for Take-Everywhere always-on personal computing that can be integrated into the day-to-day existence of human kind. However, just like the PC, the future of UMPC is chok full of potential pitfalls and crippling market moves... Its also very threatened by Companies who want to maximize their profits by locking down and taking control of the UMPC environment and future. UMPC could be just as transformative a technology as the internet+PC... or it could be just 20-30 years of more widget loaded buggy phones that don't do anything fundamentally more inovative than the last widget-loaded buggy over-loaded phone.

Yeti