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Posted on 20 Feb 2006 at 14:38

Mark Needham sees sales figures for smartphones used in many interesting ways

But the concept of Windows Mobile on a smartphone won't win universal support.

I caught Stephen Chanders while he was committing the modern mortal sin of checking his email at a party. He uses an HP 6515 Mobile Messenger, but wasn't happy with it: 'It isn't quite useless enough for me to send it back' he told me. His complaint was that, while it had a host of smartphone-type features built-in, it also had some very basic omissions. He showed me a text message he'd received from directory enquiries: the number he wanted was there in the text, but it was, as he put it, 'dumb information'. He went on: 'My wife has the simplest of phones, but even on hers you can click on a text message to dial a number contained in it. On this one you can't. And it's the same in Outlook.' Sure enough, he showed me a phone number that was embedded in an appointment in his diary, a dial-in number for a teleconference, which he couldn't dial without copying it down onto a piece of paper and manually re-entering it.

The last word on the subject this month must go to Keith Talbott from ViewSonic, who sat next to me at December's PC Pro Awards and who may be the UK's last surviving Palm Vx user. He refuses to update to anything later - to the irritation of his IT department that has to supply and support a serial-to-USB converter to keep him in the style to which he's accustomed. 'And,' he said, 'it will last for up to two months between battery recharges.' Now that's something we've lost in the race to add new features for the Bridget Joneses of the world.