[Bryce's Radio Experiments] I want to believe that there is still room for premium, non-vertical devices that aren’t simply cloned PPC PE designs… but I’m not sure that there are any innovators in the current Pocket PC market.

Earlier this week, when I saw the announcements of the Dell Pocket PC (slides here), the Viewsonic Pocket PC and the new Wireless HP IPAQ 5400 series, I’ve been mulling over writing a blog entry on the total lack of innovation with today’s PDA’s (I’ll agree with Bryce, Sony is still innovating). Being somewhat of a mobile computing and wireless geek, I’ve been playing the handheld computer game since back in the early days of the HP-95lx and yes, I even owned an original Newton Messagepad. The last 5 1/2 years I’ve been dedicated pretty much to Windows CE - first the Handheld PC, then Palm-sized PC, and finally, the Pocket PC (I never bought into the whole Handheld PC Pro bandwagon).

Although new devices keep appearing with better displays and connectivity (and slightly longer batteries), has there been any leaps of functionality, creativity or innovative design ideas since the introduction of the original iPAQ? These days everyone seems to be copying each other until we have 100 devices that look exactly the same. Yawn.

Where’s integrated GPS? Where’s an integrated camera now that we have 802.11b at the local Starbucks? Where is a freaking device with a button pad that works?

Today’s PDA user interface’s? Yawn.

Another thing, I DONT want a PDA/phone hybrid. My cell phone is my phone. My PDA is my portable alternative to a laptop. Do manufacture’s really believe that people want to wipe face grease off their PDA? Get with it. Yawn.

And, now that I’m worked up, don’t even get me started on providing developers on working tools (yup, more crashes this week) - I’ve already been there.

FYI - The Toshiba e740 is now available for only $369 at Amazon.com. Yawn.