For over two months I am using a brand new Windows Mobile 5.0 device, the iMate K-Jam. This combined Pocket PC and phone has become my best friend over these months, especially with integrated WIFI. This weekend I was reading an article about modern smart phones. The most important conclusion of the article was that smart phones are really becoming popular right now, with email as killer application so far. I think this is absolutely true for ordinary users. It is very nice to sit in a meeting and still have the possibility to stay up to date with emails. Especially with combined WIFI and GPRS capabilities. As long as there is some network or hotspot available you don’t have to be disconnected from the outside world. The article compared these devices to PC’s a decade ago, indicating that modern smart phones, PDA’s or combinations of both have more processing power and memory available than those by now 10 year old PC’s. Thinking about that is a truly remarkable achievement. With people becoming more and more mobile, the current devices are only the beginning. Think about complete line-of-business applications, running on these devices, even containing full relational databases. I guess this potential is also the reason why my current Webcast series on developing such a line-of-business application attracts a lot of listeners. What I particularly like about devices as the one I am using right now is their combined functionality. Instead of carrying both a mobile phone and a PDA I now only have to carry one device. There is one more thing on my wish list though. Even though Windows Mobile 5.0 devices come with Windows Media Player 10, and thus can be used to listen to music as well, the storage space is still too limited. For instance, I have a 1 GByte memory card installed in the device, but I really like to take an entire CD collection with me. So I still need to take two devices with me when on the road, the K-Jam and my good old iPod. So there is really only one more thing I need. Hopefully the next generation devices offer at least the functionality that the K-Jam offers, but the device should be equipped with a 40 GByte hard drive as well, preferably making the device not bigger or heavier and still having great battery life. Hopefully device manufacturers take up this challenge. I’ll be the first to get such a device when it hits the market.