See, the argument for yet another ARM-based pocketable general purpose computer keeps on falling flat on its face for me, and for a very simple reason:

No matter what OS I run, all of the apps are already there for x86 desktops.

Windows Mobile has a lot of apps, but they’re not *quite* where I want them. Linux x86 has just about every app out there, and most of them are in some usable form, but once you force them to run under Hildon, the software base collapses. (Hildon on ARM Linux is even worse.)

Not everyone has a cross-compilation setup at home, so this isn’t an easy issue to bypass. I personally still need x86 to expand into every available niche, so that I can get the easiest workaround possible: Windows in my pocket. I need offline processing capability in order to pull up my documents, media, etc. without issues. I need network connectivity for other reasons, but the two issues go hand in hand. Yet another ARM chipset is great, if I want a more powerful cell phone. It’s never a bad thing to have that sort of good, high-quality intermediary in your pocket, since the truly one-handed data access device will come with you ALL the time, while the pocketable PC may be stuck in a bag, at your desk, etc. I’ll check my Blackberry at the water cooler, but not my MID/UMPC/handtop.

It’s probably not an entirely useless niche, but it’s certainly an odd one to me. I don’t want an oversized cellphone so much as I want an undersized PC. There’s a certain inherent flexibility to a desktop-grade OS in your hand that many of these non-x86 MID-alikes just aren’t ever going to reach.