The iPhone/Touch are runaway successful because they do what they do well, are reliable, and users quickly grasp the interface. For $229, a touch is a very useful information appliance, and very little short of accomplishing 90 percent of the tasks anyone cares to do with a computer.

For about $400 bucks, netbooks seem to be doing well, and are projected to do well into the future. They are the least expensive way to get some real computing accomplished in a form factor that is portable enough. They have a useful keyboard, and a processor capable of handling some of the modern operating system conveniences expected by developers and users.

The Sony Vaio P, is the most useful computer available within a very important form factor. It will slip into the inside pocket of a business suit or a jacket. If there is a netbook that will do this, I missed it. Not having the Sony, I used a #10 envelope which is 4.125 x 9.5 inches for approximate scale. The Vaio P is 4.72 x 9.65 x .78 inches, cost from $829 to $1999.

Consumer electronics are a hodge podge of information gathering/displaying and user interfaces. The fish locator pictured is about a $2000 piece of consumer electronics that would benefit greatly from a standardized, simplified interface with more powerful computing capabilities.

A macbook pro is a reliable and not very expensive way to accomplish just about anything that can be accomplished in the realm of high end computing.

For my money, the missing link, in the Apple/advanced technology lineup, is right there where the sony jumped in. Don't think that Apple has missed this fact. It is the final piece in the information handling puzzle.

I have lobbied in various forums around the web for an ipod Touch that is about 1" larger in each dimension. This makes the keypad big enough to be useful. Make a touch the size of the Vaio P, and there would be enough room on the end to include one of those magical glass trackpads. Include a real processor, so you can include real developer tools and real computing power. That fits with Apple's recent hire of the IBM devices expert. Put the price point somewhere between a netbook and the sony.

Work with the consumer electronics industry, so I can snap it into an enclosure to get real computing power wherever I need it. Data that goes where I go. All the information I want and need travels with me. Consumer electronics companies can concentrate on their areas of expertise and be assured their device is instantly upgradeable to the latest technology, the best user interfaces and data transfer mechanisms. Just snap the "smarts" in. At the time and place I need information, it is there, almost without thinking. Slip it out of my pocket, see, there it is. Snap it into a fish finder, and use a familiar interface.

All week, it is my business computer, snap it into a dock in the office, slip it into my pocket when I go out into the shop. Saturday, I snap it into my fish locator. I track each lure fished, capture periodic sideimage sonar readings including gps and temperature, tap it a few times to drill down through my virtual tackle storage system app so I don't waste time digging through tackle boxes looking for lures. If a brainstorm hits, edit that business proposal onboard, the fish will just have to wait. Slip it back into my jacket when I leave the boat. Tuesday night in the hotel room, compare my lure selections at lake locations to what local experts are suggesting in online forums, check the calendar, call the wife and kids. Later, check my fishing line inventory virtually, when I run across a good deal on fishing line at the local sporting goods store.

Apple has made my life so much easier, and blown the competition out of the water. Again. With a truly useful information appliance in a truly useful form factor. With synergies that extend up and down the product line and into every area of technology.

This is the only form factor currently missing from the Apple lineup, a form factor that is entirely complementary to the balance of the product line, a form factor that can be produced with a mild extension of existing technology. I don't expect to be left waiting for long. I just haven't figured out what they are going to name it.

Tim Nash over at lowendmac regarding the cpu and other hardware details. He does not seem to have much doubt as to the inevitability of the product either.

Update September 2009, looks like some activity overseas. Will it make it in time for the holidays? CENS.com