Two batteries is a signal of problems? Maybe a sign of bad battery life but also a sign of making the customer happy. If Palm sold the thinner Treos with 2 batteries, we'd all be ecstatic!
Of course it is. And Palm users would probably say the same thing I've heard irate MotoQ owners saying: "Damn thing has such crappy battery life they ship it with two batteries!" Two batteries isn't a feature, it's a workaround. Products shouldn't ship with workarounds.
Right now there's a battle between multi-media phones and smartphones... [but] the multi-media phones have smartphone features for the average user, and remain in a smaller and/or cooler form factor. [...] Just enough to keep the younger average consumer from buying and trying a full-fledged smartphone.
Well, I guess what it boils down to is what they think their target (80/20 rule) market is. If manufacturers don't believe that the mass market is behind smarter smartphones or PDA's then they'll die, or become (more) hopelessly niche.
I guess one possible question to pose is "is a PDA phone really the ideal convergence device, or are we just trying to cram a laptop into our palm?" I can definitely identify with those who would prefer to remain mobile and yet still remain more or less fully functional. For me, this includes more common stuff like IMAP/Exchange email, remote PIM sync, Instant Messaging, SMS, and Web. But I go further for things like SSH, VNC, Remote Desktop, VPN. So I don't really count myself amongst the 80%. I wonder if I'll ever really have a device that hits my sweet spot. The Treo comes very close...
For me, I those "cute" devices and think "but what can I do with it besides talk on the phone or listen to music, unless I want to try and T9 my SMS or other messages?" In a word: ick. For me -- and I suspect others who would be drawn to the Treo -- really do factor more heavily on the function side of the form/function equation. If function requires more power and you make the form bigger, they call you a brick. If you scale back on function to fit the "ideal" form, then you're a not-so-smart phone (Razr comes to mind). In the end, there will always be some mix of devices... but I can't imagine a device that could ever achieve all things for all people all the time.