Well it has been unveiled. Two things leap out at me. Real battery life seems to be two hours... box spec probably 3-4. Two they are being vauge aboutt he price. That means 500 for one of these isn't really an option. That means it is going to go head to head price wise with budget... and not so budget laptops (The 1000 dollar laptop is a serious machine these days). For example Comp USA was just offering a core duo with a gig of Ram after a 200 rebate. I mean really, it would be hard to justify the questionable mobile edge of this device with hampered input capacity over a laptop with core duo that would only be marginaly more cumbersome to lug around. Not to mention how to you appeal to the 300-400 top line PDA crowd ? Similar functionality in terms of input... but a size to big to put in a holster and it costs twice as much or more ? That being said I can think of enough uses for them that nothing else provides to keep them around long enough to see another gen or to. But for a genral use mobile system they have got to get battery life up in the solid 8 hour range and the price needs to be 500 for a top of the line system and well under that for the average unit. And I mean 8 hours of real use range... not box spec 8 hours of minimal backlight only reading a txt document with the CPU undervolted.
A system in this form factor that could run for 8 hours would win over PDA and laptop users alike. Of course if they get there then PDA and Laptops will also be sporting longer lives. So its kind of a catch 22 there. That is why the price point will be so important (my guess at least). Size wise this thing cannot kill the PDA but it can marginalize the upper echelon capacity that has finally begun to encroach on 'real' computing tasks (mobile office stuff). At anyrate in 3-4 years my guess is that various devices will no longer be dealing with different file types or any conversion issues (like mobile 5 does with most files) and need will dictate the final form factor.
That said this thing is going to have some serious appeal for a student and corporate meeting warrior alike. Real hard drive capacity, refference material like say I don't know... GOOGLE.... always at hand and the ability to easily expand it to a full input capacity. That Samsung unit propped on its stand with one of those flexible silicon USB keyboards and eithe BT or usb dongle mouse could make for a serious note taker. Throw in a swivel camera that can point towards the lecturer and a mic up to the task of recording standard lecture environments and you got a serious piece of kit for school and meetings alike.
How do I envision using one of these? Well first off if they break the 500 price point for one that works I would seriously consider using one in tandem with a laptop. It would let me go a little less mobile in Laptop Design in return for a sattelite computer that could handle the mobile needs. It also could be an electronic refference system. I could envision gettin the O-Reily safari bookshelf and using an IM client session between my laptop/desktop and this system for a technical refference library I could cut and paste from to the other machine (paste text into an IM messege and send it to the other system). I would also have a docking system in the car. If it were OBDII I would have the docking solution integrate a connection to the car computer. I would have a web cam or two for rear view/Blind spot coverage along with a Blue Tooth GPS receiver (integrated would be nice but problematic for proper placement to get a good signal... would probably need an antenna solution). As for size factor for luggin it around with a laptop? Well I currently have two or three Refference Texts that take up considerably more space than this thing would... and I almost always am choosing a selection instead of having my whole library available. Sometimes that is a problem. Additionally it would replace my note taking folio that I use to hold meeting materials and take notes in. I would probably keep my contacts and calander function on my phone... but with Blue tooth tethering and a headset it might rarely leave my hip. It would provide phone function and cellular data link since these do not seem to have such built in yet. With an expanded hands free solution and built in cellular capacity this thing could provide an out of sight phone capacity. IE voice dialing. With a blue tooth headset and a more functional voice dialing you could use it as a phone while it was still in your backpack/brief case or purse... or you could have an ultra slim (think half a razr) blue tooth handset in a traditional belt holster complete with screen for displaying information.
In the classroom I would say this thing has the potential to do something the Tablet has not delivered on. The ability to do text and drawing input easily. Why would this thing be better ? Envision that samsung unit propped up on its integrated stand sitting in front of you on a desk. You use a BT full size fold up silicon keyboard (see think geek, still wired but could be made into Blue Tooth would probably work even wired with a very flexible chord) and blue tooth mouse. Now you type just like you regularly would but suddenly you need to sketch a diagram or something. You just pick up the screen and start drawing... either with a stylus or potentially just your finger and sit it back down. That is a very simple action the tablet does not do well. You can either have it in tablet lay out and that work well... or its like trying to draw on a laptop screen which just dosn't work to well. And swiveling it around is both annoying for you and those around you not to mention to slow. I don't know if this would be any better. But I know I would like to give it a try. A key would be enabling a word document to recognize a drawings boundaries and automatically wrap text around it as needed (according to highly flexible user modifiable rules).
So I can think of ways I would like to use one. If money was no object I would love to get one an play with it to find out if it would proove practical or if it would just turn out to be a gadget that simply didn't do anything well enough or at least enough better than other options to make it a valuable tool rather than geek toy. It would be an excellent meeting tool I think. But if its 800+ thats an expensive replacement for a legal pad and a print out of agenda material.
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