Simple: the format of the screen of a mobile device is not optimized for reading large amounts of texts. T9 is not optimized for large amounts of user input text either.


Ah, so apparently that makes a world of difference according to you (I Doubt It Though). Now, what font would you suggest we use to read our e-books?

Because that is the way I perceive it throughout the media. It appears to be the defacto standard, the device which makes the breakthrough for this kind of purpose. Not here, we don't even have a local Amazon store. But we have a small corporation which competes with the Kindle. In any case, the point is that the screen is larger (acceptable) than either a mobile phone or a N8x0. I wouldn't want to use either of those 2 to read large amounts of text because it is not comfortable to do so.

Music. iTunes does much more than music. For music it is mostly 1-way sync (except if the iPod/iPhone also has on-board iTunes). But it also supports stuff like iCalendar and such. And, maybe 'rsync' rings a bell. It'd be a perfect candidate to easily keep your music in sync with your DAP.

Your role is not 'user' in this discussion between us. Normal users indeed do not care about any of those technical terms (in your words "buzzwords") but they will not see these words either because the synchronization works in such way integrated that it Just Works (tm).

Not here, nor in Mutt, nor on E71 e-mail client, nor in PINE, nor in mailx, nor in Mozilla Thunderbird, nor in Ximian Evolution, nor in Apple Mail, ...

That is why I said foldable. Maybe you should look up on that. The concept would be that you have one in your bag in the size of a netbook or Kindle, but more like a dumb terminal, like a portable DVR (which go for 50 USD). Compared to an average mobile smartphone those make an impact when screen size matters whereas this difference is neglectible if you keep N8x0 vs average mobile smartphone in mind. In your eyes the difference might be incredible, but normal people will nowadays think in standard formats:

1) mobile phone
2) netbook
3) laptop
4) pc
5) tv (widescreen)

For each of these they have a picture in mind with certain features, including an approx screen size. 'Internet Tablet' is not, was not, and will never be part of the list for the casual user. Its 'weird', and the size difference between #1 and #2 is too vague to draw clear advantages.