Well, it took longer than 30 minutes. I don't mind discussing this with you, but if you don't just match me point for point I'll drop the conversation. You have a tendency to retort with a barrage. Then, when I respond to less than all of your items, you have accused me in the past as either not understanding what you said, or quoting you out of context. That derails the dialog and it doesn't interest me, and responding to this might not interest you at all, but I'll give it a try anyway by starting small and simple.

I consider the ability to expand my storage space with an SD card as something modular. I can do this with my n8x0's, but I can't do this with my iPod touch. Apple made the decision that this wasn't needed in their product and Nokia decided otherwise. Was Apple wrong and Nokia right? If yes, why? Does it even matter? If not, then why would Nokia do it? If you think I'm comparing apples and oranges, I disagree.

Woosh! My hair's a mess.

Sorry texrat, my bad. You must have been right last time too: I didn't understand what you were talking about.

Please accept my humble apology.

I thought something was strange. You've always been the one championing multiple offerings.

Again, very sorry. I seem to have reached maximum density.

Sure, I'd want eSATA too on the device. Adding hardware comes with a drawback: weight, size, power usage, price.

On top of that, making the hardware modular such as with SIM card, keyboard, and other hardware components such as WLAN (e.g. in PCMCIA, MiniPCI-Express, ExpressCard 34) comes with a drawback: weight, size, power usage, price. This is in addition to previous mentioned drawback.

Then it is question which standard to add, what exactly should be modular, and if its not possible to simply hide the hardware (slider). It is also question what is inserted to hide the 'empty space' when add-on is not in use.

Judging from the pictures in referred article in this case the size of product is clearly influenced! Wow, what a bulk!

Also, I don't think you can use the keyboard as remote control for the device which is a bummer. I can do that with my foldable Nokia SU-8W.

Because ARM-based mobile hardware must be viewed from an embedded hardware point of view, then thinking of modularity features instead of from a PC desktop point of view. You don't 'check out what a PC can do and then mimic this'. You check what your embedded hardware is capable to do in its target size and budget.

I actually find it is usually those desktop people who are not able to discern are the ones who are making the unrealistic mistakes of 'why doesn't device have hardware feature X', 'being able to compile and use Linux desktop applications is a godsend', or 'why is there no iPhone or Windows emulator'.

BTW, you do realize not everything in a PC is modular? You realize tons of aspects are nowadays put on-board? IGP cannot be put off. RS232 is not put on board anymore. eSATA is often not on board. PS/2 is still sometimes on board. DVI is put on board. Sound card is put on board. Why? Catering to common customer.

Is the screen modular? Is the CPU modular or soldered on board? Is the GPU modular or soldered on board? Is the RAM modular or soldered on board? Is the flash memory modular or soldered on board? Is the battery modular or soldered on board? Is the Bluetooth modular or soldered on board? Does the device have USB? WiFi? HDMI? eSATA? FW?

USB is cool because then you can add your own USB-based protocol such as Bluetooth. The disadvantage it doesn't integrate well with the hardware size-wise, it is asynchronous, and may require USB-powered hub.

What I think is a good idea is one touchscreen which is light and can be used as remote via different protocols (Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDA/Infrared and even GPRS) for e.g. servers. Hmmm, seems like N900 can fill that role, and a lot more