I think that's counteracted by our pedantic tenacity to see Moore's Law applied to prices.

I have realized lately that I would actually have bought an N810, despite a keyboard I wouldn't use much. $400-$450 would be something I could spend, possibly. The transflective screen is very high on the wishlist. Built-in GPS chip can only be good. But what's holding me back is the mini-SD issue - it just won't do. Can't. Not for half the price. Internal space problems of the N810 - ok, then again there are way smaller cameras out there with SD. I'm getting myself a 16GB SDHC now, and expect to buy a 32GB in less than a year's time.

I am happy to pay close to $450. Which it will probably cost in a couple of months time, if not earlier.

Well, been thinking about it more. And if I was going to buy one now it would be the 800 over the 810 for primarily price reasons. I wonder how long the 800 will continue to be on the market?

Oh well. I may brake down and get one after everything's been said and done. That transflective screen..
It would be for outdoor use. For outdoor use it may even help that it's slightly shorter (fits in the shirt pocket and not just in the jacket).

As for price: I've found (over the years) that I'm usually _very_ concerned about the price when I'm about to buy the first unit of something I haven't owned before. After that, it seems to not matter as much.. Palm PDAs, wireless routers, etc.. the second is easier to buy, for some reason. Maybe because at that stage I know it's not a waste of money (as with, to be honest, some other toys bought over the years).

...maybe a little learned too...

We have been enjoying price drops in a lot of the higher technology devices over the last decade. Some of it can be contributed to manufacturing efficiencies and technological improvements...some to inexpensive offshore labor. It has even effected some of the less technological devices.

My first cordless electric drill was all of 12 volts and cost $175 bucks. Now you can buy a decent 18 volt drill for $50.

Paid $500 for a Motorola Startac....very hip in it's day. Now you can get phones that can surf the internet, play music and watch TV on for $100 (Ok, $300 if you don't include the contract.)

Paid $4000 for my first computer. It was 90Mhz and came with an amazing 8Mb of RAM!!! Now we are seeing 1.5Ghz laptops with DVD writers for $400.

Being on the cutting edge does afford you some liberty to charge higher prices. However, the n-serie's little niche is being encroached on all sides. You've got cell phones with browsers, PDAs with browsers, micro-laptops, UMPC's, MIPs, PSPs....heck, the way everything is being computerized nowadays we aren't far from getting web browsers preinstalled on our refrigerators. Kind of hard to pocket a refrigerator though. :-)

Well, as I tend to end up in a trance[1] in front of the (opened) fridge anyway, there could as well be some additional entertainment there..

[1] This is common I think.. which is probably the reason why (as reported in New Scientist a while ago) some Japanese engineers came up with the ultimate power-saving refridgerator: It's transparent. You don't have to open it to see what's there. They probably had the male part of the population in mind, because of this curious tendency to just zombie out there with the fridge door open for the next ten minutes.

(Now back to our regular on-topic discussions! )