The last couple of years have seen the emergence of a new type of mobile phone - the so-called smart phone which combines phone with hand-held computing functionality. Sales of these devices are growing at a rate of about 40% per year, outpacing PDA growth. Currently, around two million smart phones are sold per quarter. In all the devices available today, there are compromises to be made in terms of usability - but some of the best are made by Nokia and RIM.

My favourite smart phone of 2004, however, is the Sony Ercisson P910.  With the flip closed...

... it's just about small enough to carry easily in your pocket (although to be honest, it could do with slimming down in both size and weight).  And, with the flip open...


... it has a good-sized colour touch screen (good for web-browsing with the superb Opera browser, and great for reading e-mails) and a choice of a small 33-key QWERTY keyboard or a stylus for entering data.   You can find more information on the P910 at the Sony Ericsson web-site.