Summary
Nokia communicators reviewed in the US is important, we've missed the point for a while here, so coverage is cool. Seeding the enterprise driven smartphone market with a real device that bridges submini notebooks and high end phones is an important door opener/wedge to get business ready to support phones in a better way. ID isnt everything. Its not a consumer device - clearly, but you dont use this to look good.
Analysis
Sorry but i agree the device isn't pretty, but i dont think its meant to be for the masses. At $1100 its not going to be subsidised by the worlds carriers to zero anyway. Its about keeping enterprise willing and able to endorse secure stable and capable devices for mobile data.
The risk that all devices in this category face is the consumer appeal impact of non enterprise publications reviewing them.
Size and shape are much more important if you want to carry this in your pocket, but for high end usability the cross over point between size and use is reached way before the point in most mobile phones. Compromises cannot be made in this type of device. Fitting a keyboard that is usable is more important than having something the size of a candy bar.
Short and sweet - bridging laptop functionality to a phone isnt there yet, the User interfaces arent ready for prime time, but this is about keeping the enterprise market interested.
