The cellphone is dead. The PDA is dead. Long live the smartphone.

Wait a minute--don't start the funeral yet. The corpse, like the one in that old Monty Python movie, is feeling better and thinks he'll go for a walk. Or not. It's a little hard to tell at the moment.

Some say the traditional cellphone, as in portable gadget for making phone calls, has had it. It's being replaced by a gadget that makes phone calls, browses the Web, stores appointments and takes pictures. Soon you'll be able to play music and watch TV on it--in a trial now under way in Finland, people can watch TV on their Nokia phones.

But phones that are just phones seem to be getting pushed aside.

And while some are suggesting the traditional cellphone is dead, others--pointing out that if your phone does e-mail, Web browsing, appointments and phone lists there's not much point in another device that does that stuff but isn't a phone--say the PDA is also endangered.

It makes sense in one way. Why carry two devices when one will do?

Well, ask a carpenter why he has several kinds of saws. Because no one kind is ideal for every job.

The screens and keyboards on smartphones are too small for some things. Okay, the screens and keyboards on PDAs are too small for some things too, but they're better.

So, why not make the smartphones bigger? Because then they're more trouble to carry. OK in the inside pocket of a suit jacket maybe, or in a purse, but they look pretty clunky clipped to your belt.

We need a choice of digital devices. Particularly, sometimes we need a full-featured gadget and sometimes we need just the smallest possible phone.

Like it or not, the procession of bells and whistles won't stop for a while yet. Personally I don't care to take pictures with my phone, never mind watch TV on it (although playing music might be interesting). But camera phones are selling, and TV is coming.

PDA functions are useful, and having a single smartphone that combines those functions with those of a cellphone is attractive, but not if it means compromising on the features or being stuck with a big clunky gadget.

Two thoughts for the mobile gadget designers to contemplate. First, can you make us a modular phone/PDA--a docking- station design where you can carry the basic phone separately or snap it into a bigger unit that adds more capabilities?

Second, it should be easier to own two mobile phones--as in one small, basic phone and one bigger, more powerful smartphone--with the same phone number. It's technically possible for some today, depending on your phone and service provider.

Making it easier would be in the industry's interest, because many people would then have two phones. Or more, and for reasons other than features. Should I wear the blue phone or the silver phone tonight? On second thought, maybe that's not such a good idea.

Lynn Greiner is a freelance writer based in Toronto. lynng@ca.inter.net

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